The evolution of education

Multimedia advancements have redefined what it means to teach literacy in the classroom. Today, students must be able to present and decode written and visual images, presenting educators with the task of teaching visual literacy in the classroom. Students today are using PowerPoint, Photo Story, MovieMarker and other tools to create presentations in the classroom. This presents a challenge to educators as they seek to empower their students with the necessary tools to thrive in a media driven environment.

Educators now understand that students lack the skills to accurately decipher and make ethical decisions based on that image. According to Susan Metros of the University of Southern California students find themselves able to view pictures, read a map and input data, but are unable to create an image, map data and understand why one chart is better than another. To better prepare students, school districts are taking it upon themselves to add a technology component to their curriculum. For example, instead of submitting papers, students can create short films or interactive essays. This promotes a hands-on approach to multimedia for students to learn new tools

Teaching visual Literacy in the classroom means teaching students to critically analyze the images presented to them through advertising and other media. It also entails equipping students with the tools to create presentations that effectively communicate content. Today teachers are using classroom blogs and wikis to keep their students up to date with class requirements and to encourage collaborative class discussions. More and more students are relying on technology to enhance their learning environments. As technology continues to advance, their availability and capability will create more tools for teachers to utilize.

As technology advances, so too do the tools that teachers gain in teaching visual literacy skills to students. Scientific virtual models and figures, digital mapping, and other computer-based visual programs are all tools available as resources for higher education in schools. These tools can be used to "promote students' capabilities and skills" and create a new understanding of writing and learning in the classroom .To make clear the previous post , this information is basically how the visual literacy involved in the education

Visual Art And How It's Useful For Children In Schools

Visual Literacy Project
Visual Literacy is playing a huge role in our lives and taking a place in our world, and basically it should with no doubt.Here I'm going to focus on Visual Literacy in the part which helps childern educationally in schools.Actually the idea of putting Visual Literacy in our schools in elementary, middle and secondary is so important and helpful for students,especially for childern who are just start to face the tough life and needed to build the skills by teaching them Visual art and taking it serious as any other subjects are. It's a great thing to do for childern in school by practicing Visual art and build the skills, and it can help childern to open their minds up with Visual art and to create unlimited imagination which leads to make children more creative.Also,Visual art can help childern as well to discern, and make sense of visible phenomenon as part of a visual acuity.Moreover, Visual art is willing to let childern to create static and dynamic visible images or objects effectively in a defined space.The last important thing I would say about Visual art and how it's useful for children is when Visual art leads children in school to generate object oriented imagery in the minds eye.More likely, Visual art gives the feeling to appreciate the visual testaments of others.



In addtion, it's fun and enjoyble beside it's helpful.One intersting thing Visual art can do to children is making them more sensitve inside and more sharp and observed to see the deepest meaning in the future, which also makes them more and more alert day by day when it comes to observing things and understand them quickly.

The clearest definition of Visual literacy I would say is understanding our world through sight when we look at things in the world around us. It doesn't matter how it works because our minds are responsible for the function of interpreting it, and by extension translating all the things we look at to words and logical speech.

The video below illustrates how our mind understands the flucuation of visual events around us.



In fact, a culture has something to do with visual literacy. What I mean by that is that visual literacy can change the behaviour of a person, and how the person looks at things. People from different places will view things differently based on the culture that they are subjected to, as well as other factors (such as access to technology, etc.). We are all human,but we grow up in different areas.For example, a person lives in rich countery , of course he or she will see different than person from poor country . As i said a culture has a lot to do with the way we are exposed to visual images .

The phrase "visual literacy" is one that is often bandied about these days, if only because it is a bit vague and vacuous in meaning. The phrase at this point is basically being used to mean a familiarity witanything that is an image and (usually) not text.

However, what kind of "literacy" is this exactly? The range of things covered by this term include vastly disparate material: diagrams, paintings, graphs, websites, comics, etc.

Not all of these items are processed in a similar way, and "literacy" for one does not necessarily equate with "literacy" for another. For example, I know people who are highly fluent in reading the visual language of comics, yet find "infographics" like flow charts mind-numbingly opaque (and vice-versa).

Such a phrase implies 1) that visual communication and expression is homogenous, and any diversity is washed over by its shared virtue of being "visual", and 2) that comprehension of one of these forms equates to or leads to equal understanding of the others.

This seems far from the case. The various things that are covered by this term have very different motivating structures and properties, and comprehension with one does not necessarily lead to the same skills with others (and especially does not imply that for production). Really, what we have is a number of disparate forms that each involve their own forms of fluency independently, despite a shared visual modality.

