“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
I love Flickr. It's a free photo editing site that allows you to upload any picture you have and creatively change it. Although, I don't think students understand that most commercials and photographs are digitally enhanced just like they could do on Flickr.
ReplyDeleteSome Elementary and Middle School students tend to believe that every image they view on the web, is an actual picture. This reinforces our need to place emphasis on critical media skills in our curriculum.
ReplyDeleteI've seen this with my daughter. She looks at magazine covers and tells me how beautiful the models are. Although I've told her several times, she still finds it hard to believe that the photos are airbrushed and edited to give the cover models impossible figures and remove any imperfections. I think it is extremely important to teach students today how easy it is for images to be changed and edited so they can be critical consumers and make wise choices.
ReplyDeleteThis is a good choice in quotes and I agree with your analysis. I do, however, believe it would be hard to tell what is actually being said with an image. The way images are cropped to show only what they want you to see, is difficult to know without seeing the picture in full context.
ReplyDeleteHere is a link to before and after celebrity photos with photoshop.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csHGXRbuM8M&feature=related
There a ton of these!
Although many pictures in magazine are photoshopped and many people know it, I think it would be great if one magazine would only print unedited photos. I wonder how many models and celebrities would want to be on that cover?
ReplyDelete