Filed under: Uncategorized
This presentation was created by Emma Phillips & Glenda Baker for Assignment 2 in Cyberculture and Education, University of Melbourne. June 2008.
Bibliography
Baumann, M. (2007). Slimming Down with Wii Sports. Information Today , 24 (4):47 retrieved 14 May, 2008 from: https://ezproxy.lib.unimelb.edu.au/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=24618876&site=ehost-live
Bustle, L.S. (2004). The role of visual representation in the assessment of learning [Media Literacy department]. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 47(5). Retrieved May 23, 2008 from: http://www.readingonline.org/newliteracies/lit_index.asp?HREF=/newliteracies/jaal/2-04_column/index.html
Consortium, High Plains Regional Technology in Education. (2000-2001). Kids’ Vid. Retreived May 26, 2008 from: http://kidsvid.altec.org/
Dias, L. B., & Atkinson, S. (2001). Technology Integration: Best Practices- Where Do Teachers Stand? International Electronic Journal For Leadership in Learning , 5 (10). Retrieved May 23, 2008 from: http://www.ucalgary.ca/~iejll/
Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. New York: Basic Books.
Gardner, H. (2004). A Multiplicity of Intelligences: In Trribute to Professor Luigi Vignolo. Retreived May 23, 2008 from: http://www.howardgardner.com/
Gardner, H. (2005). Mutiple Lenses On The Mind. ExpoGestion Conference. Bogota, Colombia.
Gardner, H. (2006). Can Technology Exploit Our Many Ways of Knowing? Retrieved May 16, 2008 from: http://www.howardgardner.com
Hall, H. (2006). Let’s Take a Cruise to Create Online Learning Objects Which Encourage Higher Level Thinking. (H. Gardner, Editor) Retreived May16, 2008 from: http://www.howardgardner.com/
Lansberger, J. (1996). Visual Spatial Learning. Retrieved May 20, 2008 from: http://www.studygs.net/visual.htm#1
Mann, R. L. (2001). Eye to Eye: connecting with gifted visual-spatial leaners (teaching strategies). Gifted Child Today , 24 (4): 54(4) retrieved, May 12, 2008 from: http://find.galegroup.com.ezproxy.lib.unimelb.edu.au/itx/start.do?prodId=EAIM
McHugh, M. W. (2007). Differentiating Instruction in the Regular Classroom: How to Reach and Teach All Learners, Grades 3-12. Journal for the Education of the Gifted , 30 (3): 404 ( 8 )
Nintendo. (2006). Wii. Retrieved May 28, 2008 from: http://wiiportal.nintendo-europe.com/9.html
Nolen, J. L. (2003, Fall). Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom. Education 124 (1) . Retrieved May 12, 2008 from https://ezproxy.lib.unimelb.edu.au/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=11047099&site=ehost-live
Osiak, S. Y., & Milheim, W. D. (2001). Mulitple Intelligences and the design of Web-based instruction. Intenational Journal of Instructional Media , 28 (4):355(7)
Peltier, M. (2007). ‘Wii’ can work it out. Nursing Homes: Long Term Care Management , 56 (9):72(2)
Shaw, E. L., Baggett, P. V., & Salyer, B. (2004). Kidspiration for Inquiry-Centered Activities. Science Activities , 41 (1):3(6)
The O’Connell Centre. (2002). Web Quests. Retreived May 14, 2008 from: http://www.occ.act.edu.au/home/itpd/webquests/intro.htm
Thomas, P. (2005). Overlaying ICTs Into an Integrated Curriculum: a Learning Contract Process for Middle Years and Primary. Quick , 96 (Spring).
Veenema, S., & Gardner, H. (1996). Multimedia and Multiple Intelligences. The American Prospect , 29: 69(7)
West, T. (1992). A return to visual thinking: in education and in the workplace, we’ll see a higher regard for visualisation skills and talents . Computer Graphics World , 15 (11): 115(2)
Filed under: Uncategorized
Wikipedia defines Media Literacy as ‘the process of accessing, analyzing, evaluating and creating messages in a wide variety of media modes, genres and forms. It uses an inquiry-based instructional model that encourages people to ask questions about what they watch, see and read.’ Media Literacy education should aim to ‘provides tools to help people critically analyze messages to detect in news and public affairs programming (and the reasons for such), and to understand how structural features – such as media ownership, or its funding model affect the information presented. (Wikipedia, 2008)
Artist Barbara Kruger commentates on how the media & advertising influence society. Image source: http://www.wdog.com/rider/writings/real_kruger.htm
Filed under: Uncategorized
Exploring connections with Cyberculture – how ICT can be used to extend visual literacy skills and visual-spatial intelligence and learning styles.
