Blog #3
Sketchnotes are a powerful tool for organizing and expressing ideas, and at their core, they prioritize the communication of information over artistic skill. When I first encountered Sketchnotes, I felt intimidated by my perceived lack of drawing ability and writing skills. However, I soon realized that the focus of Sketchnotes is not on artistic talent, but on the ability to synthesize and organize information in a meaningful way. Visual images are simply one way to express this information. What matters most is that the process of creating Sketchnotes helps me to better understand and retain the knowledge I am trying to learn, and ultimately achieve my learning goals.
In the 1970s, the American cognitive psychologist Paivio proposed the dual coding theory, which claims that the brain uses two main ways to process information: the verbal mode and the visual mode, and the visual mode is also known as the image processing mode（1970）. For example, when I memorize English words, I associate more objects or situations in the process of memorization to form visual images in my brain, and this “deep” processing will not only speed up the memorization of words, but also make me remember them more firmly. memory and improve learning ability.
Here are the Sketchnotes I completed on the important knowledge of STAT 252 Units 1 through 3.
In building Sketchnotes, I wrote down the key points in the first step, then refined the key words, and after the points and relationships were sorted out, I had to consider how to express the information. In the recursive relationship, I chose the “path diagram” to draw out the notes in the common composition. Sketchnotes will be completed. Personally, I am not very good at drawing in the Sketchnotes process, although I am also practicing sketching, but my ability is limited, but this does not affect my own use of visual notes for learning.
Some students think Sketchnotes looks great and is hard to do, maybe they set too high a goal for themselves, or maybe they are influenced by too many beautiful visual notes and think that only that is a visual note. In fact, what is not important is the process and method, everyone’s perspective is different, and that focus on the content will be different. Personally, in the learning process, I am more concerned about the internalization of knowledge and the connection between knowledge, so I put more energy into the logical layer; but there is no shortage of people who just like to draw and pay more attention to the visual performance in the process of visual notes – whether the notes look good or not, whether they can reflect the personality, so I put more effort in the framework layer and the visual layer effort. But either way, it can make a difference in memory, creativity or thinking skills as long as you stick with the visual note taking learning method.
So, if the readers reading this blog happen to be confused about learning and happen to be looking for a way to learn, then try the visual note study method and maybe you will have a different harvest.
Bence, Nanay. “Dual Coding and Common Coding Theories of Memory.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, 18 Nov. 1997, https://plato.stanford.edu/Archives/Fall2012/entries/mental-imagery/theories-memory.html#:~:text=Paivio%20proposes%20that%20the%20human,verbal%20memory%20and%20image%20memory.
I agree with you. Because I am used to using this method to help memory. It has many benefits, such as color memory, note memory, graphic memory, picture memory, etc. It’s a simple and effective way. It not only helps memory but also improves one’s ability to summarize and organize information. So, it is indeed a very effective way.