Chapter+8+Visual+Learning

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Drawing Resources Other Visual Activities Timeline Resources Graphing Cartoon Resources Animation Resources Research

//VARK Learning Preferences// (@http://vark-learn.com/introduction-to-vark)

** Drawing Resources **
“Drawing Development in Children” by Viktor Lowenfeld and Betty Edwards: //Drawing Skills chart// //MacPaintx //for Macintosh computers //Apache OpenOffice// //Kid Pix // TuxPaint //Sketchpad // // Canvastic // How to Draw Animals ABCya //Utah Education Network// lesson ideas
 * No longer available **

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**Other Visual Activities **
//For VoiceThread and other sites// Portrait Illustration Maker Mini-Mizer
 * Avatars **

Prism
 * Visual Highlighting **

Word Sift Wordle
 * Word Clouds **

<span style="font-family: &#39;Times New Roman&#39;,&#39;serif&#39;; font-size: 16px;">Veteran's Day project
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">No longer available **

<span style="font-family: &#39;Times New Roman&#39;,&#39;serif&#39;; font-size: 16px;">Bubbl.us **Now a subscription** <span style="font-family: &#39;Times New Roman&#39;,&#39;serif&#39;; font-size: 16px;">Popplet **Now available** **only** **for iOS devices** <span style="font-family: &#39;Times New Roman&#39;,&#39;serif&#39;; font-size: 16px;">The Webbing Tool
 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Graphic Organizers (many types) **

Gliffy //ClickCharts diagram and flowchart software//

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<span style="font-family: &#39;Times New Roman&#39;,&#39;serif&#39;; font-size: 16px;">Sesame Street Timeline <span style="font-family: &#39;Times New Roman&#39;,&#39;serif&#39;; font-size: 16px;">Timeline Interactive Teach-nology <span style="font-family: &#39;Times New Roman&#39;,&#39;serif&#39;; font-size: 16px;">Office Timeline for Microsoft PowerPoint users <span style="font-family: &#39;Times New Roman&#39;,&#39;serif&#39;; font-size: 16px;">Excel Timeline Template for Microsoft Office users //<span style="font-family: &#39;Times New Roman&#39;,&#39;serif&#39;; font-size: 16px;">Timeline // //<span style="font-family: &#39;Times New Roman&#39;,&#39;serif&#39;; font-size: 16px;">Preceden for Teachers // //<span style="font-family: &#39;Times New Roman&#39;,&#39;serif&#39;; font-size: 16px;">My Histro //<span style="font-family: &#39;Times New Roman&#39;,&#39;serif&#39;; font-size: 16px;"> **Integrates with Edmodo**
 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Timeline Resources **

<span style="font-family: &#39;Times New Roman&#39;,&#39;serif&#39;; font-size: 16px;">Social Studies for Kids article on timelines
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">No longer in book, but still available **

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<span style="font-family: &#39;Times New Roman&#39;,&#39;serif&#39;; font-size: 16px;">WeatherBase //<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">Survey Monkey // //<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">Zoho Survey // //Create a Graph// //<span style="font-family: &#39;Times New Roman&#39;,&#39;serif&#39;; font-size: 16px;">Chartle, now Chart Tool // //<span style="font-family: &#39;Times New Roman&#39;,&#39;serif&#39;; font-size: 16px;">Chart Go // <span style="font-family: &#39;Times New Roman&#39;,&#39;serif&#39;; font-size: 16px;">Furbles Uses Flash
 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Graphing **
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">No longer in book but still available **
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">//Furbles program// not available**

Scribble Maps //<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">Flat Stanley Project // //<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">NGEP MapMaker Interactive //
 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Maps **

Top “Creating Comic Strips with Google Slides” //MakeBeliefsComix// //<span style="font-family: &#39;Times New Roman&#39;,&#39;serif&#39;; font-size: 16px;">Write Comics // //<span style="font-family: &#39;Times New Roman&#39;,&#39;serif&#39;; font-size: 16px;">ToonDoo //
 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Cartoon Resources **

Pixton //<span style="font-family: &#39;Times New Roman&#39;,&#39;serif&#39;; font-size: 16px;">Creaza Cartoonist //
 * Now a subscription**

//<span style="font-family: &#39;Times New Roman&#39;,&#39;serif&#39;; font-size: 16px;">Marvel Comics // //<span style="font-family: &#39;Times New Roman&#39;,&#39;serif&#39;; font-size: 16px;">Primary Access //
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">No longer available **

Top // Edublogs // <span style="font-family: &#39;Times New Roman&#39;,&#39;serif&#39;; font-size: 16px;">Graphic Book samples
 * Sally Brown links:**

Flipbook //<span style="font-family: &#39;Times New Roman&#39;,&#39;serif&#39;; font-size: 16px;">Cosmic Kanga //<span style="font-family: &#39;Times New Roman&#39;,&#39;serif&#39;; font-size: 16px;">flipbook sample Flippies<span style="font-family: &#39;Times New Roman&#39;,&#39;serif&#39;; font-size: 16px;"> flipbook samples //ABCya Make an Animation// PowToon
 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Animation Resources **

//<span style="font-family: &#39;Times New Roman&#39;,&#39;serif&#39;; font-size: 16px;">Fluxtime Studio // <span style="font-family: &#39;Times New Roman&#39;,&#39;serif&#39;; font-size: 16px;">Top
 * No longer available**

Research
Knowing how to use hardware, such as cameras and microscopes, and software, such as digital storytelling or photo manipulation tools, is not enough. Teachers must also have pedagogic knowledge of how and when to use the technology to advance student knowledge (Ertmer & Ottenbreit-Leftwich, 2010). Visuals play important roles in supporting students’ academic growth, a role that is not always understood (Christianakis, 2011; Coleman, McTigue, & Smolkin, 2011).

