Moving at the Speed of Creativity by Wesley Fryer

“Drawing as a Thinking Process” by Manuel Herrera

This is a “lightly edited” ChatGPT-created summary of a Twitter thread I created today, attending Manuel Herrera’s (@manuelherrera33) wonderful NCTIES 2023 Conference session, “Drawing as a Thinking Process” today in Raleigh, North Carolina. I’ve inserted photos from the Twitter thread, which I shared on Flickr under a CC-BY license. I generated the attribution captions using ImageCodr.org. I converted the Twitter thread to text using PingThread. This is a personal example of “playing with media,” specifically creating hyperlinked text / interactive writing with new tools. It’s also an example of “outside sharing.”

Michael Herrera at #NCTIES23” (CC BY 2.0) by Wesley Fryer

As part of the NCTIES 2023 educational technology conference in Raleigh, NC, Wes Fryer attended a session titled “Drawing as a Thinking Process” by Manuel Herrera, a teacher and professional artist from St. Louis, Missouri. During the session, Manuel discussed the value of drawing and sketching as a tool for making student thinking visible and “sticky.”

Michael Herrera at #NCTIES23” (CC BY 2.0) by Wesley Fryer

One aspect of the session was the examples of sketched objects and people, which were all combinations of simple shapes.

Michael Herrera at #NCTIES23” (CC BY 2.0) by Wesley Fryer

Manuel also shared some amazing sketched people, some more technical student sketches, and even a sketch of the US Supreme Court.

Michael Herrera at #NCTIES23” (CC BY 2.0) by Wesley Fryer

Another focus of the session was the science and educational research value of sketching ideas, with articles provided by Manuel. He also shared a great student sketching lesson idea that was similar to his own lesson called “Identity Collage,” but with drawing. Wes Fryer found it particularly inspiring to hear Manuel’s focus on making student thinking visible and sticky through drawing and sketching.

Michael Herrera at #NCTIES23” (CC BY 2.0) by Wesley Fryer

To further assist educators, Manuel provided a mind map drawing example and a free educator’s guide on wakelet.com. The guide focuses on how to incorporate various strategies which encourage students to make their thinking visible through drawing. Michael regards sketchnoting, the practice of combining words and images into class notes, a subset of his focus and passion on visual thinking.

Michael Herrera at #NCTIES23” (CC BY 2.0) by Wesley Fryer

As an educator himself, Wes Fryer found himself inspired by Manuel’s session, especially with regards to his 6th-grade engineering students and their current Pinewood Derby car design and TinkerCAD 3D printing project. In summary, Manuel Herrera’s “Drawing as a Thinking Process” session at NCTIES 2023 provided valuable insights and resources for educators looking to incorporate sketching and drawing into their teaching and learning practices.

Michael Herrera and Wes Fryer at #NCTIES23” (CC BY 2.0) by Wesley Fryer

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