What does it mean to be a Visual Learner? by Diane Durand

Last week a group of middle school students in took the VARK test to help them understand the best way they learn. 

What is Vark? VARK is a questionnaire that provides users with a profile of their learning preferences. These preferences are about the ways that they want to take-in and give-out information. (www.vark-learn.com)

V - Visual

A- Aural

R-Read/Write

K- Kinesthetic

Yesterday I was invited to come into the classroom and share with them what visual learning means to me.

And so I packed my "Magic Mary Poppins" bag of journals, markers, information graphics, art cards and quilts and headed in to talk about visual learning.

I wanted to share with them that I am a doodler. I have always drawn. I am sure they draw too. It was funny as I started to talk the teacher said, "I want to address the class real quick. I know I just talked with you about doodling and not paying attention in class." She was trying to explain is that you need to doodle for understanding instead of distraction. 

What is doodling? As a visual learner, my pen has to be moving in order for me to be listening. I can not hear if I do not have a pen.

What do I do? Good question. I shared with the students that I draw in front of people big complex business ideas. I draw on the computer for people located around the world so they can "see" what they are talking about. I draw big fancy models with illustrator that are printed out as big posters for companies. I also showed them how I draw for my children. How I take my drawings and routine charts for my kids. How I take a simple drawing and turn it into a quilt. 

Everything about me is visual. It is how I see and communicate with the world. 

I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to talk with these students. When I left the teacher and students had agreed to get some journals for the class and some cups of pens and markers to have out on the desks for them to take their notes. I wish I had been allowed markers in my classroom and I can only say, "AWESOME!! Keep Drawing!!"

Pop!Tech 2009: America Reimagined

America stands at a complex crossroads, economically, technologically, socially and geopolitically. Major forces are reshaping the idea of America, its government’s contract with its citizens, its brand, and its role in the world. And there is not a single global challenge that can be addressed without it.

Zoe Keating performs a unique, soulful "Amazing Grace" | Photo by Kris Klug

The speakers and performers at Pop!Tech this year are examining the questions: Is reinvention possible? What would it look like? Here’s the beginning of this conversation >>

Peter Durand illustrates in real-time a presentation using sumi ink, pastels and acrylic paint.

Alphachimp Studio is on-site in Camden for the 6th year to capture each speaker's vision of an America re-imagined.

View more PopTech art on Flickr >

Yee-Haw Industries: One Monkey Don't Stop No Show

For inspiration and the best in frenetic prints, y'all got's to know Yee-Haw Industrial Letterpress!

For afternoon inspiration, check out any of the places their work resides:

http://www.yeehawindustries.com
http://yeehaw.etsy.com
http://www.yeehawindustries.blogspot.com

COME EARLY, STAY LATE! BRING YOUR COUSIN IF YOU CAN'T GET A DATE!
OPENING RECEPTION FOR YEE-HAW EXHIBITION
THIS TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6 from 7-9PM
CHELSEA MARKET
75 9th Avenue (Between 15th and 16th Streets), New York, NY

 

From OCTOBER 4-JANUARY 2, 2009, Yee-Haw's work will adorn the vast and cavernous Chelsea Market, located in the Meat Packing District in Manhattan's West Village. Chelsea Market is an enclosed, urban food court and shopping mall in New York City. It is housed within the former Nabisco factory complex where the Oreo cookie was invented and produced. The 22-building complex fills two entire blocks bound by 9th and 11th Avenues from 15th to 16th Street.
www.chelseamarket.com 

Personal Design Kaizen: 15 Tips for your continuous improvement

from Presentation Zen:

Kaizen (改善) means "improvement" — "kai" (改) means change/make better, and "zen" (善) means good — but as the term is used as a business process it more closely resembles in English “continuous improvement.”

Kaizen is one of the keys to the steady improvement and innovation found at successful companies in Japan such as Toyota. Says Matthew May, in his book The Elegant Solution: Toyota’s Formula for Mastering Innovation, “Kaizen is one of those magical concepts that is at once a philosophy, a principle, a practice, and a tool.”

Though Kaizen is a tool used by corporations to achieve greater innovation, productivity, and general excellence, it’s also an approach, an approach that we can learn from and apply to our own lives as we strive for continuous improvement on a more personal level. We can call this “Personal Kaizen.” Others have applied the personal kaizen approach to personal efficiency or GTD. You too can take the spirit of kaizen and apply it to your own unique personal kaizen approach to improve — step-by-step, little-by-little — your design mindfulness, knowledge, and skill. READ MORE >>

Chad Hagen's Nonsensical Infographics: BYO Data

Minneapolis-based designer Chad Hagen takes our love of infographics and turns our little heart inside out. For these are no aesthetically-plotted data sets full of statistics. In fact, we see no handy information at all, just the colors and shapes that typically make an infographic chart pleasant to examine in the first place.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart: Humans Closest Relative

"It is a world full of conflicts." notes Jon Stewart in his intro to this report. "Some are more important than others. And some are much, much less."

