Mar 15 2009
Visual Thinking a New Beginning
I have decided to delete my former blog, Instructional Technology Ponderings, and in its place create a new blog. I felt the words, images, sounds, and video on this earlier blog had become static on the page. Yes, each post incorporated links across the Internet but it just seemed each post had become stale. Do ideas online become tired and old? Should we delete blogs and start a new? I am not sure. All I can say, for a second time, I did. Now, for my new attempt.
As I was thinking about this new venture in blog writing I ran across this post VizThinking on Jay Cross’s blog, Informal Learning. On Jay’s blog, he shares a recent online conversation that used both Skype and Vyew. As the discussion proceeded, images from the participants were incorporated. I thought as I was reading Jay’s post, ‘wouldn’t it be great to have students participate in class discussions using text and visuals to share their thinking – in real-time’. Just think, as the teacher and students explore concepts – image representations of these concepts can be displayed for everyone to see. Could this display of visual thinking push the overall level of thinking, understanding, and ultimately learning to new levels within the class? Could students and teachers become empowered by these visual representations of ideas?
Educators presently encourage students to think visually through comics, graphic novels, and concept maps (just to name a few ways). I have not heard of many teachers displaying in real-time visual representations created by students during a class discussion. Could this be beneficial in a classroom? Could it be beneficial for students to publically connect ideas and concepts during a class discussion in real-time? Could teachers bring students into the ‘visual Gestalt of thinking’ while a discussion is taking place? Is there a way to get a stream of graphics from our students as we are presenting information?
What an empowering idea!
