Say hello to my little friend, Sketchnote

Have you ever heard of a sketchnote? You might not recognize the term, but if you've watched YouTube in the last 10 years you've doubtlessly seen one. In case you've been living under a rock, here's an example of a sketchnote and why they're powerful.

I have seen sketchnotes a number of times, and I always thought, "That is so cool! It looks like a lot of work." Rarely did I think how it might be useful in building learning activities, because I quickly dismissed it for being way too complicated to ever tackle myself.

You know what? I wasn't wrong. They're a lot of work. But with some creativity and use of some readily available technical tools (in my case Miro, Camtasia, and PowerPoint) you can put some pretty cool videos together. This was the first time I've ever made something like this, and I had a lot of fun. It took quite a bit of time, but a lot of that was just framing in my mind how I would piece things together, considering different tools that might work. I realized there would be affordances and constraints of each, and then realized that with a little creative editing I could blend several tools into one recording! Below is a sketchnote I made (take a look at my previous blog post if you'd like to know more about my Wicket Problem Project, which this sketchnote is part of).

So, it's not exactly a sketchnote. But it has a similar feel, and I'm really happy with it. In practice, I could see using sketchnotes to create highlights of anatomical structures, point out the interrelation of physiological symptoms, and more. Will it be a lot of work? You bet. And I'm looking forward to it.

References

Elmer, Stephen. (2022, April 10). 2022 04 07 CEP812 Sketchnote [YouTube]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leqdQhIICFo

Verbal to Visual. (2018, July 19). Give Your Genius A Voice With Sketchnotes [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0yitjpzQTQ