Part3_Learning methods and data viz
At this point, I need to give some explanation about how “learning methods” are related to data visualization, at least from my perspective.
Essentially, data visualization is a kind of art that communicates the information in the data to audiences. “Visualization” is just one of its methods. What is more important is its goal, which is to let the audiences really learn something hidden in the data. So data visualization, in fact, is a kind of learning method.
When I started to search contents about learning methods online, I found this speech by Barbara Oakley from Oakland University — it is great! The methods she mentioned in the speech are all very meaningful for practices of “data viz” or any kind of design for information communication.
It is not an easy thing to help people learning things they’d never thought or heard about.
In this sense, I think data visualization is really hard. Because there’re some circumstances that audiences just don’t believe the patterns in the data we find and visualize, especially when the results contrast with their longterm perspectives or stands. And there’re some circumstances that the information we’re trying to communicate is so complicated that merely “visualization” is not enough to help people really forming the understanding at some level.
And if “learning” is not deep enough, it hardly would change the minds of audiences, let alone the behaviors of audiences.
So I think all the study about learning methods would be very valuable for practices in “Data Visualization”.
- The important role of “emotion” in the process of learning
One thing I just learned about learning methods is the significant role of “emotions” in the process of rational thinking and desition making.
I’d thought “emotion” is a negative factor for rational thinking and desition making. It is easy to imagine that a person who is too emotional is hard to think rationally and make a good desition. However, the fact is more complicated.
At the beginning of Affective Computing, Rosalind Picard explained their new findings of “emotion” in detail.
The reason that the author talked about the role of “emotion” in intellectual activities is that she wanted to explain why computers need to “have emotions” in order to be really “intelligent”.
Many people had been aware that there’s a group of people who might think in a way very similar to computers — people on the autism spectrum.
I think one important reason that makes some kinds of “learning” harder for them, for example, forming abstractive concepts, may be related to their difficulty of recognizing emotions, which is a typical characteristic for most people on the spectrum.
Therefore, even though ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) therapy in which core philosophy is “repetition” (yes, I applied ABA therapy in my own coding learning), another path worth to try is adding factors that would induce “emotions” greatly, which is what the instructors in the autism clinics are doing: they interact with kids with autism with way more “emotions” than normal communication (teaching).
- The important role of VR in the process of inducing “emotions”
One reason that virtual reality technology very likely works for the people on the spectrum in terms of learning is that it is naturally a good tool to induce “emotion”. Because the sensations of human beings can be greatly provoked by vivid virtual objects. In other words, their ability of learning has a good chance to be powered by VR experience greatly!
I’d like to have a perspective that every one of us is on “the spectrum”, and indeed our ability to recognize emotions, no matter of ourselves or others, varies a lot. So, typical learning people actually also need helps. And design VR experience for people with autism would be a meaningful start point.
