Teaching Comparative

Seeing statistics

Last week in Denver, I was reminded of the remarkable Gapminder.

I mentioned it here in June 2006 when Patrick O'Neil pointed it out. It was the first I'd heard of it.

The Gapminder World is an extensive collection of animated graphs illustrating how two sets of statistics interact and change over time. You can choose from 16 categories and see the relationships between 1976 and 2002. You can also choose what regions or countries you want to highlight and label.

There are ten presentations, called GapCasts, available on the Gapminder web site.

If you want a presentation on Human Rights Trends, there's one of those available too.

You can also find a video of an amazing presentation using Gapminder that is a superb demonstration of what's possible. The presentation by Hans Rosling at the 2006 TED conference, has been a hit on YouTube. Show it to your students before you send them to Gapminder to create their own presentations.

This presentation is described as "Hans Rosling debunks myths about the so-called "developing world" using extraordinary animation software developed by his Gapminder Foundation. The Trendalyzer software (recently acquired by Google) turns complex global trends into lively animations, making decades of data pop.

"Asian countries, as colorful bubbles, float across the grid, toward better national health and wealth. Animated bell curves representing national income distribution squish and flatten.

"In this video, a gifted speaker and fascinating animated data provide an inspiring view on common misconceptions about global trends (life expectancy, child mortality, poverty rates). In Rosling's hands, they become clear, intuitive and even playful."

---

While I'm on the topic of presenting statistics, I want to mention WorldMapper

Worldmapper is a collection of world maps, where territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest.

There are 366 maps, which are also available as PDF posters.

It's another way of presenting data that helps us all comprehend what the numbers mean.

---

And one more. Visualizing Economics.

Visualizing Economics is a web site/blog by Catherine Mulbrandon and displays data about the US economy using easy-to-understand graphics. (Her interpretation of the statistics is fully informed by her undergraduate studies of economics at the University of Chicago.)

Okay, it is US economic statistics, but there are two reasons for comparativists to look at it.

• First, there are bits of the US economy that are relevant to the study of other countries.
• Second, the design of the presentation might give you or your students ideas about how to present other statistics.

.

---

Labels: pedagogy

posted by Ken Wedding @ 8:18 AM