Visual Teaching Alliance

All Blog Posts Tagged 'visual' (29)

Visual Perception

Any inventory of the animal world quickly reveals a bewildering assortment of visual systems evolved for the purposes of detecting and using information from reflected light. These range from elementary photoreceptors that only discriminate light from dark, to the considerably more complex interactions of eye and brain responsible for visual perception in birds and mammals. This ability of nervous systems to construct internal visual representations of the outside world represents one of the… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on December 1, 2009 at 11:02am — No Comments

Different Types of Visuals

Reading Graphs

Graphs are visuals with bars going vertically or horizontally or lines that zigzag used to show comparisons between two or more different items. They usually feature numerical data, and they may show changes over time. For example, a graph may be used to show the growth in sales of various makes of automobiles over a period of time. The numbers shown in bar graphs are most often approximate, and there are ranges. Graphs can be horizontal,vertical, or lines.… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on November 30, 2009 at 12:25pm — No Comments

Do You Want Me to Draw You a Picture?

Over the past few weeks I’ve been doing some reading, when I have a few moments, both online and the hardcopy book/magazine version. There have been a few different things that have me pondering and wondering about what we are doing in school and how things will change and when we’ll get around to looking at how change will affect what we do at school.

Being rather overwhelmed with a number of different managerial tasks these past few weeks and having to increase my teaching time, I… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on November 19, 2009 at 9:44am — No Comments

Honoring a Child's Learning Style

When I was in 3rd grade, the word "encyclopedia" was on my spelling test. I couldn’t remember how to spell that word no matter what I did! To help me along, my mom told me that when she was growing up, there was a character called Jiminy Cricket, who sang a song about the encyclopedia that included the spelling of the word. She sang it to me a few times. It just clicked. To this day, when I write the word "encyclopedia" I still sing that song in my head.

Think back to when you were… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on November 12, 2009 at 12:23am — No Comments

Research Evidence for Using Educational Technology

The Center for Applied Research in Educational Technology (CARET), a funded project of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), has the most comprehensive review of research evidence available on the impact of technology in education (see http://caret.iste.org) . The What Works Clearinghouse, established by the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences to provide "high-quality reviews of scientific evidence of the… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on November 11, 2009 at 10:14am — No Comments

Turn Up the Volume: Boost Memory and Learning with Music

When we hear a familiar song, we are often able to recall a moment from our past that is connected to that tune. Favorite songs tickle our memory in various ways; your child may even complain of “getting a song stuck in her head,” which shows that music is easily ingrained in our memory.

Music has been found to stimulate parts of the brain, and studies have demonstrated that music enhances the memory of Alzheimer’s and dementia patients, including a study conducted at UC Irvine,… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on November 9, 2009 at 10:10am — No Comments

Visual Literacy

Visual images are fast becoming the most predominant form of communication. Children are surrounded by all sorts of visual media now and according to Mary Alice White, researcher at Columbia Teachers’ College:

‘Young people learn more than half of what they know from visual information, but few schools have an explicit curriculum to show students how to think critically about visual data.’

Visual literacy includes such areas as facial expressions, body language, drawing,… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on October 21, 2009 at 12:42pm — No Comments

Understanding Dyslexia - Common But Often Misunderstood Condition

There exists many medical conditions, that, although they are incredibly significant, are not given the awareness and attention that they deserve. Although many of these such conditions can be pointed out, perhaps one of the most common and most often misunderstood is dyslexia. Dyslexia affects millions of people around the world, but despite these numbers, many often misunderstand dyslexia, and few give in the time and attention to finding out what the condition is, the symptoms that occur… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on October 7, 2009 at 12:03pm — No Comments

Resource List for Visual Spatial Learners

Books

Upside-Down Brilliance: The Visual Spatial Learner by Linda Kreger Silverman, the pioneer of the Visual Spatial Learner concept. Published in 2002, this book provides vast amounts of information, checklists and strategies for Visual Spatial Learners.

Right Brained Children in a Left Brained World: Unlocking the Potential of Your ADD Child by Jeffrey Freed 1998 - Specific techniques for teaching visual spatial learners reading, writing, spelling and… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on September 30, 2009 at 10:31am — No Comments