The following are recommendations of technology based programs that specifically cater for the learning needs of the visual-spatially intelligent and those who seek to specifically teach the myriad of skills associated with visual literacy:
CD-Roms present both ‘pictorial and textual renderings of content’ thereby dissolving the often single-dimension perspectives of text books. They make possible ‘a complex rendering of an event’ and help students form more rich representations of concepts and ‘cultivate deeper understandings’. (Veenema & Gardner, 1996, p74) CD-Roms provide greater access through virtual environments, allow all students access to information and are therefore not reliant on teacher skill or enthusiasm. They allow students non-linear access which supports the visual-spatial learners whose erudition takes place ‘all at once, through large chunks of information grasped in intuitive leaps, rather than in the gradual accretion of isolated facts.’ (Lansberger, 1996) CD-Romds appeal to the visual and auditory senses, bringing information and stories to life through image and sound – an ideal resource for those who think in pictures.
Graphic Organisers and Mapping Tools allow learners to create pictorial representations to anchor their thinking. As well as empowering them with visual classification tools, stiudents can use such programs to help organise and explain the steps of their holistic rather than sequential thinking. (Mann, 2001, p. 47) Specifically, Kidspiration is a software program designed to ‘facilitate the creation of visual diagrams’ as well as ‘linear outlines to organize information and express thoughts’. (Shaw, Baggett, & Salyer, 2004) Ideas which are sequential or hierarchical as well as random and brainstormed may be portrayed in graphic organizers, concepts maps or knowledge webs. (ibid)
For full instruction on Kidspiration see the video below.
Animation or 3D modeling software such as Toon Boon or Anim8or – support the ability to form mental imagery of the world and to manipulate those mental images. Anim8or is a child friendly 3D modelling and character animation program created as an alternative to the commercial programs aimed for use by professionals, such as Lightwave. CAD (Computer Aided Design) software such as Google Sketchup, is simple to use and allows students to conceptualise and share the 3D images they see in their imagination.
Nintendo Wii
When the Nintendo Entertainment System premiered in United States in 1986, the video game console became a ‘must-have for a generation of youngsters’. (Peltier, 2007, p. 72) Now, 20 years later, ‘a new Nintendo system is wowing another generation.’ (ibid) The Wii is unlike previous home video game systems. Nintendo state that the ‘Wii console and its revolutionary motion-sensitive controller, the Wii Remote, have been designed so that anyone can enjoy games, whatever their ability or experience’. (Nintendo, 2006) It represents a ‘radical step into a new era of entertainment’ as it ‘makes you feel less like a player and more like you’re in the game’. ‘Forget about pushing a button to start a golf backswing. Wii lets you swing the club! (ibid) Understandably, Nintendo claims to have created the ‘most inviting, inclusive video game system to date.’ (ibid) It is the first widely motion-controlled video game console with an interface that requires physical activity. (Baumann, 2007, p. 47)
The application for learners with visual-spatial intelligence or those wishing to teach visual literacy are obvious. An excellent example is the Wii program called ‘Endless Ocean’. It is a simulation program where the player is a ‘Marine Correspondent with the Oceanic Research Society’ who is free to ‘discover the wonders of the Manaurai Sea’. (Nintendo, 2006) As visual-spatial learners enjoy interdisciplinary investigations and easily make connections between disciplines based on real life scenarios, this program is ideal. (Mann, 2001, p. 54)
The virtual environment appeals to the visual leaner. ‘Everything from the ocean bed to the hull of (the) ship has been recreated in painstaking detail.’ Visual learners, who prefer inductive learning(Mann, 2001, p. 56), are able to journey through the waters choosing to go on different diving missions, reading maps to direct the ship or diver, while collecting valuable artifacts, taking photos of rare fish and much more.
As visual-spatial learners prefer, the program allows the learner to move from different environments and tasks in a non-linear way. The player can store and retrieve various information at any time, view objects and scenes from a variety of visual perspectives, record information in a photographic and/ or written form, conduct further research and share information via the Internet or email via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.
