Richard Lowe

Rolf Ploetzner

This volume tackles issues arising from today’s high reliance on learning from visualizations in general and dynamic visualizations in particular at all levels of education. It reflects recent changes in educational practice through which text no longer occupies its traditionally dominant role as the prime means of presenting to-be-learned information to learners. Specifically, the book targets the dynamic visual components of multimedia educational resources and singles out how they can influence learning in their own right. It aims to help bridge the increasing gap between pervasive adoption of dynamic visualizations in educational practice and our limited understanding of the role that these representations can play in learning. The volume has recruited international leaders in the field to provide diverse perspectives on the dynamic visualizations and learning. It is the first comprehensive book on the topic that brings together contributions from both renowned researchers and expert practitioners. Rather than aiming to present a broad general overview of the field, it focuses on innovative work that is at the cutting edge. As well as further developing and complementing existing approaches, the contributions emphasize fresh ideas that may challenge existing orthodoxies and point towards future directions for the field. They seek to stimulate further new developments in the design and use of dynamic visualizations for learning as well as the rigorous, systematic investigation of their educational effectiveness.the volume="" sheds="" light="" on="" the="" complex="" and="" highly="" demanding="" processes="" of="" conceptualizing,="" developing="" implementing="" dynamic="" visualizations="" in="" practice="" as="" well="" challenges="" relating="" research="" application="" perspectives.

Innovations in Research and Application

Learning from Dynamic Visualization

Wolfgang Schnotz

The use of animations has become very common in multimedia teaching and learning. Animations are assumed to increase interest and motivation, to direct attention, to illustrate procedures, and to explain how things work. Research shows that the educational effectiveness of animations depends on how their characteristics interact with the psychological functioning of the learner. This book is a comprehensive treatment of learning with educational animation, based on research of internationally recognized experts. The authors clarify and integrate the major themes of current research into learning with animation, exploring requirements for the principled design of learning resources that incorporate animation. Such materials can only be successful if their design reflects principles governing how learners develop understandings when they work with animations. The overarching goal of the book is therefore to improve the way educational animations are designed and used within a variety of learning contexts.

Research Implications for Design

Learning with Animation

Colorfully known as the "Greyhound Division" for its lean and speedy marches across thousands of miles in three states, Major General John G. Walker's infantry division in the Confederate army was the largest body of Texans -- about 12,000 men at its formation -- to serve in the American Civil War. From its creation in 1862 until its disbandment at the war's end, Walker's unit remained, uniquely for either side in the conflict, a stable group of soldiers from a single state. Richard Lowe's compelling saga shows how this collection of farm boys, store clerks, carpenters, and lawyers became the trans-Mississippi's most potent Confederate fighting unit, from the vain attack at Milliken's Bend, Louisiana, in 1863 during Grant's Vicksburg Campaign to stellar performances at the battles of Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, and Jenkins' Ferry that helped repel Nathaniel P. Banks's Red River Campaign of 1864. Lowe's skillful blending of narrative drive and demographic profiling represents an innovative history of the period that is sure to set a new benchmark.

Richard Lowe

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