This week in 336 we explored the multimedia learning hypothesis, creating graphics and editing images. These are topics that have always excited me, for a few different reasons. The very first types of computer games I remember playing were design games that allowed the player to be creative and get in the zone of their artistic flow (for example I remember loving games that included creating characters/avatars, designing clothing, interior designing, building towns/cities, etc). This eventually turned into a knack for photo editing (and photography), some video editing, and experimenting with creating graphic art. I also strongly agree that people can learn more deeply from words and picture than from words alone. I often even feel like I can more easily explain my own thoughts/points/ideas with the use of pictures or visual diagrams, rather than just using words. In my opinion it is easy to include visuals in pretty much every aspect of my teaching, lessons, and in the classroom environment, and an excellent strategy to create deeper understanding in students’ learning. Below are some examples of graphics, visual aids, art, etc. that I have created.

I created this (fake) flyer during another class this semester using ‘Canva’.

This concept map, which might be a bit hard to read here without a “zoom” option, was one of my favourite images to make for my science curriculum class. I used the program ‘Coggle’ which was super easy to use and I will definitely be using again.

One program that we learnt about this week was ‘Wordle‘. I have always wondered how to create these word images that distill text into a graphic in a very visually appealing way. This Wordle was created using the text from “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll.

For another class this semester I played around with editing open source images to include ‘fill-in-the-blanks’ for lesson plan PowerPoints or activities.

Lastly, this is just an example of the digital collages I used to enjoy making (and still do but lack the time). I used a photo of my friend (with her consent of course) and then cut-out, arranged and overlaid all these pretty landscapes and colourful images to create a surreal collage of a butterfly fairy sitting on her mushroom in a magical world. I used the app ‘Picsart’ and all of the images (other than my friend) were already download onto the app and available to use.