Sketchnote Classroom

I’m sharing this for two reasons. 

It’s a sketchnote video, so you can get inspired and get some sketchnote ideas from it.

I honestly can’t remember when I first came across sketchnotes but it has become a influential idea on me and my teaching. So today, to kick Sketchnote Classroom off, I’m introducing what sketchnotes are and why you should give them a go.

What are sketchnotes

Sketchnotes was coined by Mike Rhode back in … for a form of visual notes that people prefer over standard text only notes. Mike has called them “notes plus”, as in notes which aren’t just notes but include aspects of images, quotes, typography and more. It is very fluid and people interpret sketchnotes differently, bringing their own preferences and personality to their sketchnotes. Some prefer more typography or elegant lettering whereas others prefer using more images and graphics to convey information in their sketchnotes. For many people, the idea of sketchnotes either has this “Oh, I do something like that already” or “Oh, I didn’t know I could do that” as though sketching in your notes was forbidden. Sketchnotes don’t mean you have to use only images, or only text, but you can use what is best for the role.

Whatever your preference for sketchnotes is, digital or analogue, more visual or more textual, the important elements are that you can choose and you don’t have to follow lineal pattern of information flow.

Why are sketchnotes important?

Mike Rhode’s central argument for sketchnotes is that you utilize both parts of your brain. The right, logical, analytical part, and the left, creative and artistic side. That means that if you are more “right brain” or “left brain”, these notes are still suited for you. It’s also very efficient for conveying certain information. Sometimes, a picture says a thousand words, but sometimes a couple of words are more efficient than a picture (that’s why we don’t use pictographs as our alphabet anymore.) Sketchnotes require you to focus on the most important information and make “decisions” over what to include and what not to include. Often you include a subtitle to sum up a section, but then you need to decide what information is the most important to include there. Visuals are also great memory prompts. Most memorization techniques involve using images to help remember items, and as such, using images in your notes can help you remember more keenly the notes you take and what was going on when you took those notes. It’s also worth noting (pun not intended) that people who take notes longhand have been shown to outperform those who take notes on their laptops in understanding and long term recall tasks (Muller and Lockheimer)

Overall, I think there are some really interesting ideas behind using sketchnotes and similar techniques in education to help provide more options for our students to learn in a manor that suits them better. And For kicks, here’s my sketchnote version of this post. (You might have noticed that there is some empty space. That’s so I can add more to it over time.)