Mike Rohde

  • YouTube opens up the possibility of seeing a visual note and sketchnotes being created in real time. This is great for us who make visuals or who want to help our students make visuals as well. Seeing the order and items as they are created help. Check out these great sketchnote youtube channels that will boost your Sketchnotes.

    Verbal to visual

    As I mentioned in a previous blog post, verbal to visual is a channel run by Doug Neil who shares videos around sketchnoting. Some of these videos center around how to sketchnote better (perhaps the organizational elements or drawing skills) and others show examples of how he sketchnotes different topics.

    The Sketchnote video podcast from Mike Rhode

    Originally, Mike shared a short collection of 12 videos walking through some of the basics of sketchnoting as well as showing off some people’s sketchnoting works. Now, he has every episode of the Sketchnote Army Podcast Available in video from too!

    Drawing in class (TED talk)

    Here is a single TED video about sketchnoting in the classroom. It’s aimed at general education but it helps address some of the reasons why it’s a good idea to use sketchnote in the classroom.

    Will Paterson

    Okay, this isn’t a channel about sketchnoting but it is about lettering and logo design as well as design in general. These are tangential skills to sketchnoting that can help add some class to your images.

    What Sketchnote YouTube Channels do you like?

    Do you like another channel which focuses on Sketchnote videos? Maybe you even run one. Leave a comment below with the channel and I’ll check it out.

  • The Best Sketchnote Blogs for Your Inspiration

    As great as books are, blogs are also of great value. After all, a good blog will be updated frequently and include more specific examples rather than a general rules of thumbs that you see in books. As such, you should check out these wonderful Sketchnote blogs. Some aren’t education specific and as such, they might offer other insights, some of which might not be so useful and others will be.

    1. The Sketchnote army blog

    The sketchnote army is a collection of different sketchnoters sketchnotes and interesting tools, resources and videos. It also hosts the sketchnote army podcast which is full of interesting interview and discussions with sketchnoters from different fields.

    2. Mike Rhode

    I’ve mentioned Mike a few times before already, that’s for good reasons as he is the originator of sketchnotes. His personal site and newsletter feature a round up of great design, drawing and sketchnoting items from around the web. Sometimes he shares a post on the basics of typography, sometimes on how to draw someone’s face and sometimes it’s a podcast on pens.

    3. Verbal to visual

    Verbal to visual is run by Doug Neil and focuses a lot on videos (more on that in a future email) but he also offers some sketchnoting courses on his site including the basics of sketchnoting, how to make sketchnote videos and a new course coming soon on Sketchnoting in the classroom.

    4. Sylvia Duckworth

    Sylvia has put out an astonishing number of sketchnotes on different topics within education. Her blog not only has sketchnotes, but also posts on education as well.

    5. Kathy Schrock’s sketchnoting in the classroom

    Okay, this isn’t so much a blog as a page with great links to all things sketchnoting and education. This includes items on sketchnoting, sketchnoting in the classroom, tools to Sketchnote, videos and more. It’s a great place to get lost on for a while like a good wikipedia page.

    What great sketchnote blogs do you know?

    This list will continue to grow and update as I find out about more great sites. If you’d like to recommend one, leave a comment below and say why.

  • 5 Great Sketchnoting Books for Education

    One of the things I’ve found really helpful to introduce sketchnoting and visual noting taking into my own teaching, is to look at different fantastic books around using visuals for learning and effective communication. After all, communicating and aiding learning are vital tasks that we do as teachers everyday. These great sketchnoting books can help stimulate your thinking and provide you with new ideas for how you can implement visual effectively in your teaching.

    Sketchnote Handbook by Mike Rohde

    The first book on Sketchnoting is from Mike Rohde, the man who invented (or came up with the term) sketchnoting. In this book, Mike introduces the concept of sketchnoting, why you should Sketchnote, different elements in sketchnotes and he covers some basic techniques that will aid your sketchnoting.

    Sketchnote Workbook by Mike Rohde

    Personally I feel this book is even better than the handbook as it covers practical assignments to start experimenting with sketchnoting in different areas of your life. This will help you discover different tools and design ideas to use in your sketchnotes as well as see examples of sketchnotes and get you practicing your chops as well!

    Visual Notetaking for Educators

    This book is targeted towards general education teachers in America. It includes a lot about how the brain works and how using doodling can help. The writer mentions about teaching English in a “second language context” (people living in a country where English is spoken) and towards the end of the book there are some practical ideas of how to implement sketching in your classrooms.

    It’s a good book but it’s not a definitive guide for how to implement these ideas in your own context

    Sketchnotes for Educators

    This books is by Sylvia Duckworth whom has become quite famous for her sketchnotes around education principles. If you’ve seen someone share a sketchnote about education online, it’s probably one of hers. In this book, there is a collection of her 100 most popular sketchnotes that you can use, share and adapt as well as links to online versions.

    The Doodle Revolution

    This books isn’t strictly about sketchnoting but it is about using visuals and drawing to aid in thinking. This is certainly targeted more towards adults and business settings, but there is some useful information on how using visuals can be an aid in “non visual tasks”

    What Other Great Sketchnoting Books do you Know?

    This isn’t a definitive list, there are many more books on sketchnoting, visual notetaking, and graphical facilitating, mostly looking at things from a business perspective, but these are a great starting point.

    Do you know of any other great sketchnoting books?

    P.s. Check out this list of great analogue sketchnoting tools