Education for a Digital World Advice, Guidelines and Effective Practice from Around Globe, 2008a

21 – Media Selection
Visuals are particularly valuable when you direct
learners to focus their attention on specific details,
which you can do through concise prompts or captions.
A combination of text and visuals can result in a 15 to 50
percent increase in recall over either alone. Recall is
increased for both simple skills, such as recalling facts,
and complex skills, like performing operations. Lessons
with visuals result in higher retention over long time
periods (i.e., months). Visuals particularly benefit weak
learners. Also, they can be mentally processed much
faster than text. Students may be better able to transfer
the skills learned to other situations.
In general, visuals can be valuable learning tools.
Some ideas cannot be adequately expressed in words but
can be readily depicted with visuals. How could you
adequately describe the surface of Venus or the structure
of DNA without a visual? Look at Figure 21.5. Think
about the words you would use to describe what this
rhinoceros looks like. If the learner has not seen one
before, with those words and without seeing a visual,
could learners accurately envision the rhinoceros? For
online applications, visuals can be particularly effective
if students can control the length of time the visual remains
on the screen, in other words proceed when they
are ready.
Figure 21.6. Cartoon hand
Figure 21.7. Digitized hand
On screens with text and visuals, learners are naturally
drawn to the visuals. As a minimum, your visuals
will add variety to screens. Although irrelevant visuals
do not help students learn relevant content, some images
(e.g., humorous) can help “lighten” the material.
Screen variety can increase attention and motivation
and consequently indirectly affect learning positively.
Figure 21.5. Hard to describe visual
Note that in some cases, a visual drawn by an artist
may be more effective than a real image. Some learners
may not be able to focus on all of the details that real
images sometimes provide. In a related way, people will
usually recognize a cartoonist’s sketch of a hand as being
a hand faster than a digitized image of a hand, even if a
cartoonist’s sketch of a hand has three fingers. Simultaneously
look at Figures 21.6 and 21.7. Which do you
more quickly recognize as a hand? Since complex visuals
require more time to mentally process than simple images,
provide simple images (where appropriate).
KEEPING THE MESSAGE OF YOUR VISUAL CLEAR
To keep the message clear, your visuals should be selfexplanatory,
have labels, and only include relevant information!
Visuals should be self-explanatory
Self-explanatory visuals illustrate the message. If the
image is not self-explanatory then you should determine
how it could be done. At times, this goal may not be
possible but you should at least aim for it. However, be
sure to provide an explanation to link the visual to the
idea you are conveying.
Practical Guideline
As a rule, ensure your visuals are self-explanatory.
330 Education for a Digital World