Show & Tell
Tonight was the first class of the semester. This is my fourth year teaching at WVU. While in the past I’ve been teaching graduate-level courses, this semester finds me teaching a senior studio course. I have 17 students! I believe this is the largest class I’ve taught.
I think one of the most important teaching tools employed in our elementary classrooms is “Show & Tell”. It is unfortunate that it is not typically utilized in higher grade levels. Not only does it expose students to knowledge that might not otherwise be covered in a course, it provides experience in public speaking and promotes confidence, as the speaker is a de facto expert on her topic. When utilized correctly, it provides students with an opportunity to research and present subject matter that they are particularly interested in within the context of an overarching theme.
Every day our class meets, we will devote a small portion of time to Show & Tell. Each of the students will be responsible for presenting one information visualization to the class. This assignment has the added benefit of requiring the students to be more aware of their environment. They must be on the look-out for interesting visualizations. I’ve set up a Delicious account where we will be bookmarking links to examples found online.
