Session 2

What have I learnt at the end of this session?

I am impressed by the message that visual displays convey the most knowledge in the shortest time in the small space. In visual displays, text is only employed necessarily to facilitate visual explanation. The displays should only contain necessary and the most important information one wants to convey. I should also make clear who the target audience are. I will need to present totally differently if the audience are kids (may need to learn kid speaking) or experts (be more scientific and valid). Words are only employed as a catalyst and should not be overloaded. Otherwise, words will become a punishment to the audience in visual displays.

To make a good visual display, I need to think differently all the times. For example, in task 1, the use of one map in the forth squid figure (instead of two maps in the third squid figure) to present same information can reserve more space for other effective use. For the forth figure again, the use of many photos works closely with the word 'live' in the title to give the audience a great impact of how a giant squid actually looks.

Being an editor of mathematics textbooks for years, I find that there is a great change in the visual display of information in mathematics textbooks. For textbooks in old days, text was predominant with few graphics printed in black and white only. In modern textbooks, less text is employed and visual displays with magnificent colours are increasingly employed in order to attract students' attention and arouse their learning interest. I am looking forward to seeing how this module can stimulate me to reflect and rethink or even reform how I work differently and creatively with the layout in the textbooks! To look from a different or new angle is a kind of creativity and a great challenge to me.