In this weeks class we were to do a search on visual learners. Visual learners are students who learn best from seeing information in pictures, diagrams, cartoons and demonstrations. This means they learn by sight. The fact is that 65 percent of the population are visual learners. This can make it difficult and frustrating for student that that oral instruction. Personally, I can remember countless high school and college classes where the teacher lectures the entire time with no visuals. With that being the case, students tend to get distracted and lose interest in the topic. If 65 percent of the population are visual learners and teachers are lecturing the entire class time then they are teaching to less then half the students in the class. In the field of education there seems to be tendency or fall back plan to just lecture the entire class period. Maybe because that is what seems natural teachers. However teachers need to cater to everyone's needs in some way. In Social Studies, the textbooks especially are becoming more for visual learners. There are more graphs, timelines, pictures and political cartoons in these books. Some of the strategies for teaching visual learners are:
1. Provide general outlines of the material going to be covered in class.
2.Directions should be written on white boards or SmartBoards.
3. Hand out copies of notes if the volume of material being covered is a lot.
4. Use more visuals in class.
5. Use technology in school to have the students create their own visuals like webmaps and graphic organizers.
In class there were a variety of programs talked about like Wordle, Tagxedo, Bubbl US and xtimeline. World and Tagxedo are the same program with a few difference here and there. These programs let educators create visual of certain articles or information where the words that appear the most stand out because they are bigger font compared to the other words. Bubbl US is a program to create concept maps and great part of this program is that it is free. Xtimeline lets educators create timelines with visuals like picture and videos. Here is a example a Wordle that could be used in a government class and Bubbl US concept map.
1. Provide general outlines of the material going to be covered in class.
2.Directions should be written on white boards or SmartBoards.
3. Hand out copies of notes if the volume of material being covered is a lot.
4. Use more visuals in class.
5. Use technology in school to have the students create their own visuals like webmaps and graphic organizers.
In class there were a variety of programs talked about like Wordle, Tagxedo, Bubbl US and xtimeline. World and Tagxedo are the same program with a few difference here and there. These programs let educators create visual of certain articles or information where the words that appear the most stand out because they are bigger font compared to the other words. Bubbl US is a program to create concept maps and great part of this program is that it is free. Xtimeline lets educators create timelines with visuals like picture and videos. Here is a example a Wordle that could be used in a government class and Bubbl US concept map.
Bubbl US on Ohio Technology Standards
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