The implication that such diversity is homogenous is a kind of orientalism — likely just a view embodied from a culture entrenched in a verbal modality that is still grasping at a method of communication that it doesn't yet fully embrace or understand. As we know , visual literacy could be interpreting in different ways.

Video Games, and Visual Literacy

Visual literacy broken down is basically just the sending and receiving of messages using imagery. In a paper written by Dr. Anne Bamford titled "The Visual Literacy White Paper", many benefits of Visual Literacy are discussed.

While there is much interesting content to be read in this paper, primarily I would like to draw attention to the section on why it is important to teach visual literacy (starting at the end of page 4, and continuing on page 5).

Visual literacy can be accredited for helping to develop problem solving, increasing resistance to televised advertisements, and generally making people better at interpretation of all imagery.

All of this is a result of the increased perception slowly developed over years of nurturing the mind throughout childhood, and adolescence.

The use of video games by kids is often looked upon with a negative connotation, but used correctly they can be a very effective way to start the learning process for visual literacy.

In a report written by Saswamit Basu titled "The impact of video games on users", conclusions are drawn about the potential for complex problem solving offered by video games.

He draws reference to the fact that old methods of education have a hard time of keeping kids attention long enough to be truly effective; while video games keep users engaged, and can keep pace with how fast young minds evolve.

There are some negative connotations associated with allowing developing minds access to video games which should be noted.

Again, according to Saswamit Basu, kids who grow up playing video games (many of which have violent, life like, themes) are much more aggressive then they would otherwise be. Many studies have been done on the link between adolescent crime and behavioral disorders stemming from too much time in front of violent video games.

Also, as the neural pathways of developing minds are not yet set, introducing them to fast paced gaming early often results in a drop in attention span with regard to slower moving events (like scholastic endeavors).

Used appropriately, video games can be a way to exponentially improve problem solving, and comprehension of visual imagery. But the old adage applies, everything in moderation. To ensure constructive results using video games as educational tools for younger children, content, and the amount of time spent using must be monitored.

Regards,

Ian Brinton

Visual literacy provides basis many new discoveries and inventions.

Until now, I have been taking in historical and emotional concept of visual literacy, but now I would like to explain the best use of visual literacy in a very advanced and scientific scenario.
The Term NASA is not strange to anyone in today’s rapidly changing and always exploring world. The need of new inventions and curiosity to learn about things has given visual literacy a new form. Though the human form is the most developed, we still need help visualizing anything before we experiment with it. Likewise, the first thing we did was that we saw moon and then slowly we developed ourselves and found a great amount of information (whatever possible till today) on the basis of that first look at the moon.
Although the enormous amount of development in information technology has helped us a lot, we still depend on visuals what we have been taking over period. One of the most recent discoveries of finding water on the moon took place under the same prospect.





This video clearly shows how we are we still dependent on the visual literacy. As well as it also demonstrate how most of our inventions and discoveries are based on the visuals that we form before the reality takes place.

Visual Literacy for the Blind

An organization known as "Art Beyond Sight", created by Art Education for the Blind, Inc., is going about changing the way that we perceive the blind community.

Their mandate is that all people, not just those with the gift of sight, are deserving of the right to appreciate art. While the concept of someone who can not see understanding art, something so much involved with the visual cortex, seems impossible; the question becomes what truly is an art experience?

Much study of the brain patterns of blind people has been done, and there is now no doubt that while they can not physically see, that they can most certainly have art experiences. How a seeing person may interpret art has much to do with our sight. For a blind person, the process is somewhat more involved. As such, it is no surprise that many blind people are truly fascinated by the culture of art, and art history.

In the video posted below they talk about how art truly is the image in ones mind, and the relationship that is formed between them, and what is created. The reaction of people who then view these creations becomes a way for the creators to form an opinion of their work.



This project could be construed as yet another interpretation of visual literacy. visual literacy does not necessarily mean only images that are available for interpretation by the eyes, but also the more intangible pictures given to us by the mind's eye.

By allowing ourselves the foresight to consider that sight is actually possible for those who do not have it, the limitations that have been placed on these individuals up until now can one day maybe be overcome.

Regards,

Ian Brinton

Learning from Deaf children 's visual literacy events. Implications for teaching of hearing childre .