Drawing is, for most children, the first step in making concrete representations that communicate the child’s thinking to others. By age three, children demonstrate a difference between writing and drawing (Harste, 1990) and attempt to use a symbol system for communication and problem-solving. But drawing should not stop in the primary grades. “Drawing is not just for children who can’t yet write fluently, and creating pictures is not just part of rehearsal for real writing. Images at any age are part of the serious business of making meaning—partners with words for communicating our inner designs” (Ruth Hubbard, 1989, p. 157, as cited by Christianakis, 2011). Yet visual literacies are often undervalued and even excluded from classrooms beyond the primary grades, partly because of a wide-spread belief that higher level thinking comes from words, not art (Christianakis).

Drawing is only one way of creating visual representations, but rather than relegating it to a lower status when children have developed writing, teachers should consider it a complementary system of communication that often clarifies, expresses, and mediates ideas. After all, many professions, particularly in science, architecture, and computer science, require drawing (Christianakis, 2011).

Visual representations have been promoted as good instructional materials in multiple content areas. For instance, when students create visual representations of words for vocabulary student, their retention rates for the words increases (Marzano, 2010). In science, notational graphics, which are diagrams, maps, graphs and charts, including graphic organizers and matrices, play a powerful role in building comprehension of complex concepts (Coleman, et al., 2011). When children create visual representations of their thinking, they can depict abstract ideas and discuss their ideas at a metacognitive level (Brooks, 2009). In inquiry-based, student-centered classrooms, students both interpret and produce visuals to demonstrate their understanding. When students simply view graphics, the learning does not transfer to other forms of graphics. When they actively //create// graphics, they build awareness of the conventions of graphics and can transfer the knowledge to graphics they encounter in texts (Coleman, et al.) This is particularly important when students are not only asked to draw a graphic, but also label it – and yet 63% of elementary science teachers in one study indicated they never ask students to write captions (Coleman, et al.).

Cartoons enable students to express their ideas in ways that leverage their visual knowledge. Hand-drawing cartoons frustrates all but the accomplished artists, but when students combine pictures, clip-art, and speech bubbles, they can create graphically pleasing cartoons that communicate complex ideas (Bickford, 2010; Rule, Sallis, & Donaldson, 2008; Sallis, Rule, & Jennings, 2009).

Students also gravitate to multimodal texts, both as consumer products and as productions they publish (Christianakis, 2011). According to the National Reading Panel, adding multimedia instruction to the curriculum may benefit students (Van Scoter & Boss, 2002). A critical step in creating multimedia texts is creating, selecting, or capturing visuals to accompany text and/or sound (Van Scoter & Boss). When teachers do not indicate value for visual representation or multimedia texts, students may consider their classroom writing to be irrelevant (Christianakis).

**References** Bickford, J. H., III (2009). //Un//complicated technologies and erstwhile aids: How PowerPoint, the Internet, and political cartoons can elicit engagement and challenge thinking in new ways. //The History Teacher, 44//(1), 51-66.

Brooks, M. (2009). Drawing, visualization, and young children’s exploration of “big ideas.” //International Journal of Science Education, 31//(3), 319-341.

Christianakis, M. (2011). Children’s text development: Drawing, pictures, and writing. //Research in the Teaching of English, 46//, 23-54.

Colman, J. M., McTigue, E. M., & Smolkin, L. B. (2011). Elementary teachers’ use of graphical representations in science teaching. //Journal of Science Teacher Education//, //22//, 613-643. doi: 10.1007/s10972-010-9204-1

Ertmer, P. A., & Ottenbreit-Leftwich, A. T. (2010). Teacher technology change: How knowledge, confidence, beliefs, and culture intersect. //Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 42//(3), 255-284.

Harste, J. (1990). Jerry Harste speaks on reading and writing. //The Reading Teacher//, //43//(4), 316-318.

Rule, A. C., Sallis, D. A., & Donaldson, J. A. (2008). //Humorous cartoons made by preservice teachers for teaching science concepts to elementary students: Process and product//. (ERIC Document Reproduction ED no. 501244). [|www.eric.ed.gov].

Sallis, D., Rule, A. C., & Jennings, E. (2009). Cartooning your way to student motivation. //Science Scope, 32//(9), 22-27.

Van Scoter, J., & Boss, Suzie (2002). //Learners, Language, and technology: Making connections that support literacy. Creating communities of learning & excellence.// Portland, OR: Northwest Regional Educational Lab.