Good afternoon,
I hope everyone has been enjoying the fall weather! 🍂 I thought it might be fun to share something a little different today: interactive explainers.
Interactive explainers are sites that have some sort of interactive element, usually framed around an article or essay. The text gives context to the data, and the flexibility of the visualization makes the data come alive. Some interactive explainers are game-like, and for students who have difficult parsing a concept through text, the simulation element can lead to a eureka moment.
There’s a site devoted to “Explorable Explanations” that I think might be of interest to a number of folks. You can find it here: https://explorabl.es/.
Interactive explainers are sorted by category, as seen in the image above. Pages link not only to those created by solo creators, but also to larger simulation platforms, such as PhET from the University of Colorado or the citizen science game Foldit. It doesn’t link to many interactive explainers on news sites, such as those on The New York Times, but there are a few visual essays in the mix, including those hosted on the site The Pudding, which has covered such topics as the representation of women in news media headlines and the effectiveness of plain language.
The creator Nicky Case shares tools for people to create and share their own explainers, and they have a few solid explainers of their own as a backbone for the site. Depending on the topics you’re covering, interactive explainers could be links shared to students on Canvas to illustrate ideas in a fun way. It can be nice to have options outside of the simulations offered by textbook publishers, particularly if you’re already using OER (Open Educational Resources) as a part of your class.
I hope folks have been enjoying the variety of topics in the newsletter this semester. I’ve been trying to shake things up so it’s not all Canvas, all the time. (Missing Canvas tips? Check back next week!)
0 Comments.