1. Tools for Knowledge Construction and Visualisation Martin Sillaots 19 April 2006

2. 2 Goal of presentation ● To give overview of knowledge (information) construction and exploration methods ● To give ideas how to improve effectiveness of learning (shorter learning time, deeper understanding of relations...) ● To collect additional ideas and feedback

3. 3 Social-Constructivist learning theory ● Knowledge is actively constructed by learner ● Learning must be related with actual and meaningful content ● Learning is more effective in collaboration with co-students

4. 4 Construction ● Seeing relations ● Sorting ● Seeing differences ● Comparing ● Systematising ● Restructuring

5. 5 Construction enables ● Get overview of information ● Browse or navigate in information ● Focus on details ● Select details ● Change, order, create relations To see details in a pig picture

6. 6 Visualisation ● Visualisation – define information with colour, size, position, relations ● Why it is important to visualise information? ● Students learning styles are different ● People have strong need for visualisation of information

7. 7 Learning styles ● Visual – student like diagrams ● Aural – student prefer listening ● Reading/Writing – making notes ● Kinesthetic – simulations and practice Perceptual preference by VARK Ref: http://www.vark-learn.com/

8. 8 Why visualisation is important? Ref: http://www.essentialmindmapping.com/WhatIsMindMapping.php

9. 9 Classification of methods ● One-dimensional – text, list, timeline... ● Hierarchical – outlined list, tree,... ● Network – concept map... ● Two-dimensional – metaphor of map, matrix,... ● Three-dimensional ● Multi-dimensional ● Other metaphors – building, human body, outer space

10. 10 1-D ● Text mural or lens ● Tag or keyword cloud ● Simple list ● Time line* To see details and large picture

11. 11 Mural for text presentation Ref: http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/softviz/infoviz/information_mural.html

12. 12 Text Mural or lens for search

13. 13 Video DNA Ref: Dulce Ponceleon and Andreas Dieberger IBM Almaden Research Center

14. 14 Tag or keyword cloud Bigger font = most popular topic Ref: http://www.tagcloud.com/

15. 15 Hierarchical ● Outline list ● Tree ● Hyperbolic tree* ● Tree map* ● Content map* Each node has a single parent node Sub-nodes can be hidden Details vs pig picture

16. 16 Outline list Structure of Multimedia course Created with MS Project

17. 17 Tree Ref: http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/biodiversity

18. 18 Hyperbolic tree Ref: Jörg Walter Universität Bielefeld Ref: John Lamping, Ramana Rao, and Peter Pirolli Xerox Palo Alto Research Center

19. 19 Hyperbolic tree examples ● StarTree www.inxight.com/products/vizserver ● Walrus - Gallery: Visualization & Navigation www.caida.org/tools/visualization/walrus/gallery1 ● BubbleBrowser www.flong.com/bubba

20. 20 Hyperbolic tree tools ● HyperTree www.kinase.com/tools/HyperTree.html based on Java2 ● StarTree www.inxight.com/products/vizserver commercial ● Walrus - Graph Visualization Tool www.caida.org/tools/visualization/walrus based on Java3D and ● Additional packages iv.slis.indiana.edu/sw/index.html

21. 21 Tree map Usenet Hierarchies http://netscan.research.microsoft.com/treemap http://netscan.research.microsoft.com/treemap

22. 22 Concept map Inspiration http://www.inspiration.com/ What if one node have more than one parent?http://www.inspiration.com/

23. 23 Network ● Computer network topology ● Concept map* ● Gantt chart* ● Arrow diagram (ADM)* ● Precedence diagram (PDM)*

24. 24 Visual Thesaurus (concept map) Ref: http://www.thinkmap.com/visualthesaurus.jsphttp://www.thinkmap.com/visualthesaurus.jsp

25. 25 news.com Big Picture (concept map) http://news.com.com/The+Big+Picture/2030-12_3-5843390.html?tag=st.bp

26. 26 Cmap (concept map) Ref: http://cmap.ihmc.us/http://cmap.ihmc.us/

27. 27 2-D ● Geographic maps - displaying data on map ● Map metaphor (flour, city, fields) ● Matrix

28. 28 Geographical maps Population density

29. 29 Map metaphor Colour = novelty or importance, size = popularity or capacity, position = relations Ref: hot.news.com

30. 30 City metaphor Ref: Andreas Dieberger, Emory University

31. 31 Matrix Ref: A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge

32. 32 3-D and Multi-D ● Table lenses ● Multidimensional scaling ● Items are described with three or more attributes ● Usually presented on 2 – dimensional screen with multiple sliders

33. 33 Table lenses Ref: www.inxight.com/products/sdks/tl

34. 34 Explorea Ref: Kaipainen

35. 35 Spotfire Ref: www.spotfire.com

36. 36 Time-line* ● Single time-line* ● Gantt chart ● Arrow diagram (ADM) ● Precedence diagram (PDM)

37. 37 Flash authoring system Ref: http://www.macromedia.com/http://www.macromedia.com/

38. 38 Gantt Chart Created with MS Project

39. 39 PDM Chart Created with MS Project

40. 40 Conclusion ● Selection of tool and method depends on user preferences ● Using of different tools make learning process more interesting and effective ● Its probably not possible to integrate all methods (metaphors) ● Preparation process is longer learning process shorter ● Give students tasks to construct knowledge

41. 41 The End