Visual Learners Rise Up!
 When I was in school during the 50's and 60's our classrooms were 100% teacher driven. Material was presented verbally by the teacher as they stood in front of class. We took notes. They wrote things on the board and we took notes. We took tests and we wrote papers. All of this was text based. Until I was in the 4th grade I had vision problems but nobody knew that and I did not do well in school. Then I got glasses and things got a little better. But there was still a disconnect. When I got to high school in 1960 as a freshman I was great at science and in Biology I created a project that took fresh water guppies and adapted them to living in salt water. That project went on to the state science fair. I got A's in science but never more than a C in anything else. I hated English and History. Then my senior year came and I discovered DRAFTING. That changed my life as I found a class that met my learning style. What is that learning style?
I am a visual learner. I remember things I see but not much of things I read. If I read something I do best with that writing being in small chunks that I can visualize the concepts behind it. I remember every house I have ever lived in and can draw a floor plan of the homes but I don't remember any books I read in school and most of the facts I memorized in history are gone. But I remember all of the movies I watched in school and I loved books that had pictures in them.
I went on to college at Cal Poly and after realizing that architecture had too much math for me I went into Graphic Arts and found my home there. As I graduated I decided that teaching was to be my career and took my background in photography and journalism and graphic arts to Santa Cruz High School where I taught my class using a PROJECT BASED LEARNING approach. The other teachers in my department lectured for 6 weeks I only talked and showed pictures and did demonstrations for 4 days before my kids went into the darkroom. In my own experience I found that I learned best by doing things and when I took on a challenge to solve something like I did those fish in Biology I created great things. It is the creative part of our nature that stimulates us to learn. Now it turns out I LOVE history and I spend a lot of time reading about it but I also find that the history channel helps me remember it the most.
 Visual learners like myself are common today. We live in a world that feeds our needs nicely except in our classrooms (at least many of them that is). Visual learners appear to be tuned out and they seem intelligent but just don't do well in class. We are often told that we are not working hard enough as a result of our taking extra time to visualize things. For me to do something I first must visualize myself doing it and visualize how I might do it.
People talk to us more because they think we don't understand when what they should be doing is showing us pictures or drawing something. I discovered Mind Mapping while at Santa Cruz High and used that concept to explain difficult concepts to students that need a diagram to understand things. Today when I study history I make a chart that I can see in my mind and translate into words. If you were a student of mine during the 28 years I was at SCHS I probably remember your face and perhaps some of your pictures but I will likely forget your name. When I go on vacation I MUST take my camera and carry it with me everywhere to really enjoy the time. You can see my pictures at my Flickr Gallery.
Well this is just a beginning on this topic.
I will add more to this in future blogs. For now I just want to offer comfort to some of my fellow visual learners that are just average in school. When you find a teacher that can reach your visual intellegence you will do great. When I got into college and away from books and into projects and experiments and problem solving challenges in class I did great. You will to. For now I hope that you understand that you are not the odd ball that the system may make you feel like you are. In future articles I will tell you some of the famous people who did not do well in textbook based education but went on to be creative people that added a great deal to our society.
This is the basic idea behing the SCPHOTO web site. The site is not heavy on reading. The information given is short and detailed when it comes to technology and technique but the greatest learning comes in the projects that challenge a student to solve a problem. This is called critical thinking and that skill is what we need for success in life, not the ability to memorize facts. With my iPhone I can answer ANY factual question or give you a date for anything within minutes but it takes wisdom to apply that knowledge to solving real life problems. My years as a technology corrdinator were dedicated to helping teachers use technology integrated into their curriculum to reach students like myself who just will not be successful when you stand in front and talk and talk and talk. Now using a software called Moodle the CLASSROOM portion of this site offers a full hands on curriculum in photography that stresses visual learning.
More later . . .
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