On November 13, 2023, the FONT SWITCH PROJECT held a seminar titled "Font selection and layout when creating teaching materials" at the Faculty of Education, Shizuoka University.
Shizuoka University has installed Morisawa fonts on their PCs,Morisawa Certified SchoolIn addition, for students who wish to have the same font environment as the PCs on campus, font products for students are sold at certified school prices through the on-campus store, and Morisawa fonts are used on personal PCs, mainly by students in the Faculty of Information Science.
This time, as part of a new initiative with Shizuoka University, we spoke to students from the Faculty of Education who create teaching materials for children and students during mock lessons in lectures and teaching practice, about easy-to-understand font selection and layout.
This report provides an overview of the seminar and the impressions of the participants, along with comments from Professor Otaki of the Faculty of Education's English Education Department, who assisted in the implementation of the seminar.
I learned a lot from each talk. I'm sure the students who will become teachers in the future also learned about the importance of fonts and the importance of being aware of how easy it is to read. I would like all students in the Faculty of Education, not just English education students, to listen to this talk.
Seminar Overview
This seminar was divided into two parts and was aimed at students in the Faculty of Education, mainly those majoring in English education, who are aspiring to become teachers in the future.
First half: "Morisawa's efforts in the educational field"
We introduced Morisawa, explained the activities we are engaged in for the educational field, the background to the development of typefaces for learning environments, and the key points we consider when designing typefaces.
Second half: "Tips for choosing fonts and layout when creating teaching materials"
Using sample data from English class slides, we shared know-how that will be useful when creating teaching materials.
What points should you focus on and how should you organize them to create materials that "communicate" effectively? We compared two sample slides, one with the same content but poor element placement and font selection (Before) and the other with the right focus (After), and explained the difference in impression.
Comments from students and faculty who attended the course
In my various educational activities, I have often relied on my own intuition when it comes to font and layout readability. This talk was so informative that I wish I had heard it when my students were in a younger grade!
I am majoring in special needs education. As a teacher in the future, I will be required to build an inclusive education system. I was able to gain a wide range of theoretical foundations for creating worksheets that will allow all children and students to learn English without any problems. I believe that emphasizing the format, such as font and layout, as well as the content will lead to effective instruction.
I think that in the future, when I enter the workforce, I will have more opportunities to come into contact with digital text, such as when making presentations or creating documents, so I thought that what I learned today would be very useful in those situations. If people feel stressed when listening to PowerPoint or documents, they will not be able to absorb the important content, so I felt that it is important to reduce unnecessary stress as much as possible.
We were aware that the number of children with reading and writing anxiety is increasing, but we realized that easy-to-read texts can also increase motivation and encourage students to continue learning. We hope to spread Morisawa's project widely.
A survey conducted after the course showed high satisfaction with the content of the classes.
We asked Professor Otaki about his thoughts on students.
Morisawa: Please tell us why you decided to hold this seminar.
Professor Otaki: In the foreign language department, students start learning to read and write the alphabet from the fifth grade. When students go to school in the future to teach reading and writing the alphabet, what should teachers pay attention to? What are the points that children find difficult?This is a great opportunity to focus on the importance of fonts.I thought that this seminar would be a good opportunity for me to learn about the important points to consider when creating teaching materials in schools and how to present them effectively, so I asked for this seminar to teach me those points as well.I would like students who want to become teachers to learn this.I thought.
We asked Professor Otaki about the seminar
Morisawa: What did you think after actually holding the seminar?
Professor Otaki: Students who are currently obtaining teaching licenses who attended this seminarUse UD Digital Textbook Font to create mock lesson materialsMorisawa also taught me how to create a worksheet for a mock lesson.We pay careful attention to the layout, placement, etc.I can see that.
I believe that the fact that students aspiring to become teachers have become aware of the importance of fonts will be useful to them in the future when they teach characters and how to read and write in schools.
In addition, effective use of ICT is required in schools. In this program, students learned the importance of presenting teaching materials in easy-to-read text and layouts for as many people as possible.This knowledge can be utilized in the future when entering society, including in schools.I hope so.
Thank you to everyone in the Faculty of Education for your enthusiastic participation.
After the class, one student shared anecdotes with actual children, saying, "I wish I had heard this story before my teaching practice, which just finished the other day!" I would be happy if the power of fonts could be of some help to those who will be responsible for creating a learning environment for the children of the future.
In addition to creating teaching materials, we hope you will also take advantage of Morisawa's fonts and tips for effective layout in a variety of situations, such as creating presentation materials and extracurricular activities.
Follow the Morisawa FONT SWITCH PROJECT on social media to turn on everyone's font sensibilities and have even more fun with fonts!
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