Innovation Profile 089

ICT enables different learning styles

It is said that you do not really understand something until you are able to teach it to someone else. The process of presenting a topic to others demands clear and deep thinking. Visual images, that support what is to be said, must be chosen.

This is just one example of learning styles that have become easier to implement now that we have ICT. For the teacher this means developing a range of teaching strategies, but the technology helps the teacher too.

Generating learning through a presentation based on a slide show is a technique that can be used in all areas of the curriculum. The images act to focus the attention of the student. Highly visual students can express their insights through their manipulation of the images while highly verbal students will concentrate more on the words. But in both cases the students' explanations of why they focused their presentation in the way that they did, will be the basis for assessment of their learning.

The tools to capture, manipulate and present images are now easy to use. Adobe provide guidance on their website on how to create a digital slideshow using the PDF slideshow feature in Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0. This is at http://www.adobe.co.uk/education/digkids/lessons/slideshow.html.

Young people are often highly motivated by visual approaches to learning, as they have been presented with information visually through TV and magazines throughout their lives. They usually find the digital cameras and software easy to use.

For teachers, whose education is likely to have been based mainly on textual and verbal approaches, using visual teaching strategies may seem a challenge. But many of those who have started to use visual images for teaching and learning quickly find that the technology is not difficult to master. The enthusiasm and greater concentration of their students quickly confirms that the effort is very worthwhile.

Teachers adopting visual teaching and learning strategies sometimes also get a surprise - when students, who are not very able textually, produce excellent visual and aural work. Enabling different learning styles can make a big improvement in learning and teachers may have to review their assessment of students' abilities.

The Adobe Systems UK Company Profile on our web site will give you an overview of the company and a list of other Innovation Profiles connected with it.

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If you know of examples of innovative use of ICT-for-learning that others would be interested in, please email innovations@eep-edu.org

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