Visual Literacy

Earlier this week I was introduced to a piece of free software called Photostory that could be an extremely effective tool in the classroom. A new teacher at school used this software with a 7th grade language arts class and was so excited about the results that he had to share it. As I spoke with this teacher, he began to tell me about how he taught his students to use this software and how he focused his lesson on the effect that can be created by panning and zooming in on certain aspects of an image. Students learned how the mood of a piece can change by how images are used.

After my encounter with this teacher, I wanted to learn how to use Photostory and create a tutorial so that other teachers could capitalize on having access to it. The visual literacy aspects seemed crucial to me at that point, especially with the amount of exposure students have now to visual images. It wasn’t until this morning when I began reading for this week’s class when I realized how serendipitous this encounter was with this teacher. Here was Dondis’s point from A Primer of Visual Literacy in action - a teacher who recognizes that students need to be taught visual literacy skills. Having students create a piece that uses images and sound in a way to create a desired effect is much different from having students create a piece that includes images and sound with no forethought of how those two mediums can be used to sway an audience.

From my observations in teaching elementary and middle school, I would have to agree with Dondis’s statement that “the educational system is moving with monolithic slowness in visual literacy,” when we think of it as more than what was shared on the Visual Literacy K-8 Web site included in our reading list. This Web site highlights skills needed to read diagrams, tables, graphs, maps and many other pictorial images. Since I began teaching twenty years ago, this type of visual literacy has been taught. In fact, this type of literacy is tested. Much of one section of the Iowa Test of Basic Skills has students reading and applying what is depicted in the above mentioned images. What seems to be lacking in today’s classrooms is the analysis of visual images. Some art classes may address these skills; however, with the increase of visual projects and materials in the classroom, all teachers need to address it.

The activities described in the Getty Museum Web site have students describe what is seen, reflect upon it and then analyze or interpret the image. Having students focus on description of a picture will result in making students more aware of an image and its effect. Unless this step is taken, I have found that students will skip pictures in a text and not understand how they complement or add meaning to a text. When shown video, students tend to treat it like television and not become an active participant in this learning experience. They tend to accept what is stated and not become critics of what was presented. Dondis writes about the increase of visual educational material yet little has been done to evaluate its effectiveness. Often the adage of “people remember 10% of what they read, 20% of what they see…” leads teachers to incorporate visual materials in their lessons. Accommodating different learning styles is critical. Now with the increase of visual materials available, teachers are using them. With this increase, more emphasis on analyzing them should be made. (On a side note, as I Googled to find the exact wording of this adage, I stumbled across Will Thalheimer’s blog on learning that describes this notion as a fraudulent claim.)

One reason for this passive audience, I believe, is that not many teachers are asking students to critique what they see. In order to create lessons that have students doing more analysis, teachers need to be educated in this area. Learning the visual techniques used in visual communication that Dondis describes will allow teachers and students to abandon the subjective evaluation of visual pieces and begin to look at them more critically. We have moved beyond the typical student created PowerPoint aids to products of streaming video. To get students evaluating the effectiveness of their video works, ample opportunities must be provided for them to analyze other videos, drawing attention to the effects used to create a certain response in the viewer.

I would imagine that high school students have more opportunities to evaluate visual pieces. As more research is conducted on the effectiveness of presenting material visually to students, I would hope that visual literacy skills are identified for students at all levels master.