Some of the most complex and in-depth information can be conveyed in a way that is easy to understand, comprehend, and retain. Students should take part in drawing and develop notes for a deeper learning by creating infographics and sketchnotes. Sketchnoting has some real research behind its methods and is anchored in the idea of creative action as a means to develop notes for work. I love to see student incorporate visuals into their assessment because it gives so much for me to see and evaluate.

Additionally, review and assessment can be conveyed by students if they create infographics of that same information at the end of a unit of study. I’ve always been a doodler while in class and when I lecture, it’s a nifty mixture of notes, stick-figures, and a lot of arrows. Students should be building the tools to convey their ideas using visual concepts.

Lessons I see in a student’s infographic work:

• Ability to properly cite graphics and realize that Google is not the holder of all data. I know this may not be in the unit main standards, but it is a recurring issue with students who fail to understand citation is a simple skill that is necessary in a connected world.
• Relationships: Correlation and causation between ideas can be seen or unseen. By simply layering and connecting pictures or developing graphs, students show what they have learned beyond the rote memorization required within standardized tests.
• Risk-taking is a big step for students, but it shows the development of Grit. Students who rely too much on static data from reference sites will simply mirror the original data instead of creating something new by combining ideas from multiple points.

In the business world, you can find these same trends. With these new ideas showing up in visual resumes, I wonder if we are missing a collective idea for students. What if they took the idea of a visual resume and applied to historical figures. It shows similar to the old create a social media page for a dead famous person but this time it’s a new way to teach students a long-term skill.

Resources: Visual News has a great list of 100 Inforgraphics from the past 10 years. I unashamedly admit to printing a couple of low-res copies to hang up in my classroom next to rubrics. I wanted to thank Troy Isham for his presentatiom last year at #KyGoDigital event. I also got some ideas and link help from live examples of Sketchnoting by Kathy Schrock at ISTE 2016. I also used her infographics rubric for scoring Finally, if you are wanting to make a cool sketchnote/infographic video see below on how to visually record using an iPad and developing a personal set of sketchnotes.