Many things can be discovered about people by listening to them. One can gauge another’s points of view, ideas on various political issues, value system, and as shown in this infographic, their mood. By doing the modern day equivalent of listening to other peoples inner thoughts (reading their twitter feed), Scott Golder and Michael Macy of Cornell University have mapped the positive and negative feelings of most Americans throughout the day on various days of the week.I find this important to know for several reasons. It tells me when not to be on the road or in public to avoid an angry mob. It tells me when to stay alone so I don’t say something i don’t mean. It can also be important to teachers. If a teacher has a certain class on a certain day at a certain time, and despite other teachers saying this cannot be true, the class just doesn’t care about history or science. This could simply be caused by the time of the day and day of the week the class takes place.
Let’s say that you have a class on Tuesdays and Thursdays at noon. You haven noticed a different in the interest your students take between the two days. For some reason, on Tuesdays the students grumble over assignments and have aside conversations more often than on Thursdays. Then you see this inforgraphic, which could explain the students behavior. Since Tuesdays at noon involve the average worst mood, you decide to change things up a little. You could begin the class with a review involving prices, such as bite-sized candy. Everyone gets a piece of candy, but everyone must share a fact or answer a question correctly. Lessons that may be more fun can be arranged to land on Tuesdays. Lessons can also be rearranged to include something fun in the beginning in the hopes that the mood will last. Studying human behavior can help teachers share information in a better way to assist students in absorbing it better.
Blog: http://goo.gl/8SnkK
Infographic: http://goo.gl/r1BCc