Although visual learning is valuable, not all visual teaching strategies are effective. Incorporating poorly designed visuals, generic graphics, or low-quality, archival images can have a negative impact on learning and distract students from the main message how to build resilience in children.
So how can you ensure the success of your visual learning methods?
Apply the following tips to get started.
- Use virtual whiteboards to collaborate and share
Visuals can enhance your classes and illustrate your points effectively during classroom teaching. Helping your students engage with learning materials in a collaborative and hands-on way can solidify concepts in their minds and motivate them to apply problem-solving and critical thinking skills.
Take advantage of digital tools, such as virtual whiteboards, to increase collaboration and sharing in the classroom.
Virtual whiteboards are a great solution for in-person and remote learning environments because they allow students to create, share, and collaborate in real time. This is especially useful for hybrid and remote classes, where interaction can be more difficult to address effectively.
learninglinks makes it easy for all students to participate and engage with the lesson in real time or asynchronously. Helps students practice their problem-solving skills and use their creativity to illustrate and share new ideas.
learninglinks’s virtual whiteboard includes infinite canvas space to organize ideas, present information, and take notes. And with features like color-coded sticky notes, prepared templates, and @mentions, students and teachers can easily communicate and track contributions throughout the project or lesson.
- Motivates students to visually demonstrate what they have learned
Teachers can use visuals to share information effectively, but don’t forget about students. Learning by teaching is a proven method for educational success. A University of California study found that “when students actually teach the content of a lesson, they develop a deeper, more lasting understanding of the material than students who do not teach it.”
Encourage your students to demonstrate what they have learned by sharing and presenting information visually.
Visual presentations may include:
Powerpoint Slides
Diagrams
Graphics
Conceptual maps
commented images
Presenting data and ideas visually can not only help students retain information better, but also demonstrate their understanding of complex topics as they organize concepts into clear images.
- Transmit complex concepts with digital media
Digital media, like videos, are a great teaching tool for visual classrooms. The key is to share interesting and quality content that speaks to the audience.
In other words, a standard 30-minute class video probably won’t be any more effective than a simple lecture for your students. But if you incorporate dynamic videos or other digital media into your lessons, you can break up the routine and help students engage with visual material.
Pro tip: Use engaging visual media and pop culture to make the lesson more interesting for your students. The better you can connect current events or pop culture to the concepts you are trying to teach, the more effective the visual lesson will be.
- Use concept maps to generate critical reasoning
Concept maps are a powerful visual tool for connecting ideas and showing relationships between different data points and information. Use concept maps in your teaching to generate critical thinking and help students connect the dots between complex ideas and topics.
Using designated shapes, labeled lines, and arrows, concept maps can help students represent cause and effect, requirements, and relationships between ideas. They are perfect for developing logical thinking, breaking down complex ideas, and contextualizing information within a broader framework.
learninglinks can help you get started with ready-made concept map templates . Our concept map maker makes it easy to jump into action and start taking notes or brainstorming with colleagues in real time, whether you’re in person or teaching remotely.
- Share graphic organizers before, during and after classes
Graphic organizers are visual guides that teachers can use to help students organize their ideas, clarify or simplify complex concepts, facilitate problem solving and decision making, and help students plan research or brainstorming. of ideas together.
Graphic organizers are a great way to improve teaching at every stage of the learning process. They can include visual elements such as:
Venn diagrams
Conceptual maps
Networks of ideas (ormental maps)
KWL Diagrams
T-diagrams
Integrate graphic organizers before, during, and after class to help students assimilate information more effectively, exercise different learning skills, and reinforce concepts for long-term retention and understanding.
Visuals are not only an effective teaching strategy, but also an important tool to meet the needs of all students and make lessons accessible and understandable.
By incorporating visual learning methods into your curriculum, you can bridge the gap between information and learning, more actively engage students in both in-person classes and remote or hybrid classrooms, and help them understand and retain concepts. for better long-term learning outcomes.
And it all starts with the right tools. Improve your visual learning methods with learninglinks. learninglinks’s infinite whiteboard, intuitive features like drawing tools, sticky notes, and shape library, as well as real-time communication and collaboration capabilities, make it the ideal complement for visual learning at any stage.