Charts

TABLEAU – Data visualizations of all sorts

GOOGLE CHARTS – Google Charts provides a good way to visualize data on your website or presentation. From simple line charts to complex hierarchical tree maps, the chart gallery provides a large number of ready-to-use chart types.

The most common way to use Google Charts is with simple JavaScript that you embed in your web page. You load some Google Chart libraries, list the data to be charted, select options to customize your chart, and finally create a chart object with an id that you choose. Then, later in the web page, you create a <div> with that id to display the Google Chart.

That’s all you need to get started.

EXCEL – A simple chart in Excel can say more than a sheet full of numbers.

Infographics

Try PICTOCHART or EASELLY

GOOGLE SKETCH UP

NICE EXAMPLE HERE (scroll forward to 18:00 to see the animation)

The Hole: A Border Between Brooklyn and Queens

Student project from Laxmi Ramasubramanian’s Seminar 4 at Hunter College, 2010

VIDEO

Your presentations are very short. If you use video, use it sparingly and strategically. For example, the first slide of the keynote presentation I showed you in class (link here: Using Video in Presentations) includes a video clip that autoplays and loops. If you use this method, you want to make sure the CAMERA IS NOT MOVING in the video clip you choose. Otherwise, you will make everyone nauseous with your video.

Here’s a good example of static video shots, ie. the camera is not moving. The simple yet compelling videos are used to break up different sections of the story. You could reproduce something like this using Powerpoint or Keynote. Notice how important it is for the videos and photographs to be meaningful and engaging to look at. There is nothing in the images that are extraneous to the story. Your media should be like that too.

The third slide of this “Using Video in Presentations” presentation also has a video clip that I made using QUICKTIME SCREEN CAPTURE. Click on the link to see instructions to make your own quicktime screen captures of animations or video you might want to include in a presentation.

And check out this “Video 101: Shooting Basics” video from vimeo:

Fair use images: Some good sites for finding images include Creative Commons and Wikimedia Commons. Also try Google Images advanced search option which allows for modifying your search by usage rights.

Fair use sound: iMovie contains free use movie clips that can be found by selecting the music note icon. Apple has a great link to free and fair use music sources. Also try Jamendo and dig.ccMixter. You can use up to 30 seconds of any song under fair use laws.

IMOVIE

Jenny Kijilowski, a former Senior ITF at Macaulay, has created some great in depth iMovie tutorials that are worth checking out.

USING VIDEO IN POWERPOINT OR KEYNOTE

Interviewing Best Practices

Interviewing involves asking questions and getting responses from participants. Interviewing has a variety of forms including: individual, face-to-face interviews and face-to-face group interviewing. The asking and answering of questions can be mediated by the telephone or other electronic devices (e.g. computers). Interviews can be structured, semi-structure or unstructured.

Interviewing Tips from Professor Laura Starecheski, Columbia University

Even more helpful guidelines on how to do interviews.

We’ll need to talk about ethics of interviewing for research. Start reading about it in the links above.

“10 Steps to Shooting your First DIY Interview”

Borrowing Equipment from Macaulay

If you need to check out a video camera, audio recorder, tripod, etc here’s a link to the MHC A/V Request Form: http://macaulay.cuny.edu/community/doit/av-equipment/. Note: you must make the request at least 3 days in advance and must travel to Macaulay to pick up the equipment.

MAPS

Maybe your presentation needs some maps to show spatial relationships between different sites you discuss, or different features of the place.

SOCIAL EXPLORER

We get free Professional License accounts through Queens College!!!

To use the Professional edition, please create a personal account here. Your personal account will also authenticate you for remote login access to Social Explorer for three months.

Some Cool Features

Use Side-by-Side Maps Tool to display two maps at once for easy comparison and exploration. The double-map presentation helps you illustrate change over time,relationships between variables, and contrasts between geographies.

Examine change using the Swipe Map Tool enables users to visualize change dynamically. With a “swipe” of the mouse you can switch between maps views to reveal the differences between variables and time periods. You can also add a satellite map layer to provide real-world context for your data.

Create multi-map presentations with the Storyboard Tool. Use a host of presentation features to assemble interactive maps and media elements (text, images, video, audio, and annotations) to communicate your findings in a compelling narrative.

And here’s a great Social Explorer tutorial video by Andrew Lucchesi, an ITF at City College.

ESRI Story Maps

Leaflet Maps Marker

Here’s a Quick Start Guide to using Leaflet

Google Earth birds eye views, animate a fly route, save your work as images or video clips.

Google Maps API

Go to www.google.com/maps
Sign In to Google
Select the My Maps
Select the Create Maps Icon
Search for the general area you will be highlighting (Astoria, NY) in the search bar
If you want to draw an area, choose draw a line
To mark places, add marker
To customize the marker color or shape, scroll over the marker in the left hand menu, then select the paint icon that appears
Select “More Icons” for other options

Once you are done with your map be sure to:

Select “Untitled Map”, then name your map
Save it
Select Share
When the link sharing option comes up, choose anyone with the link
Embed it for it to show up on the site