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

Expanding the concept of Literacy

Elizabeth Daley

EDUCAUSE review. March/April 2003. pp 33 - 40.

What is your definition of “literacy”? I, like a majority of people would say, the ability to read and write, for that is the definition I grew up with. But what about media literacy? Is that different from “literacy”?
Elizabeth Daley’s article, Expanding the Concept of Literacy, suggests four arguments for an expanded definition of literacy:
1 – The multimedia language of the screen has become the current vernacular.
2 – The multimedia language of the screen is capable of constructing complex meanings independent of text.
3 – The multimedia language of the screen enables modes of thought, ways of communicating and conducting research, and methods of publication and teaching that are essentially different from those of text.
4 – Lastly, following from the previous three arguments, those who are truly literate in the twenty-first century will be those who learn to both read and write the multimedia language of the screen.

http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0322.pdf

I want to concentrate mostly on argument #4, but also want to highlight a few phrases from the first three; phrases I feel are the highlights of each section.
#1 - “Metaphors from the screen have become common in every aspect of daily conversations. Close-up is synonymous for “in-depth” and “penetrating.” We speak of flashing back to our earlier lives. We frame events to put them in context. We cut to the chase when we are in a hurry.”

#2 - “The author, a respected art historian, asserted that it was time for the academy to give up a deeply ingrained suspicion of images and realize that the visual could indeed contain intellectual content…”
“Like text, multimedia can enable us to develop concepts and abstractions, comparison and metaphors, while at the same time engaging our emotional and aesthetics sensibilities.”
“Think also for a moment of historic cinematic moments: the first moon landing; the planes slamming into the World Trade Center. What would it be like to try to fully share these and other momentous events without access to the language and power of the screen?”

#3 - “Accepting the language of multimedia as co-equal with text will require a major paradigm shift that challenges the domination of science and rationality, abstraction and theory.”
“Interactivity as a core factor in multimedia is in some ways closely related to performance and can enable the viewer/reader/user to participate directly in the construction of meaning.”

#4 – “Even with this history and ample evidence of the skill required to construct media, the attitude widely help by both faculty and administration is that complex media texts do not deserve classroom or research time, especially if such study might take emphasis away from traditional activities such as essays and research papers.”
“No doubt, young people today have less fear of the computer and more technical ability with software for rich media; multimedia is needed in their everyday language. However, they have no more critical ability with this language as do their elders – perhaps less. They need to be taught to write for the screen and analyze multimedia just as much as, if not more than, they need to be taught to write and analyze any specific genre in text”

My question to you:
Do you think a “beginners” multimedia class should be included in the freshman or sophomore required classes, no matter what the major might be? When you were an undergrad, did you wish you had known more about the multimedia world? Did you need it as an undergrad?
Would you have taken a multimedia crash course the summer before you started your Master’s program if it had been offered? If it was online? What if it was required?

Personally I would have loved a crash course in the basic multimedia software I have used during my two years in this program – both AHRD and Ed Tech. It is very frustrating for me to stumble my way through assignments and yet not have the real time to sit down and discover the functions on my own. When school is out, that is when I have my free time. And you can be assured I will be playing with all of the software I can to gain the confidence I need going into my last year of the Ed Tech program!

The Whole of Gestalt

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Gestalt: The Whole Part
In this picture we tend to see a triangle and a sqaure instead of unregular figures
http://www.uic.edu/classes/psych/psych352jw/c4.html
The fundamental principle of gestalt perception is the law of prägnanz.
"The law of Pragnanz says that we try to experience things in as good a gestalt way as possible. In this sense, "good" can mean several things, such as regular, orderly, simplistic, symmetrical, etc." [Grika,2005]. We see this everyday in particular with advertising in logo's and signs that may be incomplete yet can catch our eye as unusual. However, we quickly can see the whole picture because our mind wants to create order to the incomplete image.
An example in advertising of this phenonenom is the logo for Federal Express: At first we tend to see the words but then hidden between the letters E and x is the arrow indicating delivery. We see it but then tend to go back to what may seem simpler and more complete. It is somewhat perceived yet moves on to the name of the organization. Again, Gestalt is about the relationship of parts to the whole.
How do you see this law as important to instruction when designing materials that capture the whole concept in many parts? Why is it important for businesses when creating an image?

Posted by John at 1:52 PM 0 comments
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)