Visual Literacy

Theo Kuechel, Jeff Beaudry and Sarah Ritz-Swain | View as single page |
Visual Literacy
Definitions
Why Visual Literacy is important in Education
Context
Pedagogical Strategies
Resources
What is VL, why should teachers know this
What would a VL teacher or learner know?
How does VL relate to other literacies?
What pedagogical strategies make use of the affordances of VL
Where can teachers find resources to support VL?
What should teachers know about VL?
An understanding of the importance of VL
What are the constituent parts of VL?
What pedagogical concepts does VL involve?
Communities of Practice
Why is the history of visual learning important for teachers
Practical competences and skills related to visual literacy
The basic elements of VL; the grammar and syntax of visual media
Which pedagogical questions can teachers ask to develop VL
Tools and platforms
Links and sources
Areas for further research
Strength of Evidence
Transferability
Editors' Comments

What pedagogical concepts does visual literacy involve?

The ISTE Visual Literacy toolbox asks the following question:

“What do you want your learners to be able to do? What do you want your learners to focus on? What are you hoping they can get out of using images?

and suggests the following activities (paraphrased and divided into two categories). These concepts provide skills that enable learners to read images with greater understanding!

Visual Interpretation (‘reading’ visual artefacts)

  • Abstraction: The concept of abstraction is challenging but fundamental to all art and visual imagery. Studying this will help learners gain a better understanding of the relationship between abstraction and representation in visual images.
  • Framing and Gaze: What visual choices are involved when any image is constructed to impacts a viewer's experience.
  • Interpretation:  Is about how to describe, interpret, and/or compare images
  • Translation:  Explore the multiple relationships between images and other images, and images and text. Strategies focus on the cognitive processes involved in translating between words and image!

Visual Construction (making)

  • Construction:  Negotiate the constructed nature of images. creating and engaging with visual and multimedia compositions, mediated communication, historical knowledge, and social norms.
  • Application:  Use visual media to understand and apply theories and explain key concepts in a given field

( adapted from ISTE Visual Literacy toolbox - no date)

The following references are part of the evidence base for this resource.

Sims, E. et al., Visual literacy: what is it and do we need it to use learning

The evolution of the visual language

Visual literacy - ISTE Use images to understand and apply theories and key concepts in your field. (2013)

 http://www.humanities.umd.edu/vislit/index.php u

Visual Literacy toolbox, Reading Images (2013)  http://www.humanities.umd.edu/vislit/activities.php

Visual literacy - ISTE. http://www.iste.org/docs/excerpts/MEDLIT-excerpt.pdf.

 

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