The Institute for Dynamic Educational Advancement (IDEA.org) is a U.S.-based nonprofit organization working in the area of scientific and cultural literacy. The organization was established in 1998 and incorporated in 2002, and has collaborated with museums, schools, nonprofit organizations, and public service projects.

Activities

WebExhibits WebExhibits is a virtual museum of science, humanities, and culture that uses information, virtual experiments, and hands-on activities that prompt visitors to think, to formulate questions, and to explore topics from a variety of angles. Exhibi ...

"virtual museum" – in 1999, IDEA founded the

virtual museum A virtual museum is a digital entity that draws on the characteristics of a museum, in order to complement, enhance, or augment the museum experience through personalization, interactivity, and richness of content. Virtual museums can perform as t ...

, an interactive,

of science, humanities, and culture that uses information, virtual experiments, and hands-on activities that prompt visitors to think, to formulate questions, and to explore topics from a variety of angles. IDEA published research on exhibit design and usability, and advocated for the format as an effective approach to draw in visitors to complex, multidisciplinary topics. * SpicyNodes - is a presentation method for visually browsing hierarchical information, similar to

concept mapping A concept map or conceptual diagram is a diagram that depicts suggested relationships between concepts. Concept maps may be used by instructional designers, engineers, technical writers, and others to organize and structure knowledge. A conce ...

. Several implementations of SpicyNodes have been developed by IDEA, including a web-based version built on

Adobe Flash Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash and FutureSplash) is a multimedia Computing platform, software platform used for production of Flash animation, animations, rich web applications, application software, desktop applications, mobile apps, mo ...

which is available as a

Software as a service Software as a service (SaaS ) is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. SaaS is also known as "on-demand software" and Web-based/Web-hosted software. SaaS is con ...

web site with both free and paid versions; and as

multitouch In computing, multi-touch is technology that enables a surface (a touchpad or touchscreen) to recognize the presence of more than one point of contact with the surface at the same time. The origins of multitouch began at CERN, MIT, University of ...

version for the

iPad The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, operating s ...

released in Spring 2011 as part of the "WikiNodes" app. The web-based implementation received a "Best Website for Teaching and Learning" award in 2011 from American Association of School Librarians (AASL), and was voted #edchat's 35 Best Web 2.0 Classroom Tools in 2010. It has been a subject of instruction in several schools. The product is used in a broad number of disciplines, and has an

open API An open API (often referred to as a public API) is a publicly available application programming interface that provides developers with programmatic access to a proprietary software application or web service. APIs are sets of requirements that g ...

, allowing developers to use it for visualization tasks as well as to create mashups. * WikiNodes - is an app for the

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...

which uses the SpicyNodes visualization method. It is the first tablet app for browsing Wikipedia using a

radial tree A radial tree, or radial map, is a method of displaying a tree structure (e.g., a tree data structure) in a way that expands outwards, radially. It is one of many ways to visually display a tree, with examples extending back to the early 20th cen ...

approach to visualize how articles and subsections of articles are interrelated. ( Wikipedia's 'The Signpost', 13 June 2011) * ColoRotate - is a project started in January 2006 to explain to the public, students, and graphic professionals the three-dimensional nature of

color vision Color vision, a feature of visual perception, is an ability to perceive differences between light composed of different wavelengths (i.e., different spectral power distributions) independently of light intensity. Color perception is a part of ...

in the eye and mind. It is related to the color-related exhibits in the WebExhibit museum. It consists of a 3D

color space A color space is a specific organization of colors. In combination with color profiling supported by various physical devices, it supports reproducible representations of colorwhether such representation entails an analog or a digital represent ...

within which users can see color points, and manipulate them. There are several implementations of the ColoRotate approach, including a free web site, a Photoshop plugin, a web widget, and an iPad app. * Research - via its SpicyNodes project, IDEA researched ways for the public to author and use radial maps to display hierarchical information. IDEA sponsored a 2008 study on how people find information, which was widely cited in the blogosphere. The key finding was the designers and communication directors overestimate the ease with which users can find information online, and they tend to underestimate the value of basic qualities like current information and engaging writing. Additionally, IDEA researched culturally appropriate ways to collect information from diverse populations. IDEA has collaborated with cancer researchers to make prostate cancer prognosis tools available to the general public, and to bridge the gap of underserved, Native American communities dealing with cancer.UICC World Cancer Congress 2006 Bridging the Gap: Transforming Knowledge into Action July 8–12, 2006, Washington, DC, USA

References

External links

*
IDEA’s interactive Web museum, webexhibits.org
{{Authority control Non-profit organizations based in Maryland Educational research Rockville, Maryland Organizations established in 1998 1998 establishments in Maryland

Activities

See also

References

External links