Web Quests
The first model was developed in early 1995 at San Diego State University by Bernie Dodge and Tom March. WebQuest is an ‘inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all the information that learners work with comes from the web’. (The O’Connell Centre, 2002) Since their inception, tens of thousands of teachers have embraced WebQuests as a way to make good use of the internet while engaging their students in the kinds of thinking that the 21st century requires.
There are specific web sites created for the Australian context such as those found at http://www.occ.act.edu.au/home/itpd/webquests/matrix.htm . WebQuests can literally be about anything and can be created by anyone, at any time, for any audience and purpose. eg What does it mean to be Australian? They are designed ‘to use learners’ time well, to focus on using information rather than looking for it, and to ‘support learners’ thinking at the levels of analysis, synthesis and evaluation’ (The O’Connell Centre, 2002) Most importantly, they are a very effective way to engage and support the visual-spatial learners need for visual presentation, non-linear learning, interaction with pictorial information and a combination of independent and co-operative learning as well as providing them with the opportunity to present their understandings through a visual form. Furthermore, WebQuests allow students to work to their strengths, writing or problem solving, developing graphics, images, sounds and video clips, etc, so that the intelligences are being used co-operatively to achieve the best possible outcome.
Multimedia drawing packages – such as KidPix or Hyperstudio 5.0 allow students to indulge their need to visualise their thoughts. Spatial intelligence can lend itself ‘to the ability of visual perception, while lacking in the ability to draw, imagine, or transform or vice versa’.(Nolen, 2003) These programs remove the limitations of artistic ability and allow these students to express their ideas in a form that makes sense to them.
Digital Media programs such as Photoshop to manipulate digital images – students can manipulate image to convey meaning in the same way a verbal-linguistic leaner may draft a speech or craft a poem. While programs such as Kids Vid are ‘an instructional web site to help teachers and students use video production in class to support project based learning’ (Consortium, High Plains Regional Technology in Education, 2000-2001) At the same time, video-conferencing allows users to conduct meetings between two or more participants at different sites by using computer networks to transmit audio and/or video data. For example, a point-to-point (two-person) video conferencing system works much like a video-telephone, with each participant using a video camera, microphone, and personal speakers to communicate over an electronic network. In a similar manner, multi-point videoconferencing allows three or more participants to sit in a virtual conference room and communicate as if they were all sitting next to each other. From a multiple intelligences perspective, these tools appeal to learners who are ‘linguistic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, bodily kinesthetic, and visual spatial.’ (Osiak & Milheim, 2001, p. 355)
image source: http://www.woostercollective.com/2007/07/11/brachappy.jpg
Filed under: Vis Lit for all
Visual literacy must be valued in and taught to all learners.
The theory of Multiple Intelligences has aroused enormous interest among educators in many parts of the world. Like the widely exhorted Constructivist theory, the MI approach is viewed as “child-centered” as planning begins with looking at how the child learns and then works to develop curriculum, instruction and assessment based on this information. Gardner asserts that the current Western system of education is skewed towards the logical-mathematical and linguistic intelligences and that teachers should think of all the MIs as equally important.
Furthermore, he argues that educators should structure the ‘presentation of material in a style which engages most or all of the intelligences (in the classroom) to achieve a deeper understanding of the subject material.’ (Gardner, 1993) To reach all the students in classrooms, educators need to understand the specific minds involved and base education, including choices of technology, on that knowledge. (Veenema & Gardner, 1996) Bustle (2004) states that the ‘marginalization of the visual intensifies as students move to upper grade levels where, over time, they are asked to replace image with text.’ Furthermore, ‘the value of visual representation decreases as textual representation increases.’ In other words, Bustle explains, ‘visual representations—the most accessible, plentiful, and powerful meaning-making devices in young peoples’ lives—are left largely unexplored and unchallenged.’ It is essential that teachers recognize and actively respond to this dichotomy.
Visual representation helps students to better understand and represent language. Bustle (2004) reports educators find that the visual process helps students to ‘tap into the words that they might otherwise never find’. Additionally, visual processes provide scaffolding that increases ‘motivation and interest; improves comprehension; and fosters higher level, abstract, and critical thinking.’ In fact, visual representation can be a means for ‘”leveling the playing field” across ability, allowing all students “to shine.”
Having a visual component in work process and presentation is a way for the children to internalise and express what they have learned. Artistic expressive engagements help students make deeply personal, introspective and emotive connections between new information and themselves. Surely this is as important as verbal-linguistic and logical-mathematical skills.
What is Visual Spatial Intelligence?
