VizThink: Can you learn to think visually?
Tony Karrer wrote a post the other day wondering about the connection between visual thinking and e-learning. He had been talking with Tom Crawford, who is the new CEO of VizThink in relationship to the conference which will be held January 27-29, 2008 in San Fransisco. I will be one of the facilitators at the conference. Tony wondered;
So, again, I highly respect Tom and the conference. And maybe it’s as simple as the fact that a lot of what we do in training, learning, education is try to crystallize the important points, and turn it into an engaging, meaningful learning experience. So, maybe it’s a parallel and very useful skill. But I have this sense that Tom thinks there’s more to it.
And, I just am still not sure I get what he’s seeing? What am I missing here?
I wanted to say, a whole world. But that isn’t very helpful.
The beginnings of the conversation
First Brent Schlenker dropped by to comment on Tony’s post and talked about the importance of design, and noticed that very few instructional designers are trained with these skills. I know when I speak for groups of e-learning professionals, they often are unaware of visual communication basics. But Tony then asked if visual thinking and design were the same skills?
I don’t think so, but often people who have learned one have also learned the other so it becomes difficult to separate at times. I do know in e-learning in particular, I often see programs that may be well designed from a graphic perspective while they show no understanding of how visual language could have made their learning better. I left a comment about this, and Tony came back with another round of questions
- I wonder though how teachable it is?
- And can I learn it from a conference?
- Without going to the conference, how could I get a sense of whether I could learn it (whatever it is)?
I answered these simply, and you can go over to Tony’s blog to see the short answer. But his questions really helped me see an opportunity for a series of posts that speak to this in more depth.
- Yes, it is teachable.
- Yes, you can learn parts of it at a conference
- Yes, there are things you can do to learn
Tony came back with some other questions which I will address in subsequent posts.
Dave Gray from Xplane stopped by next to comment, and opened with
I have so many questions and thoughts for you that I don’t know where to begin.
Me too. Which is why I decided I better write a series of posts. Dave has some great thoughts about the assumptions built about communication, the screen being visual and lots more that make it worth going over to read the comments. He will be one of the pre-conference and main facilitators at the VizThink conference.
I do hope you will join us at VizThink. If you use the code FCCM1 you can get $100 off your registration fee. I will be writing more about learning to think visually soon.
