Topic: Ink and Ideas

Is your virtual read-aloud feeling disconnected? Try incorporating sketchnotes to bring that real life connection into your online space!

We already accept notetaking as a part of classroom life, so let’s welcome sketchnotes into the notetaking family! Notetaking as a practice stands the test of time, and for good reason. Research suggests that taking notes in real time and thinking about those notes later boosts student learning.

Sketchnoting fosters metacognition. It's a vehicle to help us think about our thinking. The pens, paper, and apps we use aren't the end all, be all; they change with us over time as our thinking grows and changes. The stuff of sketchnoting contributes to the process. The media helps move the message.

Sketchnoting can add some fun and variety to the otherwise routine practice of note taking, but let's delve deeper into the why and not just be enamored with the how.

Design adds a dimension to our thinking that might seem expendable, but when embraced becomes increasingly valued. Design decisions that involve color, font, and style matter here because they help make our thinking more memorable.

Today on the Heinemann Podcast, we’re learning about creative ways to grow our thinking. Tanny McGregor explains the power behind putting words and pictures together in the method of “sketchnoting.”

The use of sketchnotes is gaining in momentum and credibility in business and education Like so many popular concepts, though, the topical lexicon can be confusing.