Impact of Visual literacy and the Internet

“Visual literacy is the ability to understand and use images. This includes to think, learn, and express oneself in terms of images.” (Lamb, 2001) We live in a society where we are surrounded by visual imagery. Whether it is street signs, posters, store displays, billboards, instructions, or even warnings, we are constantly exposed to images and we’re expected to interpret them.

Being able to decode imagery is an essential skill for today’s learners; and, they need to be able to evaluate what they see with a critical eye. Some images are designed to deceive, especially in advertising (and finance, apparently). Equally important, the ability to encode imagery is an essential skill for today’s workers. So, how are our children expected to learn these skills?

We have the opportunity every day to teach visual literacy to our students in elementary through high school. Students love visual stimulation. Videos, clip arts, graphs, illustrations, and pictures – we already use these because they are engaging to our students and can help deepen understanding of the content. We can take our teaching to the next level by letting the students discover key ideas through analysis of a visual. For example, instead of a teacher lecturing on the events leading to the Boston Tea Party, the students can be given a set of pictures (newspaper headlines, artist renderings, etc) and try to figure out what happened. After they’ve analyzed the images, they can compare their conjectures to the historical facts. This lends itself to higher order thinking skills and it creates a natural curiosity – Why did the colonials dump the tea into the harbor? What were they so angry about? ...

I intend to implement a variety of visual-thinking strategies in my classroom. I want my students to discover mathematical concepts for themselves. Not only will we use the internet for research, web quests and virtual field trips, but we will also visit websites such as www.explorelearning.com where students can see and discover math using Gizmos, or www.creately.com where students can collaboratively create graphic organizers. To top it all off, we will use programs like Windows Movie Maker or Photoshop to create presentations that synthesizes everything we’ve learned.

Sources:

Cinergix Pty. Ltd. (2008-2009) Creately: Online Diagramming and Design. Retrieved May 24, 2010 from http://www.creately.com/

ExploreLearning (2010). Experience Math and Science With Gizmos. Retrieved May 24, 2010 from http://www.explorelearning.com/

Lamb, Annette (2001). Visual Literacy. Retrieved May 23, 2010 from http://eduscapes.com/sessions/digital/digital1.htm

I found this video on youtube. It's a perfect example of today's

visual learner.

YouTube (2009). Gizmo Factor Trees by Cole. Retrieve May 25, 2010 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vN_GLy9tFA

Instructional Stategies

Marc Pensky wrote in his article, Digital Natives, Digital Imigrants, "Our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach." Because this generation has been submerged in technology, their brains have formed differently, they have a different structure than older generations, and they have different thinking patterns. We need to apply a variety of instructional strategies in order to effectively teach them.

As educators, we have had to redesign our approach to teaching. Smaldino describes the new direction in education to be "away from the 'old' pedagogy of teachers 'telling'... to the 'new' pedagogy of kids teaching themselves with teacher’s guidance." In order to accomplish this, we need highly engaging activities that guide the students to discovery of concepts. We need a way to scaffold and differentiate these activities. We need lessons that appeal to our visual, tactile and auditory learners. We need to consider both our left-brain and right-brain learners. We need to consider our students with disabilities; are we meeting their IEP's? And on top of all of this, we need to remember that Lucy and Ricky need to be kept separated because they just broke up and they're emotional wrecks. Wheew...

So, what's the answer? How can I accomplish all this? TECHNOLOGY. I just don't see a better way. My idea of the ideal classroom is where the students work in learning centers, geared to their individual needs. If they need remediation and skill building, they get it. If they are ready to be challenged, they get it. Whether they are playing educational computer games, webquests, online tutorials,or SMARTBoard activites,computer software is an efficient, low-prep way to provide an individualized education experience.

Sources:
Pensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. Retrieved May 11, 2010 from http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf

Smaldino,S.E.(2008). Instructional Technology and Media for Learning, Ninth Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

This video shows the planning that goes into a lesson and how different strategies are required to reach all learners:

I teach turkeys : )

I teach 9th grade math and my students are contstantly up to something. So I call them turkeys; but don't get me wrong - it really is a term of endearment, sort of a pet name. And, it helps me de-esculate small conflicts - "John - stop being a turkey and give him back his pencil" somehow works every time!