Data Visualization Literacy: Research and Tools that Advance Public Understanding of Scientific Data

随着世界越来越依赖与数据分析相关的计算和计算过程，更好地理解用于使海量科学数据具有意义的可视化技术是至关重要的。同样重要的是，更好地了解基础设施，即为提高公众对科学本身的参与度而开发技术的手段。因此，AISL发展创新项目将满足公众学习如何解释和理解高度复杂和可视化的科学数据的迫切需要。该项目将设计、开发和研究一个新的技术平台xMacrocope，作为一个学习工具，使明尼苏达州科学博物馆和科学与工业中心的参观者能够使用不同的可视化类型创建、查看、理解不同的数据集并与之互动。XMacrocope将支持在选定的展品上快速研究公众体验的原型，例如收集关于跑步者的速度和高度的数据，以及这些数据的可视化表示。XMacrocope将为展览设计师、教育研究人员和学习科学家提供研究机会，在科学中心研究不同的受众，以了解通过xMacrocope工具学习数据如何为数据素养的定义提供信息。这项研究将促进可视化技术的发展，这将对非正式和正式学习环境中的科学数据的教与学产生广泛的影响。该项目将使科学中心更好地理解如何通过基于海量数据的可视化更有效地向公众展示数据。技术成果和研究成果将通过专业出版物和在科学、教育和技术会议上的演讲广泛传播。该项目由推进非正式STEM学习计划(AISL)资助，该计划旨在促进对非正式环境中STEM学习的设计和发展的新方法和基于证据的理解。这包括为扩大获得和参与STEM学习经验提供多种途径，推进对非正式环境中STEM学习的创新研究和评估，以及促进参与者对更深层次学习的理解。该项目的驱动因素是，在数字信息时代，能够创建和解释数据可视化是公众的一项重要素养。这项研究将寻求定义、测量和提高数据可视化素养。该项目将在明尼苏达州科学博物馆和俄亥俄州哥伦布市的科学与工业中心(COSI)科学博物馆和研究中心吸引公众使用xMacrocope。在这两个博物馆中，公众将与不同的数据集和不同类型的可视化进行互动。使用xMacrocope平台，将衡量个人属性和能力，并构建个性化的数据可视化。现有的学习理论(建构主义和建构主义)将被扩展，以捕捉数据可视化素养的学习和使用。此外，项目组将对不同类型的识字能力进行一次元审查，并将制定一个带有绩效衡量标准的定义，以评估数据可视化识字能力--目前在项目中广泛定义为阅读、理解和创建数据可视化的能力。本研究对视觉学习在科技教育和教育研究领域具有重要影响。它将进一步加深我们对数据可视化素养学习的本质的理解，并定义以对个人和文化都有意义的方式可视化数据的机会。该项目期望利用基于迭代设计的研究方法促进对个性化在学习过程中的作用的理解，以促进非正式学习环境中的理论和实践。将采用迭代设计过程来解决研究问题，将可视化与个人行动和贡献联系起来，探索可视化构建的意义创造研究，并在博物馆环境中测试各种拥挤和忙碌条件下的xMacrocope。评估计划基于逻辑模型，评估将反复告知项目的方向、过程和生产率。

As the world is increasingly dependent upon computing and computational processes associated with data analysis, it is essential to gain a better understanding of the visualization technologies that are used to make meaning of massive scientific data. It is also essential that the infrastructure, the very means by which technologies are developed for improving the public's engagement in science itself, be better understood. Thus, this AISL Innovations in Development project will address the critical need for the public to learn how to interpret and understand highly complex and visualized scientific data. The project will design, develop and study a new technology platform, xMacroscope, as a learning tool that will allow visitors at the Science Museum of Minnesota and the Center of Science and Industry, to create, view, understand, and interact with different data sets using diverse visualization types. The xMacroscope will support rapid research prototyping of public experiences at selected exhibits, such as collecting data on a runner's speed and height and the visualized representation of such data. The xMacroscope will provide research opportunities for exhibit designers, education researchers, and learning scientists to study diverse audiences at science centers in order to understand how learning about data through the xMacroscope tool may inform definitions of data literacy. The research will advance the state of the art in visualization technology, which will have broad implications for teaching and learning of scientific data in both informal and formal learning environments. The project will lead to better understanding by science centers on how to present data to the public more effectively through visualizations that are based upon massive amounts of data. Technology results and research findings will be disseminated broadly through professional publications and presentations at science, education, and technology conferences. The project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understandings of deeper learning by participants.The project is driven by the assumption that in the digital information age, being able to create and interpret data visualizations is an important literacy for the public. The research will seek to define, measure, and advance data visualization literacy. The project will engage the public in using the xMacrocope at the Science Museum of Minnesota and at the Center of Science and Industry's (COSI) science museum and research center in Columbus, Ohio. In both museum settings the public will interact with different datasets and diverse types of visualizations. Using the xMacroscope platform, personal attributes and capabilities will be measured and personalized data visualizations will be constructed. Existing theories of learning (constructivist and constructionist) will be extended to capture the learning and use of data visualization literacy. In addition, the project team will conduct a meta-review related to different types of literacy and will produce a definition with performance measures to assess data visualization literacy - currently broadly defined in the project as the ability to read, understand, and create data visualizations. The research has potential for significant impact in the field of science and technology education and education research on visual learning. It will further our understanding of the nature of data visualization literacy learning and define opportunities for visualizing data in ways that are both personally and culturally meaningful. The project expects to advance the understanding of the role of personalization in the learning process using iterative design-based research methodologies to advance both theory and practice in informal learning settings. An iterative design process will be applied for addressing the research questions by correlating visualizations to individual actions and contributions, exploring meaning-making studies of visualization construction, and testing the xMacroscope under various conditions of crowdedness and busyness in a museum context. The evaluation plan is based upon a logic model and the evaluation will iteratively inform the direction, process, and productivity of the project.