Create a Graph Review
The Web 2.0 application I
chose to review is Create a Graph. Its URL is http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/.
As the name of the app implies, the main purpose of the
application is to create graphs. It provides a
step-by-step approach to help students create their own
graphs by customizing the different tabs to their needs.
The “design” tab allows users to select the type of
graph that the students wish to create. There are five
types of graphs to choose from: bar, pie, area, line,
and XY. Once the type is chosen, there are options
for further customization, including color, grid lines,
appearance and legend position.
Under the “data”
tab users enter their data. It is in this tab that users
also label the axis and the graph itself. Furthermore the
maximum and minimum values can also be adjusted. Under
“labels” tab students can further label data such as
allowing the graph to show the numerical value of each
point, bar or section. Further customizations allow for
entering of suffixes such as units and modification of
fonts.
Under the “preview” tab, students can generate a preview
of what their graph looks like. In this view, one can
see if they forgot to enter data or mislabeled an axis.
They then can click back to the data or labels tab and
correct their mistakes. Finally under the “ print/save”
tab students are given the option to print, save, or
email their graphs.
This app seems geared to middle school students or
older. Someone who is experienced with both graphing and
computers can easily use the app. There are choices and
vocabulary involved in the app that I doubt that
elementary school students could handle. Overall the
application isn’t difficult to use and there is also
wizard to the left, which provides help, shows examples,
and explains each component within a given tab
thoroughly.
The application seems to work on both windows and mac
since it is an online application. Thus far the web 2.0
app works on Chrome, Safari, and Mozilla Firefox. I am
unable to verify if it works on Internet Explorer since
I do not use said browser. The website utilizes
Macromedia Flash Player. The website also provides a
link to download a free copy of Macromedia Flash Player
to “provide a more rich experience.”
There are many strengths of this web 2.0 app. For one it
provides a quick way to graph and organize information.
Furthermore each graph can be unique to represent the
flair of each student’s personalities. In addition the
wizard to the left of the app really helps in explaining
each step to reduce confusion and make the graphing tool
more user friendly. It is also a plus that we can save,
print and email our graphs. There is one glaring
weakness in the application. It does not allow for
graphs to be embedded. This can be problematic
especially if you wanted to embed the graph as a part of
a website or a paper.
As a future Biology teacher, I find this application
very useful. In biology, there are a lot of experiments
done to illustrate principles and theories. Viewing
patterns on a graph can reinforce many of these
theories. Collecting and organizing large sums of data
into graphs via this app saves time than if students
were to graph by hand. Furthermore this allows us to
focus on biology content rather than being bogged down
by graphing logistics. In addition it makes sharing
group data with the entire class a snap because each
group can email their graphing results to every other
group.
I would also list this app as a resource for writing lab
reports. Sometimes lab reports require a particular type
of graph. Students could be guided to create their
graphs on this web 2.0 app. They then can save it as an
image file and include it in their lab report.
Overall the application is quite easy to use and seems
to be compatible with almost every operating system and
browser. It provides a helpful guide to allow students
to graph their data properly and to share them
seamlessly. I would highly recommend this web 2.0 app to
all my science colleagues as it saves time and allows us
to focus on content rather than re-teaching graphs