Visual-spatial Intelligence is one of the eight (or nine!) multiple Intelligences as outlined by cognitive psychologist, Howard Gardner. Gardner (1983) refuted the widely held belief that human beings possess a single, measurable ‘intelligence’ and concluded that we have ‘a number of relatively independent faculties.’ (Gardner, 2004, p 1,10) Ultimately, he proposed the existence of eight basic intelligences: verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, visual-spatial, bodily-kinesthetic interpersonal and intrapersonal and naturalistic intelligence and he is considering the possibility of a ninth, that of existential intelligence.(Gardner, 2005 p5)
Visual-spatial intelligence is defined as ‘the capacity to form mental imagery of the world—the large world of the aviator or navigator, or the more local world of the chess player or the surgeon—and to manipulate those mental images. (Gardner, 2005)
People with strong visual-spatial intelligence ‘can be taught through drawings, verbal and physical imagery. Tools include models, graphics, charts, photographs, drawings, 3-D modeling, video, videoconferencing, television, multimedia, texts with pictures/charts/graphs.’ (ibid) Visual spatial learners erudition takes place ‘all at once, through large chunks of information grasped in intuitive leaps, rather than in the gradual accretion of isolated facts, small steps or habit patterns gained through practice’. (Lansberger, 1996) Some psychologists argue that visual-spatial abilities should be seen as a special form of intelligence on a par with the traditionally valued verbal and logical-mathematical intelligences. It has been asserted that the traditional subjects of education of reading, writing and arithmetic are ‘about to be outdated by an emphasis on visualization techniques.’ (West, 1992, p. 115) West claims that as ‘machines will be doing much of the work in the future, people must learn to develop their human talents, including visual thought.’ As a result ‘we’ll see a higher regard for visualisation skills and talents’ in education and in the work place. (ibid)
Filed under: cyberculture
“…while traditional research papers help students collect factual information on their topics of study, artistic or expressive engagements help students make deeply personal, introspective and emotive connections between new information and themselves–and these engagements allow them to internallise information.” (Bustle, 2004.)
An example of a student digital portfolio using Voicethread. Images and video are included along with voice recordings or text comments from the student. This tool allows others to comment and ask questions.
Howard Gardner recommends the use of information and communication technology (ICTs) to cater for the different dominant intelligences within the classroom setting. (Gardner 1983, 2004, 2005, 2006) He argues that ICTs, when compared with more traditional methods, can ‘inculcate deeper forms of understanding by providing a variety of minds access to knowledge to help students form rich representations of a subject matter.’ (Veenema & Gardner, 1996 p74) However, Gardner (2006) warns us that before embracing any new technology, we need to ‘declare the educational goals and demonstrate how a particular technology can help us to achieve them.’
ICT can be used in a myriad of ways to explicitly teach visual literacy and enhance visual-spatial intelligence. Extensive and careful planning from the teacher and scaffolding for the learner are required. Educators need to be mindful of the research that suggests that most software programs will emphasise the verbal-linguistic intelligence with some application of inter and intra-personal intelligences which is what traditional teaching tend to do anyway. (Veenema & Gardner, 1996.)
Why use ICT?
Technologies can make materials vivid, easy to access and fun to play with and ‘readily address the multiple ways of knowing.’ (Gardner, 2006) Multimedia ICT gives students maximum opportunities to draw on their own distinctive blend of intelligence and e-learning activities can be used to cater for students’ preferred learning styles. (Hall, 2006) Multimedia systems support visual learners’ preference for nonlinear learning as they allow the user to ‘move smoothly and rapidly between a number of different areas depending on his/her interests or needs, at the click of a mouse.’ (ibid)
Tasks such as Web Quests can provide a powerful supplement to traditional face-to-face Inquiry Based Learning to develop higher level thinking skills and to help students become more aware of their own thinking. (ibid) ICTs have the potential to reach a greater proportion of students and computers do not discriminate, given equivalent hardware and software, they operate in the same way in any school environment. (Veenema & Gardner, 1996)
ICTs empower and motivate all students, catering for all dominant intelligence, as they enable learners to present their understandings using a variety of skills. (Thomas, 2005)
Filed under: media lit
One needs to be visually literate in order to be media literate. For this reason, these skills need to be taught simultatiously, one supporting the other.
