Use Visual recording and mini animations to convey complex ideas

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The use of words and images work well to convey complex ideas. This process is called visual recording. I used this process for the Cabinet retreat during President Clinton's second term and have posted samples (now unclassified) visuals at http://www.visualrecording.blogspot.com
Many skilled visual recorders are available across the country to translate ideas into images and words and others can be trained in this skill as well. Upon request I can provide sample animations that are made in a day and convey complex concepts.

Why Is This Idea Important?

In order to capture the attention of Americans and convey not only ideas, but systems, relationships, consequences of actions, etc. we need to present the ideas in a memorable and easy-to-grasp form.

Idea # 169Making Data More Accessible, visual recording, animation

Comments

coyenator 10 months ago

Graphic recording is a remarkable way to help people make sense of complex ideas and systems connections. The brain research indicates images communicate directly to the right brain and require less cognitive load to develop an understanding connected to our experience - an adult learning principle. Really good graphic recorders add more than pretty images - they are able to make the content come to life in ways that plain content or bullet points cannot.

erick.gonzalez 10 months ago

This idea simply remind us why our government is in the shape it is today, a government filled with officials not bright enough to comprehend complex ideas without the need of pop-up pictures and coloring areas... I mean visual recordings.

I do not completely disregard the idea, I think it's a very good one for what it's worth, which I hope it's close to free. A digital graphic or 3D model artist could, however create a more visually and interactive experience and present complex ideas that can be understood more fluently by a broader audience.

bdawesvogl 10 months ago

Visual recording encourages a holistic view of complex concepts developing in our "information age." Using this communication skill today is an adaptive response to our evolutionary journey as Homo sapiens or, as Gregory Bateson would say, Homo metaphoricus.

infoprog 10 months ago

The aspiration for equality and justice for all came from people who drew outside the boxes. Images can speak to a deeper place inside us than words. Our system needs to deal with some very difficult issues (since war has become a "bomb the citizens" event and our financial system is apparently taking up where it left off) and we will need the deepest thinking possible.

I can see how someone could be trained to think that intelligence is demonstrated by one's devotion to linguistic signals only, but it is hardly accurate.

dudemanfellabra 10 months ago

Honestly the images on that site make so sense to me. They're all a jumbled mess. I like the idea of graphically presenting things like this, though, so I will vote it up. I personally think there are to many curves and disproportional figures in these drawings. I would rather see something with lifelike people (not cartoon drawings) and straight, defined lines (not wavy colored spastic ones) connecting material. Flow charts, tree/branch charts, and other organizational methods work better in my opinion.

george 10 months ago

I have seen the positive and long lasting results when graphic recordings are used to explain complicated and not so complicated subjects and events.
I therefore Vote Up.
George Landau

shedsession 9 months ago

Graphic recording (GR) is a great way to convey a variety of complex issues or ideas. It allows you to draw links between topics that you would not have seen using an standard outline.

laurie_durnell 9 months ago

Graphic recording, mini animations, and Storymaps (info graphics showing the relationships between data) all help people make meaning from data. Education and understanding are crucial for informed and effective citizen decision making.

barbaratdoyle 9 months ago

This is a great idea! Most people are visual learners and primarily visual processors. Many people have issues related to reading pages of text or have other learning and language issues that make text less accessible to them. When using visual recording, relationships between concepts and entities are made clear, as soon as the "reader" sees the page! Ms. Margulies' work is state of the art in visual recording. (see her website) Visual recording would make ideas more transparent and allow all parties in decision-making to see the bigger picture and how their ideas would effect others. Visual recordings hasten the communication process and make it more productive since participants work with concepts instead of becoming mired in language use. Please consider this idea especially for work in Mr. Obama's cabinet.

swoehrlin 9 months ago

Visually recording a group exploration or problem-solving session in action can have a profound, positive effect on the progress and outcome of a group. Too often group dialog meanders, participants talk across one another, and some contributions are drowned out by more assertive voices. Graphic recording slows down and focuses the conversation by noting all ideas, and encouraging dialog that builds upon previous comments (or clearly contrasts new branches of the conversation). In creating an on the spot collective record it becomes clearer when the group is coalescing around particular ideas or actions, and increases the collective memory (thereby diminishing the probability of differently remembered interpretations later). In addition, graphic recording with its emphasis on visual literacy rather than verbal fluency facilitates communication across language barriers, so has special significance in cross cultural contexts.

Sue Woehrlin
swoehrlin@gmail.com

politisal 9 months ago

All well and good, but not at the expense of literacy!

dsakarya 9 months ago

This just encourages stupidity in the population. Foxnews does enough of this already.

whitesage8 9 months ago

What would keep the educator from using this technology to "sell the public" erroneous ideas? We see this used constantly by the media. The story that is given publicly is rarely the real story, yet the public buys it and makes decisions based on incorrect information.
Can we legislate having to tell the truth?

nancycreates 9 months ago

I appreciate all the comments, pro and con. I agree that visual representations should not replace written explanations. They are meant to enhance ideas presented verbally or in writing and to make the concepts more memorable. Relationships among ideas and the larger systems at play are often overlooked. A visual "mapping" of ideas can lend insight into how proposed actions fits within and influence larger systems.