In the contentious field of science, there are many accepted truths. These two ape scientists duke it out over who is our closest ancestor. Fortunately, The Daily Show correspondent John Oliver is there to conduct an evidence-based debate: Chimps vs. Orangutans.

(A 'must-see' in that you must see the scientist with a mohawk who lacks any capacity for self-deprication or free-style rap skills.)

Comparing the Human and Chimpanzee Genomes

(via FlowingData)

As part of the Explore Evolution exhibit at the University of Nebraska State Museum, Judy Diamond displays a segment of the human genome in line with that of the chimpanzee that matches very closely. The point is to show how similar two are with the few differences represented by a drawing of a man, distinguished geneticist Svante Paabo.

See video of scintist Richard Dawkins explaining the exhibit.

Idea Sandbox: The 5 Stages of Acceptance

Paul Williams reviews the book What A Great Idea! 2.0 by Chic Thompson, which he describes as "chock full o’ bits of wisdom that help with creativity and creating new ideas."

From The Idea Sandbox:

Chic points out that killer phrases “are as inevitable in the innovation process as ideas themselves.”

He adds, “psychologists have siad that the human reaction to a new idea unfolds something like this, which we could call the Five Stages Of Idea Acceptance.” I’ve turned this list into a handy graphic suitable for framing.

The door-lock analogy is pretty accurate… You can have four of the five locks open, but the door is still closed until all five are unlatched.

Problem Solving 101: A Simple Book for Smart People.

When I was a bachelor living in Chicago, my mom called one evening: "Your brother has a question for you."

She put 8-year-old Josh on the phone, who was curious if I still owned that 200-foot climbing rope. "Why? What's your plan?"

He was trying to solve a unique problem: How to connect a long rope from the 75-ft pine tree in our yard to the roof of the house in order to slide down it as a zip line.

(NOTE: Josh has been to the emergency room more than anyone else in our sprawling, adventurous family!)

Point being:

1. "Problem-solving kids" are great,
2. They need some skills and models to help'em,
3. And society needs lots more of them!

Continue reading "Problem Solving 101: A Simple Book for Smart People." »

GOOD Magazine’s Infographics Now Archived on Flickr

From Flowingdata.com:

You know all those infographics that you like so much fromGOOD Magazine? Well they're all in one place now in their Flickr archive. Head on over to view all 80.

ID On-line: The Material City - New York, Mayor Bloomberg & Design

How the Bloomberg Administration's push for design is changing the face of New York. A Conversation with First Deputy Mayor Patricia E. Harris.

full article >>

Colorbrewer 2.0

© Cynthia Brewer, Mark Harrower and The Pennsylvania State University. www.axismaps.com

When building maps and information graphics, choosing the right colors to help designate variables--whether population, temperature, or campaign dollars--is a time-consuming challenge.

How does one choose colors that are effective in communicating data, that can be read by the colorblind, that can be considered print fiendly and/or "photocopy-able" ? 

The folks at Penn State have built Colorbrewer 2.0, an effective tool to swiftly aid in the process.

Once a palette is chosen, this free on-line tool allows for easy export to ArcGIS (a mapping app), Excel, or any Adobe product. You can also simply copy and paste the RGB, CMYK or HEX values.

One Million Monkeys Typing

From Pop!Tech Blog:

The Theory: Given enough time, a hypothetical chimpanzee typing at random would, as part of its output, almost surely produce one of Shakespeare's plays (or any other text).lya Kreymerman and Nina Zito, creators of One Million Monkeys Typing, think so, too. On their new community story-telling site, members collaborate on writing a story (perhaps even a novel), without the pressure or obligation of ever completing the story by themselves.

Founded on the simple premise “read, write, publish”, the project encourages members to create new segments for “story trees”. Before beginning a new story, you must first contribute to a few existing stories. Once you’ve become part of the writing community, you receive permission (or in One Million Monkey terms, a “seed”) to start your own story tree.

The idea of one million monkeys typing is derived from the infinite monkey theorem. Community members are considered “monkeys,” with a designated number indicating the order in which they joined the site.

Home + Housewares Show 2009...in Cartoons!

  

From Core 77:

Every year, tens of thousands of people mob the International Housewares Show in Chicago, touring through the latest, greatest, and sometimes-lamest homestuff as far as the eye can see. This year,Lunchbreath and Fueledbycoffee walked the show for Core77, preparing an illustrated "Fieldguide" for designers and housewares fans, and rendering (literally) their experiences, insights, paradoxes, and yes...some great finds soon to be stocked in a store near you. Enjoy!

(via Twine)