Show Notes

‘The Staffroom’ is back! In the first episode of Series 2, we were lucky enough to speak to Oliver Caviglioli about the power of learning visuals and its basis in cognitive psychology. Oliver (@olicav) is an information designer who is widely known as an expert in visualising educational concepts. In recent years, he has worked with lots of different teacher-authors in illustrating their books.

Our chat with Oliver gave us some real insight into the use of visuals (such as sketch-noting) to conceptualise, categorise and organise information to enhance learning.

Here’s a break-down of our chat complete with time-stamps:

• How did Oliver’s background and interest in ‘behaviourism’ influence his work as an information designer? (4:04)
• Why does Oliver believe his visuals are becoming more and more popular with educators around the world? (6:07)
• Why does Oliver think sketch-noting should not be ‘artistic’ and individualised? Why does he believe it is important to keep it simple? (8:30)
• Why does Oliver think that all teachers should know about cognitive psychology? (10:09)
• Why does Oliver believe it is important for teachers to use a balance of cognitive psychological research and educational research? (12:15)
• What is ‘precis’ and why is it an important way of learning? Why does Oliver think that summarising/sketch-noting is an effective method of learning? (12:49)
• Who is Ruth Colvin Clark and what does she say about decorative visuals and explanatory visuals? (14:29)
• What is the main tip Oliver gives to people who want advice about their sketch-notes? (16:08)
• How does Oliver think teachers should practice sketch-noting effectively with students? (16:50)
• Is Oliver an advocate of technology to support and accelerate learning? (20:20)
• If Oliver could recommend one professional learning book to a new teacher, what would it be and why? (20:35)
• Where can people find Oliver’s work online? Where are his books available to buy? (24:01)

If you’d like further information about Oliver, you can check-out his work with Dr Megan Sumeracki (@DrSumeracki) and Dr Yana Weinstein who are the creators of The Learning Scientists project. Their book is called ‘Understanding How We Learn: A Visual Guide’ – check this out now! Also, if you're interested in our colleagues' Apple book on 'The Science of Sketch'-noting, take a look at Jamie Clark and Daniel Budd's digital book here.

We hope you enjoy this episode of The Staffroom and found Oliver’s words as fascinating as we did. We can’t wait to make sketch-noting and informational design part of our practice!

Until next time!

Jamie, Michael and Tessa

Twitter:

@XpatEducator

@Michael_Royall

@tessa_johnson2