The nature of the human mind is such that unless it is stimulated by images of things acting upon it from without, all remembrance of them passes easily away.
How prophetic. Four hundred years ago, one of the greatest scientific minds the world has ever known had tremendous insight into how we learn. In Galileo’s time, most people only saw religious pictures or, if very wealthy, had portraits of family members. Most people were illiterate and uneducated so pictures had to tell the story. If they had a book with pictures, it was likely the Bible, Koran, or other non-secular publications.
Sure, Galileo, Kepler, Gassendi, Descartes, Bacon, and others sketched their ideas and findings. Still, at that time, few people had access to see them. There are a whole host of reasons for that. For example, duplicating was a time consuming and expensive process, so only a few scholars had copies. But I digress.
Fast forward three hundred years. Books are much more plentiful, easier to access, and relatively inexpensive. Literacy rates have climbed dramatically, and an educated population is more common than not. However, pictures describing the content are few and far between and are usually monochrome drawings or photographs. Images are often relegated to a section in the middle of the book. Even so, we learned that those images helped improve understanding.
The technological advances of the late Twentieth and early Twenty-First Centuries have exponentially increased the ability to use imagery to help people learn. Today, images don’t even need to be static to be cost-effective. Short video clips are proving to help people understand content quicker. More importantly, it helps them retain that knowledge far longer.
We’ve come a long way in a short amount of time. Even though we seem to have less time to learn, we have the tools to use that time efficiently, effectively. Imagine what Galileo and his contemporaries could have accomplished with what we have today.
What do you think? I’d like to know.
President, Galileo Consulting Services
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