Visual Dictionary

This image of the heart is taken directly from the Visual Dictionary Online (http://visual.merriam-webster.com/about-visual_overview.php) , a tool I found when I was doing some basic research about visual literacy. It's very competent learning tool that verbally and visually defines a word. It's really cool, especially for a learner who may respond to both the verbal and visual cues this provides.

I think this type of resources is essential to the next step in e-learning. If I were teaching an online sports injury course I would be able to pull these images and show the injury to the exact bone or muscle and the students would be able to look up these images as well.

In class on Monday we talked about the importance of visual support for learners and how to create some effective images. What do you all think about this tool? (Be sure to check out the "themes" on the link...all kinds of cool stuff!) Would you use something like this as a student or as a teacher? What other types of online visual aids have you found that support learning?

I look forward to reading your responses!

We Live in a Visual World...

...but does that mean I am a creative girl?! (anyone know that material girl song? that's what song I was imagining while writing that)

We are SO blessed to have sight. Sometimes I daydream, often while taking walks about how amazing our senses are. Once I lost my taste and smell from using zicam, dont buy that stuff. I prayed that if God gave me my senses back I would never use zicam again and I havent. While I really enjoy all five senses, we are going to think about one in particular for this post in light of creativity in visual design and learning.

Do you guys ever think about stuff like that?! We live in a beautiful world. Every day we wake up (if it is early enough haha) to splashes of pink, red, orange, yellow, and blue and see the world go to sleep in the same way. Grass turns green and soft, or brown and hard. The leaves on trees are either green or have eye catching warm colors on them, or they are absent. We can see different shapes and colors of clouds.

What do all those descriptions teach us? So much- about the weather, about the seasons, and about the temperature..

The majority of people were created to be highly visual individuals. We learn so much by our sight. Not all of us necessarily prefer to learn visually but as educators we need to be knowledgable about both how we learn, and how our audience learns.

What kind of learner are you?- Visual? Auditory? Kinesthetic?
We're going to focus on visual learners.

For one minute, reflect on how much you know from visual cues, images, pictures, etc. Ready, Set, Go!!!

What did you write down? We learn so much through our eyes.
- 80% of the brain is dedicated to visual processing.
- Visual processing is not new, its part of our history.
- Written language originated from drawing and sketching.

Now for a minute draw a couple things that you have learned visually? What did you draw?

In light of being an educator, designer, does one have to be a super creative person that knows exactly what colors and shapes will look good, for what purposes, etc?

I found this PPT and was definitely encouraged by it. Please go check it out.

We are a lot more creative and visual than we think out on a daily basis. Dont take your sight for granted. Be thankful for it!

Using Visual Literacy for social development

The other day while having a telephone conversation with my younger sister (who is a senior in high school), she expressed that she was having difficulties in her photography/graphic design class. Surprised by the fact that this course was offered at her school, I quizzed her a little more about the curriculum of her class. Again, she surprised me when she mentioned several topics (on a broader level) that we have discussed in class such as image organization, the rule of thirds, and how to use color. While my sister has no desire to go into a visual based field, she said that this course was an art elective that she was required to take in order to graduate.
While my high school career only ended around six years ago, I do not recall courses such as this being offered. However, through further research on the topic of teaching “visual literacy” at the high school level, I found that this has become much more common. In a 2008 article by Debby Zambo (which I have sent in an e-mail to all of you), she discusses how teaching the concepts of visual literacy to adolescents have been proven to help them greatly in their social development as well as enhances their critical thinking skills.
The article explains that our youth today live in a very visual world and as such this can affect how they look at themselves, the choices they make about their future as well as the friends they select. For this reason the author believes that knowing how to “interrogate and critique an image’s purpose and emotional effect” can help adolescent to let go of some surface level values they have acquired about image, culture and society.
In class last week, we talked about how creating visuals can be a science and an art. While I agree that both realms come into play, I believe this study makes a strong case for viewing it as a science. The idea that the images we create could potentially have an effect on how someone views themselves or judges other people is a scary-thought in itself. However, knowing that in high schools we are using the principles and concepts of visual literacy to help breakdown these social barriers is a powerful thing.
As a behavioral science major it interested me to see how analyzing different graphics and photographs made me challenge my own values. Below I have included images which have come under scrutiny for the psychological and contreversial messages they conveyed to those who viewed them.

I’m very interested to see the classes opinion on teaching visual literacy in high school, but also on these images, and the messages you believe were conveyed through the editing and composition of these graphics, and the techniques used to hone the points each image made.

Controversial Graphics:

Image #1: Killer Heels

Image 2: OJ Simpson Covers

Image 3: United Hearts