Week 6)

This week has flown by, I've worked a little bit on my project since the dress rehearsal -- although I've spent more time thinking about it than doing it or testing ideas.

One of the major points that came out of the critiques of my project was the idea to include some sort of tool that really shows how each county compares to each other, or within the entire state. To that end, I've been thinking about including a bar graph in the bottom right space that can be toggled between viewing stats for the entire county and viewing stats for chosen counties. I should be able to use my "click-to-choose" mechanism to select counties for more information. The bar graph itself can be generated with the same math that colors the counties and a growing bar, like a graphic used in preloaders.

Another feature that was lacking was text to explain the project and instructions to explain how to use it. I plan on making the entire right field a console area -- this may include the bar graph, select tools, and text areas to indicate counties selected or give more information about counties as the cursor rolls over them.

I'm at a difficult decision point as to what I want to accomplish with this by the showcase and how this may be used immediately in my work. I'm torn between showing different options, illustrating the flexibility of the application, vs. sticking with one specific path. The data I use determines some of this -- the impact statement data is not quantifiable and the map is used more as a navigation tool to decide how much information to request. The monetary and demographic data is definitely quantifiable and lends itself to a more dynamic subject.

One final idea that I've had (and may not be explored until later) is to overlay the congressional districts on the counties and determine with actionscript where the districts and counties overlap. This could report data relative to the counties per district.

I've been looking at the article from Rose about the brain in learning. I find that information fascinating -- but not tying in directly with my studio experience. As it is, this has been the year of the brain, in my personal life, as my family has learned about brain functions and cognitive disabilities at a very close level. It intrigues me to learn more about how the brain functions, how we store memory, how learning shapes us, and how the brain reacts physiologically to input (the triune brain aspect I mentioned some weeks ago). I'm also fascinated by the right-left brain concept and how that really plays out. Many of these things can be generalized, yet we all function differently.

For me, I'm always intrigued by my own learning processes and appreciate the space to explore my experiences openly. My favorite activity towards accomplishing a tough problem is to mull it over a little and set it back to percolate -- then to revisit the original problem later and determine an approach. I'm definitely back in my percolate mode, waiting for the inspiration to strike on approaching the final stretch of this project.

References:
Rose, D. & Meyer, A. (2002). Teaching every student in the digital age: Universal design for learning. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. [On-line] Available: http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/ideas/tes/ (Chapter 2:What Brain Research Tells Us About Learner Differences)