I just got an email from Alan Levine. He's sniffing around for the origin of the quote many folks have often used, myself included, that we process visual information 60 000 times faster than text.


 
Here's what Alan said:

I need your help. I have found an assertion repeated on thousands of web sites, and repeated so often that it is cited as a fact, yet I have tried and tried and have been unable to locate the actual source of this claim:

Research at 3M Corporation concluded that we process visuals 60000 times faster than text.

In the interest of dogged pursuit, information literacy, and all that we value as scholarship (okay I am laying it on)- can you help me find the answer? Or spread to someone who can?

http://cogdogblog.com/2012/07/06/60000-times-question/

Here's what I found ...

I started with the search engine millionshort.com by eliminating the first million hits from Google I circumvented the lions share of SEO (Search Engine Optimized) sites and took a first stab at the deeper web.


The 6th & 7th link struck me as worth following, the 7th link included a citation “The Power of Color in Presentations:”. (http://www.sspweb.com/SSP/visual_lit/VisualLitOnline.pdf) I thought the inclusion of a colon here was odd, probably someone doing a quick "cut & paste". I followed the link to a middle school student's paper. In the bibliography she cites a presentation by Ian Jukes. (Not the one I've included in that link. Its a pdf; page 8.) I first heard the "60 000 times faster than text" claim from him several years back in St. Louis at a workshop for administrators.

One more comment about that student's paper, look at where it's hosted; www.sspweb.com. Looks like a software solutions company. Why would a Middle School kid's paper be there? I did a little digging (go look at their About page). I suspect it's likely her teacher's website.

The link to the Ian Jukes reference is dead, I tried several ways of getting at it but didn't work too hard as I really wanted another source although he might have included some bibliographical info in there somewhere I suppose.

Another search and I found the 3M web page for "The Power of Color in Presentations":

http://www.3rd-force.org/meetingnetwork/readingroom/meetingguide_power_color.html

There is no mention of the "60 000 times faster than text" research.

I did another regular Google Search for:

3m “The Power of Color in Presentations”

(quotes included; I removed the colon)

I found a link to a Google Books search:


In the book "They Snooze You Lose" by Lynell Burmark she cites the source as:

http://www.presentations.com/deliver/audience/1998/05/13_fl_psy_01.html

I looked up the link, which was dead, but the date (May 1998) struck me.

A custom Google Search for dates between 1 Jan 1900 and 31 Dec 1998 lead me to what I thought was the original presentation at 3M where I found this quote (below) in the transcript of a presentation given by Jenn Manalo, Sr. Product Specialist, 3M Corp. This talk was given at St. Louis College Valenzuela on 31 Aug 1998 (I used my browsers "find" command to search for the number 60 and five clicks of "next").

"Humans can process an outstanding amount of visual information. Actually, we can process at 60,000 times faster than text."

Looking up that specific quote using each of the different options at millionshort or a regular Google search returns one result; that very same web page.

Now, let's look up Jenn Manalo, Sr. Product Specialist, 3M Corp.

No fruitful results from pipl.com or linkedin.com or anywhere really. I found several Jenn Manalos in the Philippines. I suspect Jenn is Filipino because she uses two Tagalog words in her talk "matandang mayamang" (old rich) and the url from the archive of her talk has a Philippines root (.ph). Also, St. Louis College is in Valenzuela, Philippines. None of the LinkedIn profiles I found have a Jenn Manalo ever working at 3M.

Lastly I used the "site" command and Googled:

site:http://www.3m.com Jenn Manalo

Nothing.

So it seems Jenn said it; maybe even said it first. (Her talk is dated 31 Aug 1998 and the date embedded in the link from the citation in Lynell Burmark's book points to May 1998 ... there's more work to be done here.) She said "research shows …" a number of times in her archived talk but did not say so for the "60 000 times faster than text" fact; although it is in quotation marks as though she's quoting another source. (Then again, it might be the redactor quoting Jenn.) She may have worked for 3M in the late 1990's and she gave a talk on effective presentations at St. Louis College in Valenzuela, Philippines.

Learning Pyramid (Photo credit: dkuropatwa)

It's worth noting that Jenn alluded to someone else saying the "60 000 times" fact and, although she may have been employed by 3M, she didn't say the research was done by 3M.

All this reminds me of the Learning Pyramid hoax and another time I was "awarded" a Top 100? blog.

Good luck with the search Alan. I can't wait to learn what more you find. ;-)





UPDATE: Getting Closer

I realized I hadn't limited my original Google Search to the 1 Jan 1900 - 31 Dec 1998 time frame. So I went back and did that.

First hit was this pdf: Read 180 Aligned to No Child Left Behind hosted at scholastic.com (a subsidiary of the McGraw Hill publishing company). The research collected here is in support of their Read 180 literacy product. Direct from the pdf:

Media Researchers have found that humans process visual information 60,000 times faster than text, and visual aids can improve learning by up to 400 percent (Burmark, 2004).

