Now I don’t know if it was just me, but graphing was the best part of learning math growing up (I know, I know—it was only me). If graphs were not your box of juice as a kid, have no fear! With Hans Rosling’s graph presentation methods you too can wonder at the awe of graphing.
Okay I know that was a cheesy introduction but seriously, you’ve got to check this out! The video below shows Rosling giving a TED Talk using un-boring data models. He explains how he was able to use these interesting presentations to engage his students with material on international development over time.
The first time I saw one of Rosling’s presentations it was a bit more high-tech than what he was able to do during his TED Talk. The video below is shorter than the TED Talk, so definitely take a look! It shows Rosling using historical statistics to create a moving graph showing the changes in average life expectancy rates and average income rates for 200 countries over a long period of time.
200 Countries Over 200 Years in just 4 Minutes
I found these videos to be especially interesting because of the potential they demonstrate for the future engagement of students and audiences. Was anyone else as awed by them as I was?
Thanks for sharing this. I find this website with its graphs fascinating and historically relevant. I like the idea that this site has geographical graphs, which show life expectancy, population counts and average incomes. Again, Moretti would like this site as it uses graphs to show and track world trends. The only concern I have about this website is the speed with which it presents the information. I wonder sometimes if the Internet sometimes encourages us to move at faster speeds than we should. I worry that the Internet exchnges speed for depth sometimes. That said, even with the speed of this website, a researcher can use the initial information as a springboard to explore these graphs with greater depth and he/she can also slow down the process and work at their own pace.
You make a great point. Because I’ve watched these clips multiple times, I did not realize how fast he really does go through some of the information. Though I do agree that the internet may push us to go faster, I do not think I am too concernced about that speed replacing depth. Like you said, it is possible to slow down videos, and other such information, and then move at your own pace. With this particular type of video I actually see speed as beneficial to the arguments. Without being able to speed up the presentation, we would not be able to see the effects Rosling discusses quite as easily.