While User Wits Designers and User Interface Designers are discussed often in the diamond world, Learning Wits Designers (LXD) tend to fall under the radar. These designers use research, theory, and diamond techniques to influence classroom presentation and curriculums and create resources for teachers to present information to students in wieldy ways.
Lauren Heil began her career as an Art Director and Graphic Designer surpassing switching to the world of education. After working as a middle school teacher, she composite her career into that of an LXD. Heil has the unique opportunity of helping teachers to understand how their students weightier learn through design, typography, and color. In today’s installment of Type Tuesday, I sat lanugo with Heil to ask a few questions well-nigh how educators can alimony children’s weightier intentions in mind through a typographical lens.
Can you explain what a Learning Designer is?
A learning designer designs and develops instructional materials and educational programs.
Depending on the role, this might include creating lesson plans, curriculum, and assessments, and then moreover considering the variegated ways a learner could navigate that learning experience. So thinking through the particular skills or knowledge that needs to be gained and designing curriculum that’s going to be constructive for the learner.
My job as a Learning Wits Designer is to diamond and develop professional online learning experiences for K-12 educators so that they can build skills in educational technology to use in classrooms and with staff.
How does font nomination impact children in a classroom setting?
Font nomination can make a huge difference in readability! When I train teachers on this, we talk well-nigh using sans serif fonts, x-height, line length, line spacing, etc. The same way a web or UI designer would make a font nomination so that content is readable, teachers can be thinking well-nigh the same things for students.
For younger students learning to read and students with dyslexia, shape recognition is so important. A teacher might have the weightier intentions using a fun and funky font on a worksheet or graphic organizer, but it unquestionably ends up increasing the chances that a student completely opts out of the work considering their smart-ass is using so much energy to simply read the prompts or instructions.
Can you explain how the ever-popular, kitschy script fonts can interfere with children’s learning experiences?
Readability is all well-nigh quick shape recognition! Hop on to Teachers Pay Teachers (I think they just go by TPT now), a website where educators can create and sell matriculation materials, and you’ll see this handwriting-style cursive font used scrutinizingly everywhere.
Younger students need solid and easy to read text choices, and in a script style font, those reports don’t unchangingly squint the same as they would in a script or sans serif font. Teachers are doing the right thing in trying to use font nomination to convey joy in the materials they’re creating, so instead we try to find ways that they can do that through graphics or verisimilitude palette while keeping text in its most readable state.
How can teachers modernize students’ learning skills through typography?
Maybe I’m speaking for myself here, but I don’t think I’m alone. I remember in school, I would take a squint at a worksheet or graphic organizer and immediately think, “nope!” if it seemed like there was too much work (i.e. too much text) on the page. All of the rules of typography wield in the classroom.
I love training teachers on this considering these are all decisions that they’re once making intuitively, and once they find out there are very rules that someone can follow, it feels really energizing for most. We talk well-nigh hierarchy; making the most important information the most prominent. Line length and line spacing can impact readability. Font size is a big one that we touch on.
In today’s classroom, students are most likely using laptops provided by the district. Those screens are pretty small, so font size needs to be a consideration. Additionally, there are accommodations required for students with disabilities, and a worldwide one is “visual chunking of information.” so how can we use the rule of proximity to unquestionably do that for every student, increasing serviceability for all? To cultivate serviceability and inclusivity in the classroom, diamond rules must be used.
Are there any typefaces that are platonic in the classroom setting? Are there any that teachers should veritably avoid?
I’m so glad that you asked! The weightier fonts to use for soul text in a classroom setting are the ones with a tall x-height; this makes the font towards larger than others that are the same pt size. I moreover tell teachers to squint for a round “o.” Essentially a wide font, but not too wide.
Sans serif fonts typically wind up stuff the easiest to read on a digital document due to the low pixelation on the laptops students are using. I usually suggest staying yonder from fonts that are listed as script or condensed.
Can you touch on the typefaces made specifically for students with dyslexia? Are these helpful or unaccommodating?
I wish that the fonts created to support students with dyslexia were increasingly constructive than they unquestionably wind up being. How superstitious would that be?! Unfortunately, though, there just isn’t unbearable vestige to suggest that they really impact reading speed or fluency.
Does that midpoint some students won’t find them effective? Not at all! Dyslexia fonts are typically weighted on the marrow in an struggle to help readers differentiate between worldwide letter shapes or the lines of text. The problem is, dyslexia is a language-based processing difference, not a vision problem. So the visual treatment of the reports just doesn’t unchangingly have the impact that the font designers were hoping for. Instead, I tell educators to stave using all caps, as the letter recognition is easier with lower specimen letters. Also, the same typography rules we’ve talked well-nigh so far moreover help dyslexic readers as well.
