MITE 6323 Digital Portfolio of Hammond

Information About Group Project

2007-05-22T21:45:00.000-07:00

Information about Group Project

(1) Description of group project
Subject : Mathematics
Level : Secondary Three students in Hong Kong
Topic : Angles of Elevation and Depression
Design format : Interactive Visual Representation
Software used : Flash MX
Designers : Alan Cheng & Wong Yau Kit

(2) Role in group project
Alan and I are equally contributed to our group project. We always work together to our group project. By the way, Thank you very much to Dr. Daniel and other classmates, they gave us some useful suggestions, as a result, we can make our project more reasonable and interactive.

(3) How to run our group project

We design two “Sliders”, one for “Angle of Elevation” and one for “Angle of Depression”. User can move from “Start” position to “End” position to see angle change from 45 to 90 .

We design “hotspot” effects on the words “Angle of Elevation” and “Angle of Depression” in order to show the definitions of “Angle of Elevation” and “Angle of Depression”. On the other hand, hints or pictures will be given in order to let user know about hotspot effects.

(4) URL of group project
http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/ykwong5/index5.swf

(5) Source-code of group project
http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/ykwong5/Link_source_code.htm

Reflection on Feedbacks about Group Project

2007-05-22T21:09:00.000-07:00

Reflection on Feedbacks about Group Project

Daniel stated that visual and interactive representations are not drill and practice, quiz questions, tests or games, they allow a user to explore its content freely and this exploration is often externally directed. So our project should be kept to a single representation displayed on the screen. Since we had created several screens in our project, we will merge the contents and represent of information into a single screen in our final product.
In our visual representation some classmates wonder that is it possible that the angle of elevation is an obtuse angle? In the local textbooks, the angles of elevation and depression are smaller than 90 degrees. After discussed with Daniel and other classmates during the lesson, we change the angle of elevation and depression between 0 to 90 degrees.
In our project we found that the skill of placing a mouse cursor over a hotspot area is very useful. The information will appear when necessary and this helps save a lot of space in a visual representation with only one single display. But some classmates mentioned that it was quite difficult to discover the hotspot. As a result, we created some hints inside the visual representation in order to let user know about the hotspot.
Designing slider is another important feature to know for effective creating of interactive visual representations in Flash. In our group project we designed two sliders in order to allow user to observe the change of Angle of Elevation and Depression. User dragging the slider can change not only numerical values on the screen but also display the movement of the object. The changes in visuals tell the user if a variable represented by the slider increase, it also change the related graphic representation. Some classmates found that the sliders were started at "end". So we will correct it in our final version.
Some classmates pointed out that the plane and the ship will not move like this, they should move at a horizontal line. We will amend it in our final product.

Theoretical Discussion of Group Project

2007-05-22T21:00:00.000-07:00

Theoretical Discussion About Group Project

Introduction
Alan and I are the secondary school teachers in Hong Kong. Alan teaches Design & Technology while I teach Mathematics and Computer. Angle of Elevation and Depression are the topics in Form 3 Mathematics syllabus. According to our experience, students can learn above concepts easily if teacher can use more visual representations instead of words alone. In our group project, we will design an interactive visual representation using ‘Flash’ to explain the concepts of Angle of Elevation and Depression. We hope that the product will help students to understand concepts easily and attract their learning interest.

Process of Group Project
First Step
When we posted our proposed storyboard of group project in the Blog, we got some useful feedbacks from classmates. They suggest us to use photos to describe each page of our storyboard instead of words alone. It is believed that people can learn more deeply from words and pictures than from words alone (Mayer, 2005). Visuals can communicate complex ideas with clarity, precision, efficiency and convey the most knowledge in the shortest time in small space.( Tufte ,1983).

Second Step
Afterwards, we start to construct a web page for learners to study the concepts of Angle of Elevation and Depression. The contents of web page will consist of explanations, games and quiz. We will design more pictures less words in our group project because we believe that well designed graphics are far more effective than words. Other research throughout the 1990s has also demonstrated that visual displays have supportive effects on communication of information, thinking, and learning (Mayer, 2005). Interactivity can enhance information communication capability of visual display and allow for more information to be meaningfully structured. This can further engage a student to interact with the display and become more active that just passively view the display (Daniel, 2007). Furthermore, carefully constructed pictures as visual text adjuncts can not only have a decorative function, but also have functions of representation, organization, interpretation, and mnemonic encoding (Levin, Anglin & Carney, 1987).