The aim of study (Ross ,2004 , Doctoral dissertation) the report was to focus on the literacy events going on, in a preschool and during the fear year of school for the deaf , from the children's perseption . The study was a study of group of deaf children during a two years period. the study is enthographic.
The result of study showed that deaf children developed thir interes in reading and the writing during the first preschool years in much the same way as hearing children do. They showed a increasing meta linguistic awareness and a undertanding of fuction of written text. The result show that the children used several kinds of strategies in learning to read and write. Some of these strategies was regarding how to decode and remenber words and some had to do with the fact that childrear are visual oriented, seeing and not hearing. Result will be present in a paper suggesting that we could learn from deaf children 's strategies when working with hearing , with reading and writing dificulties

Visual Literacy, At the Crux of the Information Revolution

Visual literacy, as described by Yoram Eshet-Alkalai (a scholar from the Tel-Hai College in Israel), is most easily described as the recognition and translation inside the human mind, of icons in place of the traditional alphabet.

To illustrate, some examples of this that we are seeing more and more these days are the use of what are called "emoticons" by individuals while they are writing messages to indicate their current emotional state; which might otherwise be expressed as a written sentence.
Eg. =) is a way of showing that a person is in a happy mood, or wants to pass on the message of good will to the intended recipient of the message.

As we progress more and more toward the digital age, it is my firm belief that visual literacy will be the key to reaching plateaus otherwise unattainable by the antiquated methods currently employed by many educational faculties across the globe.

A report titled explorations (Visual Literacy in Higher Education), written in 2005 by Ron Bleed (a student hailing from Maricopa Community Colleges), speaks in depth about how the gap between younger generation kids and their teachers continues to widen. Especially in terms of communicating information, kids these days are learning in much different ways then their parents did back when they were in school.

It is largely suspected that the current supposed drop in literacy exhibited by this new generation (Generation X, and the Tweens), is primarily due to the scale on which they are being measured.

While the current teaching administration (largely consisting of Baby Boomers, or individuals from Generation Y) is still working with a curriculum that has its roots in traditional language instruction; kids are absorbing information visually via the internet, television, and other forms of mass media.

The truth is, many of these old platforms of learning that we currently rely on are very quickly becoming outdated. In the Maricopa Community College system changes are being made to incorporate visual literacy, and to revolutionize the way new students are taught to absorb content.

The next frontier for growth will be in the digital, not in the corporeal form. Currently, with our traditional alphabet and literacy structure, there are a great many limitations dictated by the basic nature of the medium with which it is communicated. However, in the digital world, truly limitless possibilities await us; the only barriers are that of lack of knowledge. Every day new breakthroughs are brought to light, and with them more opportunities for advancement.

The below video (taken from YouTube, and posted originally by MediaCircusDOTcom) demonstrates that the top ten likely in-demand jobs for 2010 will likely not have been available in 2004, and that they will probably require the use of technology that has not even been invented yet.

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How does visual literacy fit into this picture? It is how we will interpret all that the technological revolution has to offer. Our old methods of learning have taken us quite a ways, but if we are to grow as a species, we must acknowledge the necessity of moving forward. If we do not, we risk becoming stagnant as a society.

Times are changing, our understanding of visual literacy will dictate whether or not we are changing along with them.

Regards,

Ian Brinton

It will not be wrong if I say that “visuals help us to live every moment.” Because whenever the language is a verbal communication have barrier the visuals have played a vital role in helping us to communicate. The amount of information hidden in one small photo sometimes can be way more important and useful then a whole report on the topic. The code language of signs and symbols has already proved the statement to be true in many ways.



source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fq9iIxxA1s&feature=related

Source: http://www.designingthenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/info_caveman.png
In today’s world, it is really important to communicate. We all have ton of ideas is stored in our small brain and so we need to communicate them with each other. Along with the regular style of verbal communication there is trend of visual communication taking over all the modes of communication. We all need to understand that it is not a new style of communication rather its one of the oldest method as the making pictures in the cave walls was the only mode of communication with the cave people. So even today it is playing a major role as all the advertisements we see in our daily life are the visual. We all know the importance of signs and symbols.

It is so important for any society nowadays to have photo visual literacy anywhere. I do believe photo visual literacy is necessary because:

• It makes the life easier for people; for example, to find the mail box, and to find subway/RT stations.

• It helps people to meet their needs; for example, a sign over the bathroom door helps people decide which bathroom to use.

• It keeps people safe all the time, which helps to avoid car accidents and traffic jams.

• It helps people to recognize trade markets, which is easier to find specific stores.

Photo visual literacy is a worldwide language for everyone to understand.