Visual Teaching Alliance

All Blog Posts (753)

Can We Afford Web Access for All?

When you pay your phone bill each month, a small percentage goes to a federal fund that subsidizes phone service for people in remote areas and for the poor. Now the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is considering expanding this $7 billion Universal Service Fund to give all Americans access to high-speed Internet.

President Obama recently announced his plan to contribute $2 billion in stimulus funds to the effort, but creating truly universal broadband access could cost as… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on January 18, 2010 at 11:18am — No Comments

Virtual Reality for ESL Students

ESL students who wear 3D goggles and gloves enter the CAVE (see appendix) room that is a multi-person, room-sized virtual reality system consisting of three walls and a floor. As the language teacher starts the program, all students wear special lightweight glasses that allow them to be in a huge and well-organized Wal-Mart. They can hold any product and put it into their shopping cart by using lightweight gloves. As students shop around, they can talk with other students or ask for some help… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on January 14, 2010 at 1:22pm — No Comments

Online v. Print Reading: Which One Makes Us Smarter?

It's no mystery that publications have been taking a beating as more and more people read their news on the Net. But there's a catch. The online info may be instant and abundant -- and in many cases free -- but it may come at a cost, says a new study published in the Journal of Research in Reading.

Study author Anne Mangen, an associate prof of literacy studies at Norway's University of Stavanger, says she discovered that reading online may not be as rewarding – or effective – as the… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on January 12, 2010 at 11:22am — No Comments

How to Use Digital Storytelling in Your Classroom

Storytelling is a vital skill with seemingly unlimited applications. Done well, it can have a magical effect -- moving, enlightening, or entertaining audiences of any size. We tell stories to woo lovers, calm children, or reassure ourselves. Lawyers rely on the power of storytelling to vividly re-create crimes to juries, archaeologists conjure former civilizations, and teachers make abstract concepts real to their students.

In today's digitized world, visual storytelling is a… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on January 11, 2010 at 12:17am — No Comments

Virtual Classroom: Second Life

Will Second Life be the next big thing in teaching? Tech expert Kathy Schrock discusses how it’s helping teachers improve their game right now.

When Kathy Schrock asked her school district to buy a virtual island, she faced a little skepticism. Eventually, she got her way. Now Schrock is the proprietor of Lighthouse Learning Island, a state-of-the-art center for tech education and professional development for teachers, located… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on January 8, 2010 at 12:15pm — No Comments

Transforming the Classroom Using Online Virtual Reality

Virtual reality is no longer limited to video games. Now, educators are turning their classrooms into a virtual environment to enhance learning. Research has uncovered that at least 300 universities around the world teach courses or conduct research using virtual technology, and it’s used in more than 80 percent of universities in the U.K. alone for development, teaching and/or learning activities. Virtual world technologies are being embraced by educators worldwide and are changing the way we… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on January 7, 2010 at 10:52am — No Comments

Smart Desks Make Sci-Fi A Reality In The Classroom

Schools are set for a Star Trek make-over thanks to the development of the world's first interactive classroom by experts at Durham University.

Researchers at the Technology-Enhanced Learning Research Group (TEL) are designing new learning environments using interactive multi-touch desks that look and act like a large version of an Apple iPhone.

The team observed how students and teachers interact in classes and how Information Communications technology (ICT) could improve… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on January 6, 2010 at 10:20am — No Comments

Serious Games: Incorporating Video Games in the Classroom

Games designed using sound pedagogy actively engage the Net Generation in learning

Today’s schoolchildren bear the label Generation N or the Net Generation because they have grown up in a networked world where technology is not a novelty but normal in everyday life. Current research suggests Net Gen students are more likely to engage in online games than to interact with other students or the instructor when in face-to-face learning environments. The K–12 arena in… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on January 5, 2010 at 10:47am — No Comments

Educational Video Games Effective In Classroom If Certain Criteria Are Met

Playing and studying are not incompatible activities. A team of researchers from Madrid's Complutense University (UCM) looks to integrating virtual graphic adventures into online education platforms and analyzes the educational and technological aspects that they should have to promote expansion.

"Video games in virtual educational environments are a complement to traditional teaching for the student", Pablo Moreno-Ger, lead author of the study and member of the e-UCM educational… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on January 4, 2010 at 10:37am — No Comments

The Origin of Visual Expression, Vision and Painting

"The hunt is over but the adrenaline is running high. It's the most challenging and successful kill they can remember. The size of the bison far outnumbered all that came before. And our ancestors wanted to let everyone know about it. But how would they communicate their story and where did they first get the idea to? Where would they find the means to do so? Were the first writings a desperate well thought out attempt to communicate or did they evolve by chance?"

The… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on December 30, 2009 at 10:20am — No Comments

Can Video Games Teach Kids?