Nancy Margulies

mcginnis.martha 9 months ago

Visual Recording facilitates literacy and understanding. It's not dumbing-down, it's COMBINING the VISUAL & VERBAL ways of thinking
Einstein's ideas didn't come in word form..they were visual, ephemeral, and he spent years making the words and math fit the images he knew were true.
Graphics help the brain process multiple streams of information and work through complex situations...this is real life, not theory... it can't be reduced to bullet points.

The graphics are CREATED LIVE, so the group validates what's on them.

lots of different examples & styles:
http://ifvp.org/
http://vizthink.com/
http://www.visual-logic.net/GalleryWVaCRC3.htm

hina 9 months ago

Many people say they hate meetings.

Visual recordings add another dimension and a validation that you've been heard and your idea is in the picture. It makes meetings more engaging, inclusive and fun. We all like to have fun, yes? More and better learning happens when we're having fun.

klingspoon.troy 9 months ago

The complexities of business and invention need not be compromised in supporting standard portal connections. The ability to connect to the rest of the world and access the strength of community the web has to offer is vital for all humanity to compete in future learning environments. The fundamental secure portal that this writing refers to is a high level secure portal connection, the device offers the user the immediate ability to connect and transmit or receive data on the move. It unifies what is technically possible and marketable into a single device. Vital statistics would be monitored and available to the user for analysis. Applications that enhance the user in interactions with the community at large offer advantages that right now while available, are weakened in usefulness by fragmented and independent design. The trends in communications design and embedded applications have made rapid acceptance in society. The convergence with green power generation from the user coupled with embedded applications that provide enhancements for connectivity would also assist in societies efforts to reign in cybercrime. A standard portal device will offer encryption levels that are hack proof and will be designed to ensure user privacy. A citizen standard connection portal, in the spirit of transparency the strength in the adoption lies in the societal acceptance. When all citizens have the power of connectivity to participate in the strength of community, opportunity for enhanced learning becomes more powerful as well.
The costs of governance have the potential for drastic reduction. By merely giving every person in America immediate connectivity no matter where they are in the world reduces the infrastructure costs of providing the services of government and society as a whole. By giving this level of possibility to all Americans the strength of what it means to participate in building success will become immediately apparent. The design of this device through peer review across the population’s diverse spectrum of scientists’, business leaders, social network professionals and government agencies, along with the public at large will give 21st century clout to the protection offered within the constitution.
Cyber security will be made highly affordable to implement as the standard would have the largest audience not only in its creation but as well in its deployment. Once deployed the increased connectivity to efficiently deliver the services primarily of government but of all aspects of societal interactions, will be the 21st century platform for all cumulative societal efforts engaged in national and global prosperity.
Wireless connectivity offers the most efficient transition to full participatory access for all Americans.

nancycreates 9 months ago

I am curious about the last entry here -- is it a response to the proposal on visual recording? If so, in what way?

klingspoon.troy 9 months ago

Certainly using video to communicate complex ideas is great. I just want to ensure that all citizens have affordable access to such powerful concepts of learning.

A standard citizen portal connection that is highly affordable, wireless and miniturized and uses extremely low amounts of power is the way forward. To combine efforts of cyber security, affordability and wireless connectivity into a single device is a significant strategy that will be a cornerstone that when combined with other great ideas mentioned on this site and elsewhere will have no equal for years to come.

map_makr55 9 months ago

So cancycreates Visual Recording proposal is good, although simply recording what is expressed only goes so far.

I use a somewhat similar approach to nancy's - except that I'm not just recording, I've moved on into "modeling". Traditional system modeling (data models, process models for example) tend to be "boxes and arrows" kind of displays, boring and rather incomprehensible to those who don't know the modeling notation scheme.

However I've found that a model built using Visual Language (pictures/words, cartoonist notation to depict dynamic motion and all) allows a disparate group of people to fabricate an image that describes a solution to a situation (a concept of operation, or a system model, a vision) in the form of a BIG PICTURE, that anyone can read ,understand and comment intelligently on.

Modeling with pictures goes a step beyond just recording in that it stimulates a group to work together, allows divergent views to be tried, tested and connected in appropriate ways, and when people "see" what they say, quite often they discover there is more to the story, that the person they argue with might not be as "all wet" as they generally suspect, and the discussion goes a lot deeper.

So I guess I'm "for" nancy's suggestion, but I want to go further with it...

Recording is a starting place. There's a LOT of communication going on. I don't think MORE is necessarily all that helpful (just more noise). Rather there needs to be ways to arrive at understanding, leading to consensus, and actual action that produces results.

When I work with groups to deliver these visual "models", they move from just some people in a room who may have some general interest in a given subject, to becoming fully engaged, invested and excited to go from the "talking" stage into the "doing" stage. It's the "doing" that makes the difference. So if graphic recording gets us there, cool! but I think there needs to be that "more" that results in action.

royalbl 9 months ago

Not absolutely sure what I think. Samples I saw communicate quite clearly, but seem to be at a very high level - sort of a, "here's the summary of the discussion." And that may be the distillation of initial high level discussion, I don't know. Does this have a place when getting into the detail work?

asylumx 9 months ago

You've got my vote. It's really too bad good ideas are getting lost in the mix of all the "birth certificate" trolls & spammers.

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