ISTE 2018 - Visualise. Connect. Doodle. Repeat... Sketch noting to enhance learning with EE

Presenters: Baughcum and Dana Ladenburger

Visual note taking (also known as sketchnoting) is a note-taking strategy that connects visuals with words to help improve our ability to synthesize, retain, attend to comprehend and recall information while strengthening our metacognition. While current research is changing how educators view doodling, visual note taking and how they can be used in the classroom, it does shows us the use of graphic/ visual notes can improve retention, learning and so much more. Best practices within visual note-taking are evolving rapidly. This interactive session will have educators doodling to learn, taking their thinking visual and making notes digital. Participants will learn the parts of sketchnoting and the variety of ways each parts unique strengths can enhance the learning of all students, while also experiencing a variety of different ways you can use sketchnoting’s components combined with Explain Everything’s elements to make visual note taking and learning reflective, visual, shareable, collaborative and interactive.

Kiri and I attended this session together so that we could use the tools we have available in our learning space to help our learners create a sketchnote to help them summarise new ideas and make notes when researching. This was a fantastic hands on session and one we have already volunteered to take a toolkit on in term 3.

Sketchnote a journey through time or make notes to help students improve and recall main ideas.
Typography - font used to identify main ideas or important places, dates, people
Icons - T can create an icon library that stdnts can become confident using - when confident cld be collaboratively created by stdnts
New idea = new slide
Connectors - Arrows - lines - dashes = connect info and solidify relationships and u/st
Containers - Hold info - thought bubbles, speech bubble, shapes = organise similar ideas and thoughts linked to topic - quotes, contributions, ideas
Container library so that each shape holds specific info and can be transferred across subjects
Structure and colour - Way you format page - idea in one position and containers, fonts etc show progression - linear v abstract using colour coding and anchoring

Input a google doc and/or image so students can sketchnote over and in context
How to bring all together using EE - New slide - title sketchnoting - group using i icon - copy - paste on main note - export to drive and post

Kiri's example of using EE to create a sketchnote

Setting ourselves up for success is a step by step process...

Making connections with the learning is the key to genuinely deepening understanding. By tapping into the knowledge gained across multiple learning areas we can encourage our learners to merge these various knowledge bites of independent information. Our task today was to do exactly that. Earlier in the year we explored the ways personification and the 5 senses can help us see things from a different perspective (-the original task link is on slide 2 of the teaching DLO below). This term our inquiry focus has been Olympic based. Over the last five weeks we have looked closely at how elements of Hauora, Diet and Training can affect an athlete's performance. By viewing the 2016 Olympic games through the eyes of an athlete standing on the medal dias, I hoped that my learner's would make stronger and deeper connections to our topic.

The images below show the process we went through to help us retell an event through someone else's eyes.

Merging images to make personal connections had everyone hooked. As a class that lives and breathes the ethos of collaboration, I noticed at least half of my learners chose to 'stand on the podium' with a buddy. Another interesting observation is that the colour of the medal was invisible. National and personal pride completely overshadowed the gold, silver, bronze hues.

With the imaginary eyes of the world on us we now needed to fill our knowledge 'ketes'. After all you can't describe something you have never seen if you don't have the tools to grow and foster an imagination. Our tool for this was 'Sketchnote'. I had read Karen Ferguson's post about her own experience of picking out the main ideas and focusing on them by 'sketchnoting', and decided to afford my learners the same opportunity. The image below reflects the way one of my learners added to her own 'kete' using this method. 

Sketchnoting allows us to record information using our own words or pictures. This learning tool is helping my learners make notes that make sense to them rather than simply copying what someone else has written in their own handwriting. Being able to retell their very personal 'sketchnote' stories to a friend underpinned the understanding and allowed those strong connections to be made.

Where did this information come from? The answer, multiple sources. I provided links to online newspaper articles and challenged my learners to use their smart searching skills to find supporting information that they read, watched and listened to. It is very rewarding to watch the seamless interchanging of their subject specific 'thinking hats' as knowledge gained during these lessons was synthesised and recalled to meet the learning needs of this lesson. 

Being given the choice of selecting the way they want to approach the 'create' aspect of this learning has both engaged and empowered my learners. Some chose to show their understanding through interviews or conversations using ifaketext.com; others have opted to write narratives; one learner has decided to write an email home to their family and two groups are in the beginning stages of storyboarding their movies. 

Were connections made today? The simple answer is yes!