Group items tagged

Great presentation on visual thinking-visual literacy

how and Tell: Ideas for Integrating Visual Thinking in Your Teaching

"Think threefold. Group tasks that produce the best results often have three defining characteristics: 1) they are novel, something students have not done before, 2) they feature a visual component, something that can be represented in nonverbal forms, and 3) they are relational, meaning they require the combining of ideas or components to be accomplished."

Think threefold. Group tasks that produce the best results often have three defining characteristics: 1) they are novel, something students have not done before, 2) they feature a visual component, something that can be represented in nonverbal forms, and 3) they are relational, meaning they require the combining of ideas or components to be accomplished.

Beautiful Ideas, issues, knowledge, data - visualized!

visual literacy

Big data visualized. What a cool site that connects art and math. If you explore or write or are just a scholar, this site will give you lots to think about.

I began reading Diane Cordell's blog. She shared a fabulous beginning-of-the-year activity to get her students thinking about class rules using images from Flickr as visual prompts. She wrote about the process, shared the links and the finalized SlideShare. The activity got her kids thinking both divergently and convergently about how a classroom can work as a community. I needed to do that, too.

"Whilst unpacking the idea of Conscious Competence and Skillset, Toolset, Mindset with teachers, we came to realise many of them were having difficulty applying these concepts to their own learning, beyond a superficial level (assumption one - not all teachers are reflective learners). We found this quite provocative and decided to create a visual on our Leadership Provocation Wall."

CmapTools is a free program used by colleges around the world for creating concept maps: graphical tools for organizing and representing our knowledge about a particular issue or system. In CmapTools, concepts (boxes or nouns) are linked together by propositions (lines or verbs) to form a network that visually demonstrates connections between issue components. By creating a visual map of what we know, one can open up new ways of understanding how that system functions and how its components interrelate; this is what distinguishes CmapTools from more traditional (e.g., verbal) modes of thinking and communication. also check http://cmapskm.ihmc.us/servlet/

Visualization techniques - Data, Information, Concept, Strategy, Metaphor, Compound Brilliant.

This fascinating tool lets you map and flowchart things.

Fascinating tool to map out thinking and flow charts. This is a tool that I will come back to and spend some time with. This would be great for kicking off a major project -- I want to experiment with collaborative features.

really cool 2.0 tool that allows you to create thinking guides for free, file them in, etc. great for teachers and students

A very interesting platform that teachers of younger students are using for them to create and share what they are doing. It seems to be more visually based rather than text based. It is free and right now has two versions, one for the classroom and another for home. It is in beta and if you sign up now it is free. Would love to hear what some of you think.

This site has a huge number of compelling visual writing prompts with text and questions to get your students thinking. There is something for everyone here! http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/English

Ever wondered what the internet looks like? Well, not like this site, but it does provide a stunning visual representation of thousands of the biggest websites and how they are connected geographically on the network. This is a great way to start student thinking about web and how we are all connected. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools

Want to keep your brain young, exercise your body! This is a great story of a basketball team of older grandmothers who don't know how to lose. The women love it and they don't look like grandmothers. Why do we just have athletic leagues for the young? Perhaps athletic leagues are the fountain of youth...and the liquid of longer life is sweat. "But when Wright studied very active seniors, she found exercise seemed to be protective.' These MRI images show how fat can infiltrate the muscles of a sedentary senior. Compare that a MRI from a 74-year-old tri-athelete, which looks very similar to one from a 40-year-old. "We are not destined to go from lean flank steak in our 40s," said Wright. "if you think visually of what our muscles look like, to flabby rump roast. We do not have to become that way if we interject exercise throughout a lifetime. It's an important 'if.' Regular, consistent and challenging exercise is key. The Tigerettes work out strenuously, four to five times a week.

Students across the country have already started working on their IWitness Challenge project sponsored by the USC Shoah Foundation - The Institute for Visual History and Education, but there's still time for youngsters in your community to enter this free online program geared to all secondary-school students. The deadline to enter the Challenge is Dec. 2, 2013. The winning student, along with their teacher and a family member will be brought to Los Angeles to showcase their work as part of the 20th anniversary activities for the Shoah Foundation, which was founded by director Steven Spielberg in 1994 after making "Schindler's List." Tthe IWitness Challenge (iwitness.usc.edu) connects students with the past in a very personal way that spurs them to take action to improve the future. With access to many of the Shoah Foundation's 52,000 testimonies of survivors, liberators and rescuers, students experience history in a way that hits home. Instead of reading facts from textbooks, students feel the emotions and build relationships with those who lived through seemingly impossible situations. But students do more than watch the testimony. The IWitness Challenge compels them to think, to make smart choices and to create their own project and video from what they've learned. By encouraging teachers and students to create their own lesson plans, IWitness allows them to expand on practically any subject they wish to pursue. From civics, government and history to poetry, art and ethics, educators can tailor lessons appropriate for their classrooms. And by using the embedded editor, participants not only learn valuable searching and editing skills, but also how to make ethical editing decisions that ensure their finished assignments are a fair and accurate reflection of what they've seen. All work is kept safe inside the IWitness site and not accessible to the public. Using IWitness is free, but teachers or homeschool parents must register at iwitness.usc.edu.

If you think that cell phones can't improve math scores -- check again - read this report about a pilot where algebra problems were sent to smartphones. (So much for "leaving your homework at school.) "During the 2007-2008 school year, Wireless Reach began funding Project K-Nect, a pilot project in rural North Carolina where high school students received supplemental algebra problem sets on smartphones (the phones were provided by the project). The outcomes are promising -- classes using the smartphones have consistently achieved significantly higher proficiency rates on their end of course exams. So what's so different about delivering problem sets on a cell phone instead of a textbook? The first obvious answer is that the cell phone version is multi-media. The Project K-Nect problem sets begin with a Flash video visually demonstrating the problem -- you could theorize that this context prepares the student to understand the subsequent text-based problem better. You could also theorize that watching a Flash animation is more engaging (or just plain fun) and so more likely to keep students' attention."

Temple Grandin, diagnosed with autism as a child, talks about how her mind works -- sharing her ability to "think in pictures," which helps her solve problems that neurotypical brains might miss. She makes the case that the world needs people on the autism spectrum: visual thinkers, pattern thinkers, verbal thinkers, and all kinds of smart geeky kids.

Digital Storytelling can transform your students' writing into a visual masterpiece that is filled with voice and emotion, while enhancing critical thinking skills.  The iPad takes digital storytelling to a new level by making the process easier, and even more engaging for students of all grade levels as well as for their teachers.   This site will help guide you in what you need for success in the iPad Digital Storytelling classroom.

Essay Map is a handy tool from the folks at Read Write Think. Essay Map provides students with step by step guidance in the construction of an informational essay. Some students seem to struggle most with constructing an introduction and conclusion to their essays. Essay Map is particularly good for helping students visualize the steps needed to construct good introductory and conclusion paragraphs.