On a fall morning at a public school in New York City, sixth-graders are called to sit down at their desks. At first glance, it looks like any other middle-school science classroom. There’s an aquarium full of tiny turtles and a harried teacher fumbling with a projector.

But then the instructor boots up the day’s lesson: a video game. The students watch as the tiny dolls in PlayStation 3’s LittleBigPlanet (pictured) hop through a maze of contraptions onscreen. The game is being used… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on December 28, 2009 at 2:32pm — No Comments

Visual Impact, Visual Teaching: A Visual Thesaurus Interview With Timothy Gangwer

Visual Impact, Visual Teaching

December 21, 2009: A Visual Thesaurus Interview WIth Timothy Gangwer

We caught up with Timothy Gangwer, a pioneer in the field of visual learning and the author of "Visual Impact, Visual Teaching", and asked him some hard questions about how teachers can expand their teaching methods to keep pace with the current generation of visual learners.

VT: Timothy, do you think… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on December 24, 2009 at 1:11am — 1 Comment

A Prefrontal ‘Mind’s Eye’

As you are driving, a car lurks in your blind spot. Where in your brain do you “keep it in mind?” Researchers now suggest that one key region is the so-called frontal eye field (FEF), part of the prefrontal cortex. Long associated with the guidance of eye movements, the FEF now appears not to be an “eye” field at all. Researchers have found evidence that the FEF contains a map of space around the body, in which we can keep any object—visual or auditory, real or imagined—“in mind,” even if we… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on December 23, 2009 at 10:49am — No Comments

Brain May Use Its 'Mind's Eye' to Control Chaos

When you're searching for a friend in a crowd, it appears that your "mind's eye" acts like a spotlight to scan the scene in front of you until you find the right person.

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology monitored the brain activity of monkeys as they searched for a specific tilted, colored bar among a field of bars on a computer screen. The results showed that the monkeys spontaneously shifted their attention in a sequence, like a spotlight that moved from… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on December 23, 2009 at 10:42am — No Comments

In the Mind's Eye: How the Brain Makes a Whole Out of Parts

When a human looks at a number, letter or other shape, neurons in various areas of the brain's visual center respond to different components of that shape, almost instantaneously fitting them together like a puzzle to create an image that the individual then "sees" and understands, researchers at The Johns Hopkins University report.

A team from the university's Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute describes the complex but speedy process in detail in a recent issue of the journal… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on December 22, 2009 at 10:29am — No Comments

Focusing the Mind's Eye - 3 Essential Visualisation Techniques

A mastery of visualisation techniques is one of the most important skills you can possess, but it's a skill that many people believe they don't have. In reality, everybody visualises, all of the time. Everything you do, from getting a pint of milk out of the fridge to driving a car, is visualised first. It's just that most of the time you're not aware of it. By consciously taking control of this, you increase your ability to learn and to act in more beneficial ways.

When you vividly… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on December 21, 2009 at 10:43am — No Comments

An Interview With Duane Michals: Photographer Or Metaphysician?

What if a camera could capture death? Or desire? Or jealousy? More than any other photographer, Duane Michals has spent his career pushing the medium of photography to capture the metaphysical. We'll talk to Michals about what motivates his photography.

HOST / PRODUCER — ANGELA CARONE, MAUREEN CAVANAUGH

November 4, 2009

MAUREEN CAVANAUGH (Host): Welcome back. I'm Maureen Cavanaugh, and you're listening to These Days on KPBS. Cameras take pictures of… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on December 20, 2009 at 10:46am — No Comments

My Mind's Eye

Meaning

One's visual memory or imagination.

Origin

The concept of us having an 'eye in our mind' is ancient and dates back to at least the 14th century, when Chaucer used it in The Man of Law's Tale, circa 1390:

"It were with thilke eyen of his mynde, With whiche men seen, after that they been blynde."

The first actual mention of mind's eye comes in 1577 when Hubert Languet used it in a letter. This was subsequently printed in… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on December 19, 2009 at 12:20pm — No Comments

Hand-eye Coordination and Visual Discrimination Key to Literacy

Sometimes the best thing you can do for your child's early literacy development is simply to let them play. Turn off the TV and anything battery operated then let your child pick up their toys, build blocks or duplos, or manipulate puzzles or game pieces. Not only are you giving your child the gift of childhood, something we so often fail to do in today's hectice, achievement-oriented world, but you are actually helping them build skills that are key to learning to read and… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on December 18, 2009 at 11:34am — No Comments

Brain-Based Learning: Possible Implications for Online Instruction

Abstract

As higher education institutions push for more online courses instructors are faced with issues and challenges related to teaching in the online learning environment. Regardless, of whether higher education’s impetus is fueled by cost-saving measures, or the belief that online courses answer the challenge of rapid tuition increases or changing student body, one issue that continues to resurface, concerning online courses is to how best to deliver the information and… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on December 15, 2009 at 10:26am — No Comments