I looked into Burmark … actually, I had already started that above. She's the author of You Snooze You Lose I mentioned previously. She apparently mentioned this same "fact" in her 2004 Book, Visual Literacy: Learn to See, See to Learn. In this pdf advertisement for the book she writes: "According to research from 3M Corporation, we process visuals 60,000 times faster than text."

We've already been down that road.

I'm not closer to the source of the research; I'm closer to saying it's an academic legend of the same sort as the Learning Pyramid hoax.

UPDATE: 14 July 2012

Still scratching away at this. I came across the "Pictorial Superiority Effect." These are the results of my digging around:

"Combining pictures with print or audio generally maximizes learning."

Still nothing about "60 000 times faster than text".

cc licensed (BY-NC) flickr photo by Jack Amick

A few years back my friend Bud Hunt published an unusual post on his blog; it was titled Going South. In just a few short sentences he shared that he'd be spending a week visiting his grandfather's garden. "As best as I can determine, the first reference on the Internet to my grandfather, a man that I know far too little about, is this one." he wrote. There was one link in the entire post; the words "this one". You can tell from the comments, not every reader followed the link.

I was talking with a couple of English Language Arts teachers today. They're planning to have their classes do most of their writing online this semester. We were talking about how they might use a Mother Blog model to do that. They'll use Google Reader to monitor the community; subscribing to both the posts and  comments of their students' blogs.

I wanted the two teachers I was talking with understand how to help their students learn to read and write hyperlinked text effectively. I shared with them the story of Bud's "Going South" blog post. It's a poignant lesson in reading and writing linked text. (In the privacy of my own thoughts: This will also be a nice memorial to Bud's granddad. In a way, he'll teach and touch the lives of generations beyond his immediate family.)

A Better Metaphor for Life Long Learning
In his book, Everything Is Miscellaneous, David Weinberger talks about the difference between writing on paper and writing hyperlinked text. Paper has physical limitations that digital text doesn't. It starts and ends. It's only so wide and so long. A paper book can only contain so much content. Even if it's one of many volumes in a larger work.

Have you ever started reading an article online, say in Wikipedia, clicked a link, then another? And another. Only to find yourself two hours later having explored a web of ideas unique to your personal interests along the way. Eventually you stop. Not because you're "finished" but because life imposes other demands on your time.

Digital text is different. It's a much better metaphor for life long learning. And you can't write linked text if you aren't reading. Lots. (It's taken me years of reading to write this blog post.)

New Media, New Process
Not too long ago Dean published a post about writing hyperlinked text. He had collected a number of comments in a storify archive and reshared a video Will had made about his writing process. (Think that through as a writing process.) Watch:


This sort of process is another thing I shared with the teachers I was talking with:

• Using a mind mapping tool, like mindmeister, that includes hyperlinks is different.
• Clipping ideas contained in text, images and video using a tool like Evernote, which allows you to create web pages & hyperlinks is different.
• Writing by stitching your ideas together from hyperlinked sources is different.
• Reading that text is different too. It matters where you publish it, online or off. Different media (paper or digital) carry different messages. 

I'm fascinated to see the student writing that emerges from this semester.

I'm also curious; is there anything different about how you teach reading and writing digital text? Any advice for us?


UPDATE 20 Feb 2012
Check out Bud's thought provoking digital writing workshop (a network of Google Docs): 
Reading 1.0 - How Digital Changes Nothing. And Everything. Is All.

... was the title of the Keynote address I gave to 500+ educators at this year's B.Y.T.E. conference. The sense I had of the audience was that many of the ideas I talked about here were new to them. A quick survey of the room while giving the talk revealed only about three people had heard of Wolfram Alpha and I think about the same number had heard of the TPACK Framework.

I hope I get a chance to do this talk again. There are a number of things I think I could have done better.

Anyway, if you're interested, here it is in various formats. You pick how you'd like to take it in.

Audio

Download (20 MB)

Slidecast


Ustream Video (thanks to Chris Harbeck

Image by dkuropatwa via Flickr

The other day I was talking to a teacher who works with EAL (English as an Additional Language) students. I was reminded of a summary of teaching tips I had assembled by scouring through a pile of research articles when my department was struggling with the issue of teaching a growing population of EAL students in our school. Unfortunately I've lost all the sources. This was originally designed to be shared with just my colleagues as a quick reference sheet.

It struck me that these tips are really good for all students.

By the way, that picture is an integral written using various languages and multilingual character sets. It makes perfect (mathematical) sense if you can decode all the numbers. Can you "read" it?

I hope other teachers find this helpful. Please add your own suggestions in the comments below.

---

Strategies for Teaching EAL Students Mathematics

The strategies below have been collated from a variety of resources. While all may be specifically geared towards assisting the EAL learner in math, these strategies are likely to prove effective in supporting the learning of all students.

