Imagine a world without images, without pictures or photographs, no diagrams or instructions
books without covers, websites with just words. presentations with just bullet points...wait that does happen!
Imagine a world without images
without pictures or photographs
No drawings or diagrams
or instructions from IKEA
books without covers
or illustrations
websites with just words
And presentations with just bullet points...hang on a moment some people still do that!
I believe there are 3 types of people
there are those who love using visuals integrate them into their lessons and may be taking visual notes right now
and there are those who understand the potential of but may not be using them as often as they would like
and there is the 3rd group who hated art at school, say they cannot draw, are wondering why should they use images and what use is this to me?
Over the next few minutes I would like to Show you how I work with visuals
Well over the next few minutes I would like to Show you how I work with visuals
and Tell you how you can use visuals in your daily and professional life
We live in a predominantly Visual World
We are surrounded by images from the moment we wake up in the morning and check the icons on our phones and instagram images
and like our students we watch videos to learn or entertain ourselves, and images help us choose cereal and the products we buy
so why aren’t we all teaching with visuals?
Ancient man captured their stories and conquests on the walls of their caves
And as a child we all loved to draw to communicate and show our ideas and thoughts
So what changes as we get older? why do we stop drawing?
why dont we all draw now?
our Eyes dart across page when we research on the web
Looking for recognisable images or symbols to catch our attention
We like to SEE images and our brains interpret them far easier
so AGAIN why aren’t we all teaching with visuals?
Think about your classroom
your office
or home
What images do you use
to inspire, ignite and inform?
Images guide us
Help us find what we are looking for
They instruct us
Map our ideas
help us to interpret data
Just as Music or smells can transport us back to a time a place or a person
So too can images remind us of the past
Senses are strong in aiding learning and memory
And as John Medina tells us in Brain Rules, the VISUAL SENSE TRUMPS ALL
But the real potential is when we combine them
just as Text and image work better together
Voice and visual
And music and Photography
And this intrigues me – the power visuals have to help us to remember
I am useless at remembering lines and In fact each of these 92 slides are there to trigger my memory and to help me recall what I want to say
I remember the Last 3 years of Learning 2
My first in Shanghai, I remember Jabiz encouraged us to develop our PLN through Twitter
In Beijing Ben recounted the story of his troubles on the metro in Japan
And Dana Watts expanded our ideas about using iPads
But do we remember the details of these and other talks months or years on?
I have been taking visual notes for several years now
as a Tech mentor to an ADE
From early trials in Penultimate to using brushes and Adobe ideas today
Last year Jeff at Learning 2 Singapore asked me to capture the L2 Talks through visual note taking
I had not appreciated how difficult taking notes live could be!
For all you cynics and drawing phobics out there the difficult part it is not actually the drawing
It is about the thinking, The metacognition,
and it is this skill that we should be teaching our students - to listen and synchronise our thinking in order to understand and to communicate this
to others
How could you use this with your students?
How could you use this yourself?
Wouldn’t meeting minutes be more engaging and easier to revisit and remember like this
Or the steps in a unit plan
Or the details of a book
I was rubbish at taking notes at uni
And terrible at remembering facts and figures at school
Yet now I can capture my thoughts visually to help me remember and communicate to others
on my blog I capture visual notes alongside my weekly posts to share my thinking with others
thinking/contemplating the main message
Or what I wanted to convey
To communicate this visually
Adding the details
Or the main message visually
For over 20 years I have banged on about the versatility and benefits of Art to deaf ears
But now I hope you can all hear me:
Understand you may not remember much of what I have said
Would like you to take away this
so many of you are already using visuals
visuals reinforce learning and help us to remember
VISUALS HELP US TO REMEMBER and DOCUMENT our Learning- add in Brushes animation here
add animation: why arent we all learning with visuals??
Visuals are crucial for memory and understanding: they help us to remember and they document our learning
So I would like to leave you with a Challenge
This weekend document your notes more visually
using a simple drawing or note taking app on the iPad such as Adobe Ideas or Paper 53
just like Shaun Kirkwood did last year
and share them on Twitter using the hashtag L2visualnotes
and please do this as there are lots of people following the hashtag who are not at this conference ready to learn from you!
So that everyone can benefit from your learning 2
So everyone can benefit from your learning 2
The Power of Visuals: how are you going to use them?