learning with visual explainations

[jetboots]

I am forever in search of the next better book or text that explains mostly (or at least a lot) with pictures and diagrams. Any textbook, book, maps, brain maps, whatever on math, chemistry, biology, anything science. These books are just so hard to find, especially when the topics start to get much more complex. Do authors assume only little kids like pictures??:|

Actually I've found nothing really of particular note, and I've done quite a lot of searching in my days.

I'm all about the visual learning; it makes things much more clear and forces the writer to think a bit more as to what they are actually talking about (in my opinion) and forces things to be much more organized and logically presented.

[Napoleon]

Yeah i have the same probleme.
Most of these text books are so damn hard.
If i finaly get something and reread the explenation in the textbook i question why they make it so damn hard to understand.

I searched myself abit on the net after information. I found a good page with redirects you to all diferent subjects.
Go take a look: http://users.pandora.be/educypedia/education/chemistry.htm

If anyone is intrested i found some outstanding sites about anatomy, but i doubt anyone study's this here :)


GreetZ,


Napoleon

[SheepDog]

I think it's an interesting presumption that all worthwhile ideas and concepts can or should be distilled into words. At best, words are approximations of ideas, so it seems to me that the harder you try to turn ideas into text, the more likely you are to distort the message.

[jetboots]

At best, words are approximations of ideas, so it seems to me that the harder you try to turn ideas into text, the more likely you are to distort the message.

Strong Agreement.

maybe the reason that everything is text based is cause not many authors know how to draw/ its much easier to wip something up on MS word rather than also knowing Adobe or Correl on top of all your stuff (or paying someone to do it)...

Napoleon: From my experiences, I wouldnt call the books too hard, they are just not actually logically explained. about 99% of the time after I understand something I can think of a way better way of putting it so that (in my opinion) people would understand much quicker. Its all about the words creating distortions. That means that visual things create tortions. I like torsions:)

[wezl]

I think it's an interesting presumption that all worthwhile ideas and concepts can or should be distilled into words. At best, words are approximations of ideas, so it seems to me that the harder you try to turn ideas into text, the more likely you are to distort the message.

I have heard teachers say "we need words to think and express ideas." My response is, YOU might think in words but I don't. The problem probably begins there, that the typical teacher is more comfortable in verbal expression (because they're female?) Being from Texas, you probably also know the pressures on textbooks from political groups. Expressing ideas is not their top priority.

If the demand is as high as this thread suggests, maybe there's a market. Hmm.

[t]

i learn so much better from charts and graphs then just words. whenever i take exams, i have to draw out sequences & diagrams. i need to see & understand the concept in order to learn the material. unfortunately, i have a lot of professors who are very factual & word based. my own personal academic hell occurred a couple semesters ago when i had to memorize a list of about 100 genus & species names that had no particular pattern or coorelation between them. i had to develop a pattern for them in my head just to pass the lab exam (and i barely received a passing grade). give me problems to figure out over facts any day!

[Swift]

I do that too. I just HAVE to draw diagrams or matrixes to understand something. And if that's not posssible, I just recapitulate the text in a list of little points.

I'm also a big fan of atlases. I have history, geografy and religious atlases. I even have a special atlas that depicts the events during World War II, with a map for every month.

Swift

[crule81]

I'm also a big fan of atlases. I have history, geografy and religious atlases. I even have a special atlas that depicts the events during World War II, with a map for every month.


I hate history books without maps. What good is it to learn about the movements of armies, people etc., without a map? Often I keep a historical atlas next to me as I am reading.

[Pyrimadine]

Through personal experience, I have found that visual explanations really work best for communicating complex information to others. I conduct scientific research. When I give talks about my research, I use very few words, mostly pictures, diagrams, and models. After every talk, there are always several people who will tell me that even though they know nothing about my field of research, they were still able to understand what I had talked about.

[Shai Gar]

visual and verbal learning. verbal learning includes written words.

[2hype]

It seems like most science textbooks I've used have tons of pictues, charts, diagrams, etc. In fact, I think most of mine have more space devoted to visuals, than to the text.

[YardGnome]

I am in total agreement with you all on the fact that texts certainly do need more visual represenatations of concepts. I also find that most texts do not provide enough examples. Many times I find it much easier to understand a concept by looking at an example rather than an explanation. I can gleam my understanding of the concept from an exaplme because I usually internalize the concept differently then the authors explanation. I find it almost useless sometimes reading their explanations...

[floyd]

i agree a good diagram (or text metaphor) works best for me in explaining a complex idea/theory/concept. i also agree that many books are just poorly written.

the language functions are actually located in the left brain. the percieving trait correlates to a right brain preference so intps are going to be less adept at navigating verbal constructs, especially a metaphor deficient strongly left brain guided verbal contruct. scientific writing is a good example of left brain composition... hunter s. thompson, ken kesey are good examples of right brain composition. i think the ideal is somewhere in the middle.