Visual Literacy

“Visual literacy is a learned “reading” of images.”  Until I read this article, I never realized how important it is to be able to look at something and totally understand what is going on or what is being represented.  After learning to carefully analyze the pictures of President Obama, I have realized the importance of teaching visual literacy to all ages.   

A corresponding article I found was “Visual Literacy in Higher Education.”  This article talked about the importance of shifting to new forms of literacy because of the multiple ways younger generations communicate.  Another interesting point this article addresses is the use of photo editing software such as Flickr, where the image can be changed in numerous ways and can have different tags.   So a photo can be changed to have a completely different meaning.  Without visual literacy, people can easily be persuaded to believe whatever the media wants them to believe. 

Abilock, Debbie. (n.d.). A seven-power lens on 21st-century learning. Retrieved from http://www.noodletools.com/debbie/literacies/newsmedia/PowerLensSingle.pdf

Bleed, Ron. (2005). Visual literacy in higher education. Retrieved from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI4001.pdf

Photo Analysis

Photo 1

People	Objects	Activities
President Obama	Plants?	Thinking?
	Books?	Reading?

Three things you might infer from this photograph:
1.  He is thinking about a situation.

2.  He is worried about a situation.

3.  He is reading from a computer screen.

What questions does this photograph raise in your mind?
1.  Why does he have a worried look on his face? 
2.  Has he encountered a situation that could cause major problems?

Where could you find answers to them?

·         1.  You could find the source(s) where this picture is published to find out when the photo was taken and what the current situation is.

People	Objects	Activities
President Obama	American Flags	Laughter
Navy Officials?	Ship	Walking together as a group
People of different races

Three things you might infer from this photograph:

1. The president had a meeting with naval officials.
2.   The president attended a ceremony.
3. The president has reached a peaceful agreement. 

What questions does this photograph raise in your mind?

1.       Why is everyone so happy?

2.       Why was the president at this location?

Where could you find answers to them?

·         1.  You could find the source(s) where this photo was published to determine what was happening at this point of time and at this specific location.

Introduction Post

GA's Journey

Hello everyone! My name is Amy Phillips. I am from Buckhannon, WV. I currently live in Fairmont, WV and work at the NASA IV&V Facility Educator Resource Center as a Graduate Assistant organizing student programs. I hope to get ideas and learn techniques to teach students the importance of correctly criticizing and understanding the texts that they encounter everyday.

Double Entry Journal #1

“We are immersed from cradle to grave in a media and consumer society and thus it is important to learn how to understand, interpret, and criticize its meanings and messages” (xii).

This quote states the overwhelming truth that the ideology of our society can no longer overlook the importance of media literacy in our everyday lives.  We encounter some form of political or economical discourse in the media everyday that affects our subjectivity to our personal views. Therefore, it is important to be able to analyze texts to understand the positive and/or negative views that people could interpret.   Media literacy and critical media literacy both use high order thinking skills, incorporate multiple learning styles to have students embrace their cultural background and prior knowledge, and involve the intertextuality approach as a way for people to construct meaning.  But in today’s society, it is important to teach critical media literacy that expands media literacy where one can learn the necessary skills and understandings of civic engagement. 

The article titled, “Critical Media Literacy is not an option” by Douglas Kellner and Jeff Share agrees with the importance of critically analyzing all forms of text to transform education and society.  This article reinforces the quote that I began with by saying, “We recommend that media education programs be instituted from preschool to university and that linking media literacy with production become a regular practice.”  If these skills are instilled in us at an early age and reinforced through our early adult years, they will stay with us for our lifetime. 

Critical media literacy. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.iresist.org/media.html

Kellner, Douglas, & Share, Jeff. (2007). Critical media literacy is not an option. Retrieved from http://ucla.academia.edu/JeffShare/Papers/124672/Critical_Media_Literacy_is_Not_an_Option