Undoubtedly, the process of teaching is one of the toughest profession. Teachers perform the difficult task of imparting education to a class full of kids who are sometimes impatient, inattentive, dreamy, sleepy, and what not! Most of the students struggle to pay attention for even a short period of time. The ultimate loss is, they will be not able to recall the information, and their learning will be impaired.
Actually, the big problem is, the human brain is not designed and structured to absorb tons of drab information for long hours. And this is the reason traditional classroom teachers are in constant battle to make them more attentive. But the tools and methods they are implementing are wrong in today’s scenario. Kids are way smarter than earlier; traditional old school methods are not going to work for them.
Stephen Apkon in his book, The Age of the Image: Redefining Literacy in a World of Screens, laments that more time is spent on teaching letters and words than imagery. However, with infographics, we could hope that literacy educators can envision a synergy of both tasks.
We all know that infographics are illustrations comprised mainly of engaging visuals and graphic images, and words. Infographics are visual nuggets that include graphs, charts, tables, and icons, and thus break complex data in an easy-to-understand dynamic stories.
But there is a false notion about these graphics, that they are created only for business, and digital marketing purpose. It is time to break the stereotype and take Infographics beyond digital marketing and social media marketing.
Infographics as a Visual Learning Tool
Humans are visual creatures, with 65% of the population being visual learners. Half of our brain is dedicated to visual functions. What’s even more impressive is that our brain process images 60,000 times faster than it processes text.
Most of all, infographics motivate readers who are averse to dense passages of information. Infographics can offer aspects similar to that of a complex text while continuing to convey a clear message.
Why Visual Literacy Matters
Now, what is visual literacy? Visual literacy is nothing but the unique practice of conveying information primarily through pictorial representations. Graphs, charts, and tables create an easy medium of analysis that leads to deeper thinking and richer engagement amongst the viewers. Well, this creation of engagement is one of the prime goals of teachers and educationists.
And educational literacy is more than just reading and writing. It is all about making a student understand the actual meaning of any object. Be it a kid of kindergarten, or a matured student of high school. With infographics, educators can broaden the visual literacy prowess of students, because infographics are incredibly powerful tools for teaching. And besides being powerful, they are massively entertaining and fun. This aspect is more important for the kindergarten munchkins who needs fun in everything.
Business analysts, marketing groups, and journalists frequently use infographics in their fields as dynamic visualization method to present complex or sizeable information in a digestible format. Seldom we see in the education sector, simple and casual infographics often appear in textbooks and handouts as static text features or graphic organizers.
Although teachers and educators are aware of and support the material being presented, they don’t always seize the full potential of infographics and use in mainstream educational methods. For a deeper scientific learning process, they need to bring infographics to the classroom. If students have frequent encounters with infographics, they will learn essential skills and their visual finesse will improve a lot.
Best Practices
One of the best ways to implement infographics in classroom education is to discuss and create them right in the classroom. Teachers can give assignments to the students by giving them topics, and to create their own infographics using drawings, nice and vibrant colors, graphs, charts, tables, etc.
As a next step, teachers could create a working list of the findings of the students. This could be done with mutually help and cooperation by students and teachers both. This would make the students dynamic and smart.
Teachers may spend quality time with students glancing through some great infographic sample available online. Students would easily get an idea to what extent infographics are versatile. For example, you may check here and see for yourself, there are thousands of topics on which infographics could be made.
Possible questions to be asked by the teachers to their students-
- Find out and explain the topic of the infographic
- Understand and explain what is the actual purpose of the infographic
- Are the visuals and imageries do justice to the content?
- According to you what further add-ons and fine tunes are needed?
Of course, these questions are for matured students. But for kindergarten kids also, teachers may ask them in a playful tone, about the color, the image shown, what do they see on the infographic, etc.
The Future
With all said and done, infographics enhance understanding of complex data and illustrates narratives in a
dynamic fashion. Hence incorporating infographics in the pre-kindergarten to the 12th-grade curriculum will help all learners grow. And will make it easy for teachers and educationists to teach and manage the students.
If you need any help, feel free to contact us. We create engaging and top-notch infographics that will more than serve your purpose and spread your message loud and clear.
If you have any suggestion to add on, feel free to comment. 🙂
