As I Twitter’d earlier, I just watched a YouTube video from TEDtalks by Hans Rosling which forwarded me on to the Gapminder Google Tool, a mashup of UN and other public data sources to make really easily understandable [and amazing] graphs of comparative world data.
Here’s the link to the [20 minute long] YouTube video
Here’s the link to the GapMinder Google Tool
Play with the data in GapMinder, I think this resource would be a fabulous source for data display in any number of subject areas (though I didn’t search for the citations of the datasets). I’m thinking about contacting professors in Poli-Sci, Business, International Studies, etc. to ask for their comments and how they think it might be useful for their students. If you think of other subject areas that might find this type of thing useful, let me know.
I’m not sure what this says about me when one of the more insightful - or self-reflection causing - statements I’ve read in the past few days is “…we fail our students when we make things too easy for them for fear that their possible failures may do them irreparable harm.” I found this from StevenB on ACRL Blog
I find that I agree on the surface, but there is turmoil below my normally placid waters. Do I agree with it because I have an attitude of ‘well, I paid my dues so they should have to pay the same dues plus interest and inflation’ or do I agree with it beacuse I have an attitude of ‘oh these youngsters, they’re less than half my age and couldn’t cross a street without being told when to go’ or do I not disagree with it because I feel that higher education (and education in general) should not be a cake-walk with everyone automatically passing “GO” and collecting 4.0s and 3.5s and maybe a valadictorian or salutatorian slot?
Introspection on a Monday — just one week before moving 800+ miles — probably isn’t the most reality-based blogging location. Hey, but there it is.