Visual Literacies

After reading Richardson's chapter about Flickr, I decided to create a Flickr account to see what all the excitement was about. I also decided to create my own Wordle (posted below). However, before I even got on the computer to make a Wordle, I asked a co-worker (who is an IT graduate student at SU) if she knew what they were. After we looked at the Website for Wordle, we realized that a Wordle of Syracuse University's School of Education was printed, framed, and is hanging in the basement of Huntington Hall!

Anyways, what I noticed about the genre of "visual literacies", from the readings and from my explorations of the Web, include uses of digital images, photographs, authentic documents, collages, paintings, posters, ads, comics, newspaper headlines, etc. According to Long, these types of materials are chosen by teachers to "Touch the students emotionally as well as cognitively" (2008, p. 507).

Flickr, which is "social software where the contributors interact and share and learn from each other in creative and interesting ways" has many applications for classroom use (Richardson, 2011, p. 102). Teachers can use Flickr in their classrooms to create presentations and slide shows; share daily events or highlights with parents, community members, and colleagues; create a "photo stream" of field trips, classroom guests, special projects, etc.; publish student work; teach about social software, and teach geography by integrating with Google Earth. Something as simple as historic pictures were used in Long's article to motivate students and get them involved in a unit of study, driven by the "full circling" approach. McVicker's article focused on using comic strips to "motivate disengaged readers, offering an ingenious hook to reading that can ultimately bridge their literacy interests to more conventional text structures" (2007, p. 86). Comic strips were used to teach students comprehension strategies and print concepts, such as using "picture clues, context clues, phonics cues, basic sight words, main-ideas practice, and sequencing skills" (McVicker, 2007, p. 88).

Literacies involved in "visual literacies" allow for the definition of literacy to be "broadened to include literacy skills necessary for individuals, groups, and societies to access the best information in the shortest time and to identify and solve the most important problems and then communicate this information" (McVicker, 2007, p. 85). Therefore, literacies include reading both text and visuals for understanding and responding in a way that shows your understanding. For example, looking at a historic picture, reading about that time period, and writing a story as if you lived during that period. If for example, students were creating a Wordle, they would have to type up a piece of their writing and paste it into the Wordle Website. This would include the writing literacies, computer literacies, and website navigation literacies.

Visual literacy technology has great potential to transform literacy teaching and learning. Visual literacy is "motivating for young readers to become recreational readers, enabling them to expand their vocabulary knowledge, to engage their imaginations, and to inspire a love of reading" (McVicker, 2007, p. 86). Teachers should expose students to visual literacies early and often because of their growing use in today's world.