Making Meaning through the Use of Visual Tools

This TED discussion made me think about several things that relate to teaching.
First of all it was the idea of how useful visual materials are in order for us to make sense of the world around us and to create new meaning - basically to learn. I have always considered myself a visual learner so it is easy for me to relate to the speaker's ideas. We have been talking about Gardner's multiple intelligences and I know that different people learn in different ways and what works for some does not work for everybody. Still...using visual aids seems like such a common sense tool that can enhance everybody's learning that I find it hard to imagine that there are any people (besides the visually impaired) that would not benefit from its use. Am I mistaken? Are there instances in which visual aids are not welcomed? I do not want to say that it is the only way that we can teach but it should certainly be something that we include as much as we can into our teaching.

This video resonated very well with me because today my group had the presentation on photographs as resources in social studies classes. We mentioned how important photographs are in the study of history: to build context, to put things into perspective and to help children relate to the historical events and to the people that lived in the past.

Finally, I can also link this video to the use of technology in the classroom. He was talking about a new software that makes it very easy to use visual aids and more than that, to make them interactive. I think this is an important idea: it is not just about the materials that we use, but also about the ways in which we use those materials and how appealing we make them for our students.