Back to School
Along with a million other Back to School posts this week, I thought I would add my voice to the Lifelong Learning discussion.

As V/SL's, we often find traditional classroom settings, and lecture style instruction frustrating and pointless. I once asked Allie Golon of the Visual Spatial Resource Center whether or not it helped to put the words up on a Power Point slide, so that there was a visual anchor to what was being said.

She replied that words are still words, and they still get processed in the wrong part of the brain. Sitting through an oral lecture for an HCP, is often the equivalent of an English only speaker sitting through a workshop delivered entirely in Russian. Putting Cyrillic characters up on the overhead is not going to help at all.

So if we are HCP's, or know an HCP who is going back to school this fall, let's remember to help them out with appropriate pictures and diagrams along the way. Usually the best way to communicate a concept to a VSL is to draw a simple diagram, or stick figure in motion, and tell a story about it as you go. Both of these things engage the right half of the brain fully, and can lead to much better learning and retention.

For help on drawing stick figures, take a look at Dan Roam's fabulous book The Back of the Napkin. It's worth a read - review to follow in the next few weeks.

Until then, enjoy going back to school, or at least enjoy the autumn leaves which should start falling any day now, if this summer has been any indication.