Interactive Representations of Information and Knowledge

It’s the lasting effect that counts for learning.

Indeed, this module of study has been thought provoking. For example, one of the earlier observations was that the visuals and graphics in our everyday communication were manipulated.

Of course, the map is not the territories and representations are ‘representations’ – They are not the real things.

But what I mean is that the images that keep bombarding us everyday and everywhere are mostly distorted for a certain purpose (or purposes).

We need not just the skills to create and use images to communicate but also the ability to interpret them critically.

We need visual literacy in a broader sense.

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Filed under: Refelctions and Dialogues

At last!

Sophie and I have just merged our individual works together. Please have a look and comment:

the-abc-of-chinese-culture.ppt

Needless to say, it is far from OK, especially for those who are more familiar with ICT than us.

It’s not always easy to convert information and knowledge into visuals, isn’t it?

And yes, ours is a big project. So, pray for us!

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Filed under: Final Project

Dear friends,

Well, for representation, we’ll have graphics. But we gotta have some texts too.

So, here’s it: final-project-text-1st-draft.doc

I’m thinking of changing one of the proposed topics. Beijing Opera might be changed into Chinese Calligraphy. You see, it’s also a kind of graphic!

In the meantime, my teammate Sophie is collecting pictures and video.

Next, we’ll try our best to make the Learning Object i n t e r a c t i v e!
Let’s see how far we can go – just wish us, the novices, good luck …

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Filed under: Final Project

Information: Visual Displays & Visual Explanation

“.. reproduction of images is increasing not only in volume, but format: from television, to cinema, advertising, and the web – we are being buried in optic input…”

Yes, we are. Let’s take a 10-minute MTR trip as an example. Can you count how many images – static or moving – surrounding you all the way through from going down to coming up the stations?

MTR passengers are always in a hurry and, very likely, occupied with something in their mind too. So the adverts in the stations have to be very, very communicative – here, images come into play – in the shortest time and in any possible space.

“… we have learned to decode [the images] by enculturation. We can experience it, but we have not learned how to reflect on it – to analyze it, or to create our own vision.”

Yes, being reflective and we have to be selective too. That’s critical thinking.

“… an education in decoding and creating imagery – to move from simply receptive to active – will not only be beneficial, but necessary.”

Active decoding and creating imagery? This has already begun.

We have the popularity of digital cameras, the mobile phones that can take pictures and the ICT technologies. The new generation is more apt in computer games and web-surfing – which contain large volume of images – but poor in language skills. I predict that the future will be more of visuals and audios.

But, will there be enough critical thinkers to reflect, create and re-create? An education in visual literacy is indeed needed.

What makes an effective visual display?

First of all, visuals are only means for communication. For effective communication, its audience and purpose must be clearly identified. Then, we can come down to questions regarding information such as what and how much is needed. Only after these two steps that we may decide how to display the information – visually and verbally.

Hence, I would judge the effectiveness of visual display by whether it has achieved its purpose of communication. And to judge that, I’d like to suggest these three criteria:

☑ Eye catching – e.g. layout, color scheme, novelty etc.

☑ Interest sustaining – e.g. appeal to curiosity or needs etc.

☑ Information strength – e.g. relevant and sufficient etc.

For the third criteria, I didn’t put down correctness of information, for this may not be necessary, especially for the images (and words) in the adverts. Such examples are posters for movies, travel and tourism or, the realty.

Instead, retention of information and action upon information may be more appropriate to add.

I am going to try out what I preach here on my subsequence course assignments.

And, of course, I didn’t forget the good example of Minard’s Map, which:

• captures of multivariate complexity
• contains high quality content
• has smallest effective differences (e.g. avoid distracting labels or scales)

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Filed under: Refelctions and Dialogues

Chinese Culture … talk about it (in English!)

English Learning

• I teach English and my students know it is important.
• But they learn it just to pass the subject exam.
• So, there is not much excitement in the learning or teaching of it.

English Learning for…

• I used to preach that English is not just for finding a better job.
• It can be for enjoying a movie, a good song or a joke.
• Ultimately, it is for communication, and with people from other cultures.

English Learning for Intercultural Communication

• But are we familiar with our own culture?
• When needed, are we able to talk something about it in English?
• So why not learn and teach something interesting about Chinese culture in English?

Therefore, for my learning object, I am thinking of having it as layers of a few topics about Chinese culture in English.

• There will be pictures, texts for reading (knowledge), and hopefully, recording for listening and reading aloud (language skills).
• The topics could be Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chinese Kung Fu, and Beijing Opera.
• Taking into account also the copyrights issue, hyperlinks to the internet will be provided.

In short, my learning object in mind is a mix of Information, Presentation and Practice ones.

But I really wonder, to produce something creatively, just how much I can attain when learning and manipulating computer technologies in such a short time. Those amazing examples shown in the last session must have taken a whole team of professionals to create and maintain.

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Filed under: Final Project