Are you a visual learner? Do you love visual learning tools and related instructional strategies ?
Chances are you do if you are a member of the Discovery Educator Network!
Research has proven that the majority learn most effectively through visual learning, digital media, and the power of visual thinking tools like Inspiration and Kidspiration.
You know you are a visual thinker when you respond "I can’t picture it!" or "Can you show me how this works or draw a diagram?"
Our visual learning propensity is obviously tied to our love for unitedstreaming, digital storytelling, and enriching learning through integration of digital media of all types in the Pre-K-12 21st Century classroom.
I am drawn to visual learning tools and educator experts and advocates of visual learning such as 
Dr. Lynell Burmark like a magnet! I met Lynell about two years ago in Denver at the 2005 T and L Conference and believe her insights and research-based book, Visual Literacy, should be read by every classroom educator. A wonderful source of background information is found in Dr. Burmark’s online presentation files.
Be sure to check out the downloadable article Why Visual Literacy, and the ready-to-implement classroom activities available on the See to Learn CD that complements her Visual Literacy books.
Lynell loves to hear from educators who are “going visual” with unitedstreaming™ and other visually rich media. You can contact her with your questions and your success stories at: lynell@lynellburmark.org
Some favorite sites relating to visual literacy:
About Dr. Lynell Burmark
Visual Literacy book
Publications by Lynell
Why Visual Literacy article
See to Learn
CARET – my favorite source for educational technology research
Adobe’s Digital Kids Club
Read Write Think collection of student materials (templates) supporting literacy learning
AT and T’s Knowledge Network Visual Literacy Resources and lessons
Debbie Abilock’s Visual Literacy Activities found on NoodleTools –especially Reading Photographs!
Google Earth – #1 for visualization of our planet, the landscape, geographic information, place, etc.
CIPE – Center for Image Processing in Education (wonderful viaulization tools for science and health educaators) also know as eVisual.org
ONE Of my favorite visual search tools is Clusty . Maybe it the former science teacher in me that likes categorizing, grouping, 
organizing… but that is way I understand best. Seeing a zillion hits listed one after the other based on frequency of the search terms I use really is a far cry from the value I find in clustering search engines like Clusty!
AND… take a look at the NEW tool created for those of us with blogs, wikis, our own web pages… CLUSTY CLOUD Creator can help those viewing your site to quickly have a clear word map picture of key concepts and ideas represented! Give it a try! It’s a simple 1-2-3 step process to create your own Clusty Cloud!