Final Step
At the end of April 2007, When we posted our near-completed representation of group project into the Blog, we got a lot of useful feedbacks from Daniel, Ryan and classmates. Firstly, as Daniel stated that visual and interactive representations are not drill and practice, quiz questions, tests or games, they allow a user to explore its content freely and this exploration is often externally directed. So our project should be kept to a single representation displayed on the screen. Since we had created several screens in our project, we should merge the contents and represent the information in a single screen. Secondly, in our visual representation some classmates wonder that is it possible that the angle of elevation is an obtuse angle? In the local textbooks, the angles of elevation and depression are smaller than 90 degrees. After discussed with Daniel and other classmates during the lesson, we change the angle of elevation and depression between 0 to 90 degrees. Thirdly, in our project we found that the skill of placing a mouse cursor over a hotspot area is very useful. The information will appear when necessary and this helps save a lot of space in a visual representation with only one single display. But some classmates mentioned that it was quite difficult to discover the hotspot. As a result, we created some hints inside the visual representation in order to let user know about the hotspot. Fourthly, designing slider is another important feature to know for effective creating of interactive visual representations in Flash. In our group project we designed two sliders in order to allow user to observe the change of Angle of Elevation and Depression. User dragging the slider can change not only numerical values on the screen but also display the movement of the object. The changes in visuals tell the user if a variable represented by the slider increase, it also change the related graphic representation. Some classmates found that the sliders were started at "end". So we will correct it in our final version. Finally, some classmates pointed out that the plane and the ship will not move like this, they should move at a horizontal line. We will amend it in our final product.

Conclusion
After the project we were more clearly about the concept of visual representation. It is not like PowerPoint presentations or web page. It is always a single slide and all information is prepared for the user who can then interrogate it and interact with it. By the way, Thank you very much to Dr. Daniel and other classmates, they gave us some useful suggestions, as a result, we can make our project more reasonable and interactive.

Reference:
1. Mayer, R. E. (2005). The Cambridge handbook of multimedia learning. New York: Cambridge University Press.
2. Tufte, E. R. (1983). The visual display of quantitative information. Cheshire, Connecticut: Graphics Press.
3. Levin, Anglin & Carney, (1987). The psychology of illustration, vol 1 basic research: Springer, New York
4. Daniel Churchill (2007). Interactive representations of information and knowledge. http://wp.cite.hku.hk/

Second Version of group project

2007-04-24T02:46:00.000-07:00

Second Version of Group Project

After discussed with Daniel and other classmates during last lesson, we made following amendments on our group project:

Group the project into single slide.
Angle of elevation and depression will between 0 to 90.
Visual and interactive representations are not drill and practice, quiz questions, tests or games. So we deleted Quiz and Game sections.

URL of second version of group project:

http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/ykwong5/index2.swf

First Version of group project

2007-04-24T02:38:00.000-07:00

First Version of Group Project

Subject : Form Three Mathematics
Topic : Angles of Elevation and Depression
Design format : Interactive Visual Representation
Software used : Flash MX
Designers : Alan Cheng & Wong Yau Kit

URL of group project :
http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/ykwong5/index1.swf

Feedback of Lesson Seven

2007-04-12T01:37:00.000-07:00

Feedback of Lesson Seven

Alan and I confirmed the topic for our group project. (Angle of Elevation & Depression)
We will amend our storyboard. (Add more picture inside)
We will try to apply following technique into our group project (as a part of Game) : "Flash display showing how dragging a slider can change not just numerical values on the screen but also display changes as in graphical way (bars change size) ."

Amendment of Storyboard of Group Project

2007-04-12T01:18:00.000-07:00

Amendment of Storyboard of Group Project

Some classmates gave us some useful comments about our storyboard. As a result, we had made some amendments about the storyboard.

URL of amended Storyboard : http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/ykwong5/Storyboard_of_Group_Project.ppt

Feedback of Fifth Lesson

2007-04-03T22:40:00.000-07:00

Feedback of Fifth Lesson

Try to use Flash to develop an interactive map of Hong Kong. But I can not finish the job, I will try to learn more Flash skills, maybe I can finish it later.
Discuss with my partner Alan about group project, we will search one teaching topic relate to our teaching area separately, then we will discuss about the topic we chosen in next lesson.