The Language of Mathematics and Teacher’s Use of Language

"Command of mathematical language plays an important role in the development of mathematical ability"

• Teach the language of the subject.
• Be aware of vocabulary that has different meaning when used in mathematical contexts.
  • e.g. positive, negative, table, irrational, etc.
• Mathematical operations signaled by several different words or phrases.
  • e.g. add, plus, sum, combine, increased by, etc.
• Provide additional "wait time" for student responses to questions.
• Be conscious of the vocabulary you use.
• Simplify sentence structures and repeat sentences verbatim before trying to rephrase.
• Rephrase idioms ("take a stab at it") or teach their meaning.
• Clearly mark transitions during classroom activities.

Explanations and expectations need to be articulated explicitly and completely. Don't simply expect EAL students to "pick up on" assumptions, unstated premises, or subtle nuances of meaning.

• Periodically check to ensure EAL students are understanding.

Create Language Supportive Classrooms

"Journal writing offers English Language Learners (ELLs) the opportunity to practice and develop their emerging mathematics discourse skills."

Some possible prompts for journal writing:

1. Construct a word problem about [this] picture that can be solved mathematically. Share your problem with a partner and solve it.
2. What is the most important idea you've learned in [algebra] this week and why?
3. Write a paragraph containing as many of these words as possible: ..........
4. List some things you must remember when answering this type of question or doing this type of problem.

Connect Mathematics to Students' Background and Experiences

• Young people learn best from their own and not other peoples’ experiences.
• Use students’ past experiences with mathematical terms to help give the terms meaning in a mathematical context.
• The introduction of a new term should be carefully orchestrated through repetition in context and through saying it aloud and spelling it.
• To learn mathematics successfully, many ESL students need a more multisensory approach to mathematics.
• Relate mathematics instruction to the “out of school” life of students.
• The implementation of “ethnomathematics” can help teachers relate mathematics to their students’ “out of school” lives.
• Use teaching methodologies that “contextualize” the subject matter.
• Be concerned about affective factors in the classroom.

Between the 10th and 15th year of teaching I discovered that what was needed for these children was not an emphasis on the academic but a meaningful interaction with mature adults. The relationship with a stable, mature adult is most important.

Vary Instructional Methods

"ELLs learn best when instructional methods and approaches match their individual abilities and learning styles."

• Use a variety of methods tailored to students' needs including direct instruction, guided discovery, cooperative learning, computer assisted learning, etc.
• Provide writing and other language development activities for EAL students.
• Use cooperative learning strategies.
• Encourage students to rephrase information or instructions orally.
• Use peer tutoring.
• Establish a "homework club".

Contextual Supports for Linguistic Development

• Write key words on the board and other non-verbal cues, wherever possible, to present key ideas.
• Provide written notes, summaries, instructions, and pre-reading.
• Where possible, use the students' native language to check comprehension and clarify problems.
• Communicate interest in students' linguistic development and set expectations.
• Respond to students' language errors.
• Establish a supportive environment for language learning.

In most subject areas, EAL students should be able to grasp essential concepts, if these are presented carefully, emphasized through repetition, and clearly distinguished from finer points that the students are less able to assimilate.

Assessing, Evaluating, and Reporting on Students' Progress

• Use a diversity of measures including portfolios, observations, anecdotal records, interviews, checklists, criterion referenced tests, etc.
• Design alternative assessment tasks including exhibits, dramatic renditions, interviews, writing samples, etc.
• Include questions for small group discussion and individual writing.
• Provide extra time on tests for EAL students to process the question in English, think about them in their first language, and respond in English.
• Simplify directions in English and/or paraphrase in students' native language.
• Permit students to use dictionaries or word lists.
• Avoid heavy reliance on multiple-choice and true/false tests with EAL students (these involve a lot of reading and often depend on comprehension of subtle shades of meaning)

Functioning all day in a second language is exhausting and demanding. Homework can take these students two to three times longer to complete.

So we talked for 2 hours ... when you take out all the commercials it's a little less than an hour. I didn't think I expressed myself very well this time out. The conversation felt a little fractured, like we kept losing focus. There was one moment when I completely forgot what I was going to say. What I meant to share, in the context of how important a caring adult is in the life of a successful student, was this:

A while ago a colleague of mine called home to speak to the parents of one of her students. This student had started missing some classes and she was concerned about their progress in math:

"Hello, Mrs. J. I'm your son's math teacher. I just wanted to let you know that he's missed a few classes and I'm starting to get concerned about his progress in the class. I ..."

"Tell it to someone who cares!"

Here's the audio: (59 min 38 sec, Download, 29 Mb)

So tomorrow I've been invited back to CJOB radio to participate in a panel discussion on literacy. Sort of unusual for a math teacher but then again, maybe not.

In my latest workshop on numeracy I talked about how literacy is about much more than reading and much more than what we learn in school.

It'll be interesting to compare notes with the other people on the panel: an early years literacy teacher, someone from Red River College (our local community college), and someone who works in adult education. (I don't know anyone's names yet.)

I've still got the chatterous room set up and open for anyone that would like to participate. If you've got the time, please join us:

Check the time for where you live.

Listen here.

Join the live chat.

Chatterous is blocked by the CJOB web filter. (It's not just us education folks that have to put up with this sort of thing.) I'll check in on the room after the show. Hope to see you in the chatterous room!