This presentation will provide basic information about sketchnoting and introduce you to the research behind visual note taking and why it benefits both students and teachers. In addition to the theoretical portion of the presentation, there will also be several practical/hands-on opportunities during the session. 

By the end of the presentation, you will be able to: state the benefits of using sketchnoting in personal, professional, and educational settings, list multiple tools (analog and digital) to use when sketchnoting, and experience sketchnoting first hand to gain an understanding of the process so you can develop ways to begin sketchnoting with students.

We are incredible at remembering pictures. Hear a piece of information and three days later you'll remember 10% of it. Add a picture and you'll remember 65%.

Listeners, thinkers, and collaborators have always found simple drawings help them express themselves and help others understand what they are communicating. If you are a doodler, you are in good company, because many famous writers and historical figures are known for their idle sketches. Jack Kennedy drew in meetings, John Keats drew when writing, and of course, Michelangelo is known for his illustrated notes.

Back in 2006, Michael Rohde had the idea to harness this energy and use it to create more memorable notes by incorporating meaningful images in his notes. Rohde found this rewarding. He found that notes with illustrations stayed in his memory much better. (Rohde, 2013). From this initial experimentation came the practice called  "sketchnoting." Increasingly the practice of visual note taking has found its way into the world of education as well as business.

Visual literacy and visual learning should be in our educational vocabulary.  How often do we directly or indirectly teach visual literacy? If we do not directly teach visual literacy we should. Sketchnoting is one way to build students' knowledge and ability in visual literacy. Some of us might even find it easier to teach visual literacy using sketchnoting.

'The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE, 2012) shares the importance of visuals and learning in Media Literacy in the K‐12 Classroom (www.iste.org). Chapter 3, "Visual Literacy", is dedicated to helping students understand how to read and understand visual information. In sketchnoting, students are the interpreters and creators of visual information through text and drawn images.

Janet Zadina, a neuroscientist and an educator, writes "the learner must make a connection from his or her existing neural network (background knowledge) to the new material" (p.18). Sketchnoting is a way to make that connection. It is one way in which educators are able to guide students to use metacognition in the learning process.

Finally, Paivio's (1971), Dual Coding Theory states that both verbal and visual processing is essential to learning. When we activate both channels at once, so that they're working together, we're better able to understand and remember ideas.

This presentation will provide basic information about sketchnoting and introduce participants to the research behind visual note taking and why it benefits both students and teachers. In addition to the theoretical portion of the presentation, there will also be several practical/hands-on opportunities during the session. 

By the end of the presentation, participants will be able to: state the benefits of using sketchnoting in personal, professional, and educational settings, list multiple tools (analog and digital) to use when sketchnoting, and experience sketchnoting first hand to gain an understanding of the process so the participant can develop ways to begin sketchnoting with students.

International Society for Technology in Education. (2012). Media literacy in the K-12 classroom.

Paivio, A. (1971). Imagery and learning. Imagery: Current cognitive approaches, Academic Press, New York.

Rohde, M. (2013). The sketchnote handbook New York: Peachpit Press.

Zadina, J. (2014). Multiple pathways to the student brain: Energizing and enhancing instruction. John Wiley & Sons.

50-Minute Interactive Session

Launching Transformative Learning