Storyboard of group project

2007-03-30T02:51:00.000-07:00

Storyboard of group project

URL of Storyboard of group project :

http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/ykwong5/Storyboard.doc

Proposal about Group Assignment

2007-03-23T00:38:00.000-07:00

Proposal about Group Assignment

I am a Mathematics and computer teacher in secondary school , I will try to develop an useful website or interactive visual representation for my students to learn from it.
I will try to design an interactive visual representation using "Flash".
I will design more pictures less words in group assignment. Because I believe that well designed graphics are far more effective than words.

Feedback of Fourth Lesson

2007-03-23T00:25:00.000-07:00

Feedback of Fourth Lesson

Through the discussion about the “rain drop” during the lesson, I strongly agree that get right information is a challenge and over-reliance on the internet might be problem. (I can not get complete information about the “rain drop”, as a result, the presentation can not achieve the goal.) On the other hand, I had learnt that variety of factors will affect the “rain drop” such as Air resistance, Gravity, Velocity, size, angle, wind and angle, Air pressure and surface tension…etc.
Also some key concepts about "Flash" were introduced. I am looking forward to learn more in order to design our group assignment.

Reference

Lesson Four of MITE 6323, Dr. Daniel Churchill, Learning with Representations.

Rain Drop

2007-03-16T00:17:00.000-07:00

Rain Drop

URL of Rain Drop :http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/ykwong5/rain_drop.ppt#256,1,投影片 1

Feedback of Third Lesson

2007-03-14T20:28:00.000-07:00

Feedback of Third Lesson

Task two show that we can present a lot of information in a single screen and communicate complex ideas through visual representation.
Through classmates' visual representations, I strongly agree that creativity is critical to design of interactive and visual representations.
I understand the meaning of learning object as follow:

Utilizes interactive nature of contemporary technology.
Leverages on multimedia capabilities:text,graphics,animation,audio,video,etc.
As a representation it is not a copy but it stands for something from the world or mind.
It originated with pedagogical intentions and for educational purpose.
It can be reused in different educational contexts.

Reference

Lesson three of MITE 6323, Dr. Daniel Churchill, Interactive Visualization and Learning Objects.

Visual display of Task Two

2007-03-02T01:53:00.001-08:00

Visual Display

Alan Cheng and I designed a single visual display to show the main ideas of the text, we hope all of you can understand what we drew and give us some comments.

URL of visual display : http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/ykwong5/task2.ppt

Steps to finish the task two:

Read the text (separation)
Discuss the text (combine)
Serach information and pictures (separation)
Design a visual Display (combine)
Apply PhotoImpact and PowerPoint to do visual display (combine)

Reference

Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page.

Reflection of Second Lesson

2007-02-27T20:48:00.000-08:00

Feedback of Second Lesson

I agree with following key points came from Tufte(1983) and Lester(2000):

Well designed graphics are far more effective than words.
Visuals are instruments that help people to reason about information.
Produce powerful pictures so that viewers can remember their content.
Analyzing images makes you take long careful look. First image becomes part of your general knowledge. The more you know the more you see.

Types of visuals can be :

Photorealistic images
Paintings and drawings
Caricatures, cartoons, abstract art, etc
Symbols and icons
Mindmaps

References

Tufte, E. R. (1983). The visual display of quantitative information. Cheshire, Connecticut:Graphics Press.
Lester, P. M. (2000). Visual communication. Belmont, CA:Thomson Learning.

My Personal Story

2007-02-22T23:04:00.000-08:00

URL :http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/ykwong5/My_Personal_Story.ppt

According to above picture, can you guess : what is my occupation and my hobby ?

Reflection of first lesson

2007-02-22T18:26:00.000-08:00

Feedback of first lesson

After first lesson, I knew that this module will teach us how to use "interactive and visual displays" to representate "information and knowledge".
Visuals can communicate complex ideas with clarity, precision, efficiency and convey the most knowledge in the shortest time in the small space. [Tufte (1983)]
I wish after the module, I can use technology-based tools to tranform data, information, knowledge and ideas into "interactive visual representations".