Technical skills are a key issue. If one is well-versed at different tools or software, one can find the best and most suitable one to do a task in the shortest time. However, good ideas are more important. One can come up with good ideas without any concern for technical skills. Good ideas can still be good ideas no matter which tools or software you employ to present them. Even powerpoint or paper pop-up can serve the purpose.
According to Mayer (2005), people can learn more deeply from words and pictures than from words alone. Although pictures and words are qualitatively different, they can complement each other. If the text and the pictures are designed carefully (taking into considerations of how human minds work and how human processes information, how the dual coding effect on one's learning), people can learn more deeply from words and pictures than from words alone.
As an editor of mathematics textbooks, I notice there are some changes in the number of words and illustrations in textbooks. Old textbooks were mainly printed in black and white, and full of words with fewer illustrations. At present, textbooks are much more colourful, shorter paragraphs with more illustrations in between. As a result, students would not be overwhelmed by wordy and dull text, and they become more comfortable to study illustrations which convey the information and knowledge that they need to learn. Therefore, I agree that students can learn more deeply from words and pictures. Some authors even suggest proofs without words in mathematics. An example can be found at the link http://www.math.hmc.edu/funfacts/ffiles/10001.1-4-8.shtml. This idea is great and students can have a chance to appreciate how mathematics ideas can be expressed without words. It seems that people have been using more illustrations to improve teaching and learning.
No comments:
Post a Comment