As we continue to explore the concept of 21st century literacy, there are numerous resources available to guide our thinking, including ISTE’s National Educational Technology Standards, the enGauge 21st Century Skills, and the Partnership for 21st Century Skills.  As a School, it is important that we come to understand these literacies and establish a universal framework that meets our needs.  Having previously reviewed Basic Literacy, we can now turn our attention to the idea of Visual/Media Literacy.

Visual Literacy

To say that we live in a visual, media-rich world is an understatement.  Television, print media, and the Internet dominate and frequently overload our senses; charts, graphs, and tables abound.  The ability to draw meaning from images, often referred to as Visual Literacy, was first coined in 1969 by John Debes:

Visual Literacy refers to a group of vision-competencies a human being can develop by seeing and at the same time having and integrating other sensory experiences. The development of these competencies is fundamental to normal human learning. When developed, they enable a visually literate person to discriminate and interpret the visible actions, objects, symbols, natural or man-made, that he encounters in his environment. Through the creative use of these competencies, he is able to communicate with others. Through the appreciative use of these competencies, he is able to comprehend and enjoy the masterworks of visual communication.

A more recent and concise interpretation of Visual Literacy comes from the NCREL/Metri Group:

Visual Literacy is the ability to interpret, use, appreciate, and create images and video using both conventional and 21st century media in ways that advance thinking, decision-making, communication, and learning.

Regardless of how it is defined, Visual Literacy is essential and a “visual” can take many forms.  Visual-Literacy.org has created an amazing, interactive graphic that includes 100 types of visual representations, classified into six types of visualization methods, and organized into a periodic table:

Although we (and our students) may not be familiar with many of these nonlinguistic representations, graphic organizers, concept maps, data tables, pictographs, and other simple visuals have a place within the curriculum.  Text is but one method by which to acquire knowledge and demonstrate understanding and, as the adage goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words.”

Media Literacy

Media Literacy, which is closely related to Visual Literacy, focuses on the use of images in mass media.  The Partnership for 21st Century Skills has outlined three characteristics of a media literate society:

• Understand how media messages are constructed, for what purposes and using which tools, characteristics and conventions.
• Examine how individuals interpret messages differently, how values and points of view are included or excluded and how media can influence beliefs and behaviors.
• Possess a fundamental understanding of the ethical/legal issues surrounding the access and use of information

MIT’s Comparative Media Studies program has taken the concept even farther and created The New Media Literacies, a set of literacy skills for our participatory culture.  The white paper Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century explores the skills in detail, but this short clip provides a good overview of contemporary media literacy:

YouTube Direkt

Media is no longer something only to be passively consumed; today’s students are active producers with the potential to reach a world-wide audience.  Images, video, audio, and text can easily be mixed, remixed, and shared.  Learning to use multimedia tools is easy; learning to use them to communicate effectively is a challenge, and the classroom presents an ideal learning environment.

Implications for Teaching and Learning

What does Visual/Media Literacy mean for our students?  Improved learning.   Dr. Lynell Burkmark, in her article Integrating Media into the Classroom, summarizes recent findings:

The research is in. Humans process images 60,000 times faster than text. With visually rich multimedia, students learn faster, remember better, and can apply their understanding and skills to new situations. Illustrations contribute to interest and enjoyment, affect attitudes and emotions, and provide spatial information that is difficult to express in words. Groups using illustrated texts (versus text alone) perform 36 percent better on tests! Even better: when teaching is based on appropriate images with voiceover narration, recall and retention are boosted 42 percent and transfer is increased a whopping 89 percent!

As we consider the role of Visual/Media Literacy in our academic program, we need to (1) identify opportunities for incorporating visuals into our teaching methodologies, and (2) provide students direct instruction and guided/independent practice in creating, interpreting, and evaluating media.  Learning to read visuals, like learning to read text, is a life-long skill that our students require for success.

Posted: 12|1|08 at 5:49 pm. Filed under: Imaging, Literacy.
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