Introduction to picture notes April 2014

I introduced  picture notes (spanning sketch notes to wall charts and in between） to my friends at community development team CHE network meeting Phnom Penh, April 2014.

I had been doing Graphic  Recording for them already for one day on 4x8 foot chart. 

We had 35 participants from 7 different NGOs. 

To begin the session I distributed blank A6 notebooks as gift to each participant: 

"Please use picture and words to take notes of this session in this notebook" I said .

I spoke in English and my partner translated to Khmer for the in-country participants.

"Why ?" I asked 

"Why do we want to record with picture notes aka Sketchnotes aka idea drawings?"

And I started on a flip chart to write the word "why" and encouraged them to copy.

"Because it helps us with better memory" I said

And I drew arrow going in to fill opened empty head

And encouraged them to sketch likewise.

"and it is more fun"

Drew happy person jumping up, clicking heels

"Engages left brain and right brain"

Sketched head with two halves of brain exposed, and arrow pouring in

"Crosses language barrier"

Drew two PAC-man style heads facing each other , one with ABC, one with chinese characters

Sketchnotes can be done in different sizes: for yourself or 1-1 face to face discussions you can yourse

A6 size sketch note book

A4 paper

Back of napkin

These are easily portable

having A6 size notebook allows us to practice every day the style of taking notes with words and pictures.

These can be photocopied for easy reference and distribution.

Flipboard

AO flip chart

And big wall chart

Useful for bigger groups

Everyone can see content of discussion going on.

Can take photograph for reproduction and record.

Can arrange ideas in different ways to tell the story

Mind map is one way

Start with centre

Branch out to nodes

Each node may have subnodes

Arrange ideas of cause and effect like a problem solving tree with fruits and roots

Images and ideas should be drawn simply and clearly

Can use label 

One participant worried that he could not draw cow accurately:

My suggestion:

Just draw a 4 legged animal and label it "cow"

From the corner of my eye and a sneak peek here and there, I saw quite a few participants actually drawing and writing.

Emboldened by what I saw, I said I would tell them a story and ask thm to record the story in words and pictures.

I told the story of the prodigal son

As verbatim as I could from the gospel text.

Participants seemed to be responding well.

I was pleased with the effort.