‘Visual Thinking’
Everyone’s a Visual Learner – A Conference Report
Nov. 15, 2011—by CFT Acting Director Derek Bruff Jose Vazquez of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and I co-facilitated a 75-minute session at the POD Network / HBCU Faculty Development Network joint conference in Atlanta last month. Our session was titled “Everyone’s a Visual Learner: Using Visual Thinking in the Classroom.” The feedback we received on...
Hitting the Road: Conference Season for the CFT
Oct. 21, 2011—Four members of the CFT staff are attending conferences across the country over the next three weeks. This week, CFT educational consultant Milt Cox is participating in the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL) conference in Milwaukee. Milt’s on a panel titled “Transforming Educational Development of SoTL by Engaging in, Leading,...
See What I Mean: Using Prezi in Mathematics
May. 3, 2011—This is a guest post by Hang Wang, a graduate student in mathematics. The post is part of our spring “See What I Mean” blog series highlighting the effective use of visuals in presentations and lectures. At a math conference in May 2010, I was impressed by a presentation in which the speaker, Scott Morrison...
See What I Mean: A PowerPoint Makeover
Apr. 22, 2011—This is a guest post by Emily Bigelow, a doctoral student in Teaching, Learning, and Diversity. The post is part of our spring “See What I Mean” blog series highlighting the effective use of visuals in presentations and lectures. I attended CFT assistant director Derek Bruff’s GradSTEP 2011 presentation on using visual thinking in the...
See What I Mean: Visual Presentations
Apr. 7, 2011—by CFT Assistant Director Derek Bruff This post is part of our spring “See What I Mean” blog series highlighting the effective use of visuals in presentations and lectures. Yesterday I led a workshop for doctoral students in the Teaching & Learning department here on the use of effective visuals in presentations. The 20 or...
Teaching Calculus through Fingerpainting
Apr. 1, 2011—by CFT Assistant Director Derek Bruff As part of the Center’s continuing exploration of the role of visual thinking in teaching and learning, we’re glad to share this interview with Vanderbilt mathematics professor Sal Froipol on his use of fingerpainting to teach calculus. We recognize that everyone’s teaching context is different, but we hope that...
See What I Mean: Using Prezi for Non-Linear Presentations
Mar. 2, 2011—This is a guest post by Hillary Knudson, Vanderbilt Class of 2013 and political science major. The post is part of our spring “See What I Mean” blog series highlighting the effective use of visuals in presentations and lectures. I created my first PowerPoint presentation in 1999 for a research project on Ecuador. Since that...
Ideas for Using Visual Thinking in the Classroom from GradSTEP Participants
Jan. 24, 2011—by Derek Bruff, CFT Assistant Director At the end of my GradSTEP workshop Saturday, “Show and Tell: Using Visual Thinking in the Classroom,” I asked participants to doodle their ideas for incorporating visual thinking tools in their teaching on large Post-It notes. I then had a few helpers collect these Post-Its and place them on...
Show and Tell: Using Visual Thinking in the Classroom
Jan. 22, 2011—by Derek Bruff, CFT Assistant Director I’m leading a workshop titled “Show and Tell: Using Visual Thinking in the Classroom” at the CFT’s GradSTEP event this afternoon. Below you’ll find the visuals for my presentation, along with the workshop description for a bit of context. I like to post my slides before my workshops so...
New CFT Guide on Making Better PowerPoint Presentations
Jan. 5, 2011—by Derek Bruff, CFT Assistant Director Ever seen a bad PowerPoint presentation? Ever given one yourself? Although some have said that PowerPoint is evil (“Power corrupts. PowerPoint corrupts absolutely.”), I assert that PowerPoint is merely a tool, one that can be used well or used poorly. Ways to use PowerPoint effectively aren’t always obvious, however....