Dr. Robert Kosara was my professor last year for Information Visualization and Visual Communication, a graduate class in the Computer Science department at UNC-Charlotte. He maintains an great blog that touches on his interest in this field, Eager Eyes.
In 2007, he came across a Venn diagram posted in a 2006 Archives of General Psychiatry that looked at three methods of diagnosing autism, the clinician, the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R), and the Pre-Linguistic Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (PL-ADOS). The data was represented in a Venn diagram, but this form of representation appeared to be confusing.
The Venn diagram was posted on the Nuit Blanche blog, and readers were challenged to submit new designs that could better represent the data. Dr. Kosara met the challenge and gave some careful thought to the matter, which he outlines in a recent article in American Scientist:
A Vennerable Challenge: The best solution for visualizing data is sometimes a simple one
Dr. Kosara used a tree diagram, which is a familiar strategy in the field of computer science, one that should be looked at closely by those in other disciplines (ie. psychologists!) who use data to support decision-making. Dr. Kosara's output was easier to understand, in my opinion. According to the redesign, it was clear to see that the clinicians were best at diagnosing autism/autism spectrum disorders, then the ADI-R, and last, the PL-ADOS.
What I liked best about the challenge described in Dr. Kosara's article was that several different people worked on the redesign of data representation. This collaborative approach led to a redesign by Patrick Murphy, which build upon Dr. Kosara's design, and represented the data in a colored bar chart with a corresponding colored Venn diagram.
The following chart was developed by Robert Kosara and Patric Murphy, via American Scientist:
RELATED:
EagerEyes (Dr. Kosara's blog)
Nuit Blanche Blog
On the difficulty of Autism diagnosis: Can we plot this better?
Judging the Autism Charts Challenge
Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science (Website)
Venn Diagram Challenge Summary 1 (autism diagnosis)
(Diagrams of all of the charts)
Note: The Nuit Blanche blog is not related to psychology or autism. It focuses on the new field of Compressed Sensing. If you really want to learn more about this highly technical subject, browse through the Nuit Blanche blog, and also take a look at the information from Rice University's Compressive Sensing Research site.
There are many new tools available to support the visual communication of information and data. To provide an overview, I've posted two videos that I recently revisited.
The first clip is of a Swedish professor, Hans Rosling, presenting at TED 2006. In this 20 minute presentation, Hans illuminates information and breaks down myths through the use of a variety of visual communication and information visualization tools:
MYTHS ABOUT THE DEVELOPING WORLD
The next video is the reincarnation of a short presentation that was initially developed in a PowerPoint format for a faculty meeting by Karl Fisch, the director of technology at Arapahoe high school in Colorado. The story behind the presentation is just as interesting.
DID YOU KNOW? SHIFT HAPPENS
Information from the Shift Happens wiki:
"Did You Know? originally started out as a PowerPoint presentation for a faculty meeting in August 2006 at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado, United States. The presentation "went viral" on the Web in February 2007 and, as of June 2007, had been seen by at least 5 million online viewers. Today the old and new versions of the online presentation have been seen by at least 10 million people, not including the countless others who saw it at conferences, workshops, training institutes, and other venues."
Shift Happens Wiki
This Wiki provides background information about the "Do You Know" presentation, including a section that discusses ideas for people who'd like to use the video for workshops, presentations, or activities in the classroom. The Wiki also has links to the sources behind the presentation, as well as related presentations. There are also links to edubloggers.
Karl Fisch's blog: The Fischbowl
"A staff development blog for Arapahoe High School teachers exploring constructivism and 21st century learning skills. The opinions expressed here are the personal views of Karl Fisch - and various other teachers at Arapahoe - and do not (necessarily) reflect the views of Littleton Public Schools."
Scott McCleod's blog : Dangerously Irrelevant
"Ruminations on technology, leadership, and the future of our schools"
Scott collaborated with Karl Fisch on the second version of "Did You Know". He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Iowa State University. Scott McCleod is also the director of CASTLE, the Center for Advanced Study of Technology Leadership.
CASTLE is the organization behind School Data Tutorials website. It looks like a very useful resource for people involved with data-driven decision making in their schools!
School Data Tutorials
"The tutorials on this site highlight many of the Excel skills that are helpful when working with building- and district-level data. These tutorials are targeted at data managers, principals, guidance counselors, teachers, and other school personnel who have the responsibility for collecting, analyzing, and reporting K-12 performance data."
Comment:
I'm a school psychologist, so I think about data quite a bit. With RTI, additional data will be generated about student performance and progress. Information and data visualization tools and techniques might play an important role as the RTI model is implemented in the schools.
If you are a school psychologist, educator, or administrator who is involved in RTI, share this resource with your teams!
