Uploaded September 2022 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
Do you create visualizations while you learn? If not, you should. Here's why.
Join my online learning community: benjaminkeep.com/community
00:00 Introduction
00:31 Three advantages to visualizations
2:15 What should you visualize?
2:59 The cardinal sin
Image acknowledgements:
The initial three visualizations come from the Dataisbeautiful subreddit. Here are the credits:
Long COVID in the U.S., by MetricT: reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/x4hqfs/oc_percent_of_adult_population_currently
Brazil's GDP, by Latinometrics: reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/x441dy/oc_in_2011_brazils_gdp_per_capita_was_27k_above
Mandela Effect, by YouGov_Official: reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/x3z9ad/oc_americans_are_more_likely_to_hold_false_rather
Jacque Minard's famous illustration of Napoleon's campaign grabbed from activehistory.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Minard.png. Thanks, Active History!
Water cycle image: John Evans and Howard Periman, USGS, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/Watercyclesummary.jpg.
John Snow's map of the broad street water pump cholera outbreak (originally from 1854). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Snow#/media/File:Snow-cholera-map-1.jpg.
Causal ecosystem image, from one of Tina Grotzer's papers. Grotzer, T. A., Kamarainen, A. M., Tutwiler, M. S., Metcalf, S., & Dede, C. (2013). Learning to reason about ecosystems dynamics over time: The challenges of an event-based causal focus. BioScience, 63(4), 288-296. academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/63/4/288/253365. She's an academic who does great work on how students think of causal relationships.
The "argument" image comes from a piece by Deanna Kuhn, a pioneer in studying argumentation. Kuhn, D., Goh, W., Iordanou, K., & Shaenfield, D. (2008). Arguing on the computer: A microgenetic study of developing argument skills in a computer‐supported environment. Child development, 79(5), 1310-1328. educationforthinking.org/sites/default/files/pdf/09%20Arguing%20on%20the%20computer.pdf
References:
This video was largely inspired by the chapter "V is for Visualization" in the ABCs of How We Learn by Schwartz, Tsang, and Blair. Definitely recommend it.
Do you create visualizations while you learn? If not, you should. Here's why.
Join my online learning community: benjaminkeep.com/community
00:00 Introduction
00:31 Three advantages to visualizations
2:15 What should you visualize?
2:59 The cardinal sin
Image acknowledgements:
The initial three visualizations come from the Dataisbeautiful subreddit. Here are the credits:
Long COVID in the U.S., by MetricT: reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/x4hqfs/oc_percent_of_adult_population_currently
Brazil's GDP, by Latinometrics: reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/x441dy/oc_in_2011_brazils_gdp_per_capita_was_27k_above
Mandela Effect, by YouGov_Official: reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/x3z9ad/oc_americans_are_more_likely_to_hold_false_rather
Jacque Minard's famous illustration of Napoleon's campaign grabbed from activehistory.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Minard.png. Thanks, Active History!
Water cycle image: John Evans and Howard Periman, USGS, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/Watercyclesummary.jpg.
John Snow's map of the broad street water pump cholera outbreak (originally from 1854). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Snow#/media/File:Snow-cholera-map-1.jpg.
Causal ecosystem image, from one of Tina Grotzer's papers. Grotzer, T. A., Kamarainen, A. M., Tutwiler, M. S., Metcalf, S., & Dede, C. (2013). Learning to reason about ecosystems dynamics over time: The challenges of an event-based causal focus. BioScience, 63(4), 288-296. academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/63/4/288/253365. She's an academic who does great work on how students think of causal relationships.
The "argument" image comes from a piece by Deanna Kuhn, a pioneer in studying argumentation. Kuhn, D., Goh, W., Iordanou, K., & Shaenfield, D. (2008). Arguing on the computer: A microgenetic study of developing argument skills in a computer‐supported environment. Child development, 79(5), 1310-1328. educationforthinking.org/sites/default/files/pdf/09%20Arguing%20on%20the%20computer.pdf
References:
This video was largely inspired by the chapter "V is for Visualization" in the ABCs of How We Learn by Schwartz, Tsang, and Blair. Definitely recommend it.
