We are thrilled to announce that Asia Pacific Memo (APM) has been awarded a grant that will allow it to develop visualizations and expand its audience in a targeted manner.
APM will continue to translate academic research on contemporary Asia after receiving a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Public Outreach Grant, “Asia Pacific Memo Phase Two – Expanding the Reach and Impact of Research on Contemporary Asia through Social Media, Visualizations, and Outreach to Secondary Schools.”
Visualizations
Infographics and data visualizations are increasingly in use to facilitate understanding of complex interconnections, but also to embrace the potential for visual learning. We will begin to develop visualizations for a select set of Memos that lend themselves to such an approach.
One of our editors, Dr. Julian Dierkes explains why we proposed a focus on visualizations as a step to further develop APM:
Outreach to secondary schools
APM offers communications of research on contemporary Asia to the general and specialist public. At the same time, we believe that some of our Memos may be of particular interest or use to specific audiences. As an experiment in targeting one example of such a specific audience, we are collaborating with British Columbia social studies teachers to evaluate the potential of offering Memos as teaching materials in secondary schools.
We have decided to focus on BC secondary schools as a first step in acknowledgment of the importance that the Asia Pacific has for the province. But if such a targeted approach meets with significant interest, we will be considering other well-defined audiences as potential targets.
Secondary school teachers in the Metro Vancouver region describe their experience with APM as a resource for secondary school students and teachers’ professional development: