IMPORTANCE OF USING COLORS IN CREATING INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS

The use of colors is very important when you create educational material because it helps us to present in a formal and creative way the pedagogical activities. For this reason, colors facilitate learning and make the development of an activity more enjoyable as students become more participative when it comes to using different colors.

The colors and their respective combinations have a function in the emotions of the people, that is why it is necessary to know the different functions of each color.

The colors serve to give life to all the things that surround us because nature surprises us in the way of using colors in different areas. All the things that surround us are identified by their color and that is why they play a very important role in our life.

Each of the colors plays a role in the educational area, that is why you have to be very careful when you take them as educational material and how we mix them with other colors.

I will show you some of examples taking as a reference what teacher Roberto Carlos said in the class and mentioning other colors that helps in education:

RED

The color red is a very intense color that when we have it in front of our eyes we only remember love, passion and even we feel more active. This color can help us to create a presentation material that involves new vocabulary in the area of teaching a foreign language because it attracts the attention of students, however, we must be very careful when we using it because if we use it too much, The students will become very imperative.

PINK

The pink color makes us think that it is a delicate color, used more by girls. This color is very beautiful because it helps us to create a quiet and romantic atmosphere. The pink color can be used to decorate a classroom in the area of girls or to create posters with the things that girls use and can work to make a vocabulary in English based on those things. Through this, you can attract the attention of children, all of this in order that students focus their attention in learning a second language.

ORANGE

The orange color is a softer color than red. This color works to give a touch more attractive and relaxed to a place and also it is very useful for food brands. We can use this color so that students reflect playfully a topic of general interest.

YELLOW

The color yellow is a color that reflects joy. In education is very used because it is very colorful and works to keep the attention of students without falling into boredom. The students can use this color to represent vocabulary about different things in their daily life and also to show the colors of some animals.

GREEN

The green color represents relaxation, harmony and mainly to the environment. This color is very helpful because it relaxes the students in a classroom and they are in an absolute renewal in an instant. The green color works to create material on the environment and organic products in the field of science and health.

BLUE

The blue color transmit tranquility, confidence and calmness. This color represents the masculine gender exactly as the pink represents the feminine gender. The blue color works to create material related to the environment but in this case it would be to the ocean. In most countries in the world, this color is very represented in its flags because it draws much attention and as I mentioned before, it is related to calm and confidence.

PURPLE

The purple color represents spirituality and royalty. This color is widely used in education mainly in kindergarten. Kids love this color because it is very striking and that is why it is widely used to create cartoons and is even perfect for creating vocabulary based in some drawings related to a topic.

BLACK

The black color represents mystery, formality and authority. This color is very used to do different kinds of things related to education. For a teacher is perfect because in a class needs a lot of formality and this color is precisely for those things and for students, it works for some presentation where it does not need many colors involved and focus more on the topic they need to explain.

WHITE

The white color represents purity, simplicity and calmness. This color as well as black color is widely used in education. Because this is a simple color, it is needed to not fall into boredom or fun, if you want to do something serious and formal, this color fits perfectly into the educational environment, also this color contrasts perfectly with the other colors.

VISUAL ELEMENTS IN EDUCATION

The use of visual elements in education is very important because it help us to design different material in a class.

Educational system have the necessity to provide students a well prepared class full of these visual elements in order to catch their attention in the class. Students can use this material to create a presentation, show examples in different topics that requires their use or even an exam, at least teachers use these elements to provide students better examples for a clear and concise answer.

So, how can we use visual elements like: point, line, shape, color, texture, movement, space and value in education?

Everything around us are expressive lines. Color and texture are what tells us what we have. All things start with lines, as well as straight lines and circumferences, which is enough to give them color and textures to obtain an object or a shape. This is the principle of education at any educational level. Nature gives us a variety of expressive objects that carry among themselves the visual elements that are: POINT, LINE, SHAPE, TEXTURE, SPACE, MOTION, VALUE AND COLOR.


LINES

We can use lines to separate topics in a class, to underline correct answers in an exam or even to draw a person or some objects.

POINT

We can use point to coordinate things. This can be made by joining two elements that have connection.

SHAPE

We can use shapes to identify some objects in the classroom or we can use it in a presentation about countries around the world or some figures that represent something significative in a subject.

TEXTURE

We can use textures to create a collage about a topic or as a background for a power point presentation in a class.

SPACE

We can use space to separate information about different topics, something that let us take a look about what is around us.

MOTION

We can use motion to understand a topic of any subject and give continuity to an already developed topic. In other words: Something we are seeing without taking our eyes off that image.

VALUE

We can use value to contrast and give more sense and a truly meaning to you want to express and understand. We use here a light and dark color.

COLOR

We can use color to identify everything that surrounds us. Colors are expressive so much in the emotional, visual and material because this is the way to make known what we have.

APPLICATION OF GESTALT THEORIES IN EDUCATION

How should we analyze Gestalt laws in education?

These are laws that must be put into practice depending on the personal perspective, since not all of us have developed the ability to focus on the same idea of ​​a subject, but we get the similarity of what we want to understand.

In the law of similarity in education, students have ideas with different approach of analysis without losing the objective of what one wants to understand in a specific topic.

 In the law of proximity, students focus on a topic of interest but some elements can not be separated from each other because they form a single unit.

In the law of continuity, students relate prior knowledge to involve them in current knowledge. In education, for example, you can take a topic that can be given continuity based on knowledge that was previously obtained.

 In the law of closure, all past knowledge is incomplete but with prior knowledge is given a closure filling with our mind the gaps that are possessed.

In the law of common fate in education is when you get a connection for the same purpose and achieve a goal in common.

And in the law of simplicity, students should get the way of expressing themselves as simple as possible but with a deep understanding on a topic that is understandable to everyone in general.

TECHNOLOGY AND ITS IMPORTANCE IN EDUCATION

First of all, technology is the use of different tools in our daily life in order to create different tasks that are very useful in our studies or even in our job. For this reason, technology is very important in educational field because it help us to plan classes when you are a teacher and to do your homework when you are a student.

For teachers, nowadays technology is important because they can find faster all what they need to develop a class. They find different tools to use with their students; for example: they can create online presentations in order to innovate the content of the class and catch the students' attention easily. Also, they make use of audios and videos to present adequately the topics of class.

During this time, we can realize about the use of computers and projectors in schools and universities. These tools are the most important and most use by teachers and students because all of them have access to this technology at home, ciber cafes or even in schools because at least to some of them the government provide this kind of technology in order to integrate teachers and students to the technology world.

Right now, I can understand the use of technology not only as a student, but also as a teacher because as a student I try to investigate topics related to my major and web sites that help me to improve my English as a second language and as a teacher... well, as a future teacher, it helps me because now that I am doing my practice at the university, I have to plan my class practically for the next day. So, the use of technology is part of our daily life and we cannot leave aside what the world is offering us to give the best of us in the field of education.

For students, it helps them to prepare material for a presentation. Students that are studying at the university, technology means everything; a big percentage of students use computers, smartphones, projectors and different programs that are in the computer, of course with the help of internet that give an inmediate access to a whole new world full of opportunities to help them understand easily the major they chose.

Thanks to the technology, teachers and students have a better communication because if a student have any doubt about the class inmediately the students can send a message to the teacher via Email, social medias, platform or even a tool that the teacher provides us to communicate with him. For example, teacher Roberto Carlos use Chalk Up with us, this is platform that help us to communicate easily with him and also with our classmates. We can share our own opinion about the topic of the class, we can share links and information for the next classes etc. This tool is amazing and we can interact not only with the teacher, but also with our classmates. 

 Technology as I said before it is very important in education because we are engaged to a world full of opportunities and adventures for our future; however, we need to be very careful with technology. We have to use it in a correctly way not just as an cheap entertainment or for a bad purpose. First, it is for educational purposes and then, for a healthy entertainment that requires a good communication with people that actually know us.