Wikipedia defines Media Literacy as ‘the process of accessing, analyzing, evaluating and creating messages in a wide variety of media modes, genres and forms. It uses an inquiry-based instructional model that encourages people to ask questions about what they watch, see and read.’ Media Literacy education should aim to ‘provides tools to help people critically analyze messages to detect in news and public affairs programming (and the reasons for such), and to understand how structural features – such as media ownership, or its funding model affect the information presented. (Wikipedia, 2008 )
The example below by a high school student was a culminating assessment that involved script writing, storyboarding, application of media conventions and then the creation of the final animation. A rich and diverse visual and media learning experience, it encouraged a deeper engagment in visual and media culture.
Artist Barbara Kruger commentates on how the media & advertising influence society. Image source: http://www.wdog.com/rider/writings/real_kruger.htm
Filed under: questions
In exploring ways to answer the key questions about this topic we have attempted to use a non-linear and mulitmode approach to presenting information.
Joseph Piro espoused that we need a ‘seachange’ when it comes to our understanding of literacy. Being literate is now much more than having the ability to encode or decode meaning. (Piro, 2002.) It requires making connections to culture and context. In an increasingly visual world the answers to these key questions need to be wrestled with if our students are to thrive in their modern context.
Filed under: why teach vis lit
Today’s classroom presents a number of new challenges to the people in the field of education. More than ever before, students come from diverse backgrounds, have different skill sets, possess various levels of background knowledge and represent various learning styles. (McHugh, 2007, p. 404)
In the Western education system, the long-held understanding of intelligence is changing and we are recognising that it is imperative that all students are challenged appropriately and equitably. Using computers and other technologies is a powerful way to differentiate and promote meaningful learning for all students. (Dias & Atkinson, 2001)
Visual Literacy is indespensable in the information age and teachers are beginning to recognise that linguistic literacies and visual literacies are ‘interacting and interlacing modalities which complement one another in the meaning making process.’(Wikipedia, 2008 ) ‘Technological advancements as well as the dominance of film, television, and other mass media offer new challenges for teaching and learning that include a clearer understanding of the role of visual representation,’ states Bustle (2004). Educators need to understand that ‘images have become a basic cultural phenomenon—a ubiquitous and influential aspect of the current age.’ (ibid) Furthermore, communication conventions are changing, moving away from the traditional linear printed text to the more accessible, plentiful and powerful meaning-making visual presentations of multi-media technology. Bustle (2004) states that it is essential that we educate students about ‘modes of representations that continue to shape their worlds.’ Put simply, educators need to ‘value and incorporate visual meaning-making devices or visual representations into their curriculum to help students learn,’ not as an accessory, frill, or add-on (Shephard, 1993 in Bustle, 2004).
Assessment of Visual Literacy:
Assessment is a contentious issue at the best of times, but visual representation of learning, perhaps more than any other form of literacy, is highly interpretative and requires a broad approach. ICT provides fertile opportunities for assessment of visual literacy as rich educational experiences provide rich diagnostic information. With its ‘accessibility and user friendliness’, Web-based instruction is probably one of the most ‘flexible types of instruction, providing a forum where all intelligences can be represented and cultivated regardless of the physical location of the student’. (Osciak & Milheim, 2001) Bustle (2004) defines visual representations as ‘both a process for and representation of understanding.’ The myriad of presentation software available and limitless access to images allow students and teachers to indulge in visual creativity to express their understandings. It is important to remember, argues Bustle (2004) that evaluation of visual literacy lies with textual expressions of understanding, that is whether students have “made connections” between their visual exploration and their new understanding of language concepts. ICT supports the multiple modalities of learning to occur simultaneously and encourages students to reflect on their learning before, during and after the learning process on such aspects as:
- how well the selection of images symbolises the topic under study
- craftsmanship (this needs careful definition depending on the taskcontext and students involved)
- completion and effort
- students ability to explain and reflect on meaning and learning
It is important to heed Howard Gardner’s warning that when using ICT, students might ‘seem engaged but understand little because their response reflects more an attraction to the medium than an understanding of the content.’ (Veenema & Gardner, 1996)
image source: http://www.mnispi.org/cartoon/2001/images/Learning%20Styles_gif.jpg
Filed under: what is vis lit
In exploring ways to answer the key questions about this topic we have attempted to use a non-linear and mulitmodal approach to presenting information.
Joseph Piro espoused that we need a ‘seachange’ when it comes to our understanding of literacy. Being literate is now much more than having the ability to encode or decode meaning. (Piro, 2002.) It requires making connections to culture and context. In an increasingly visual world the answers to these key questions need to be wrestled with if our students are to thrive in their modern context.
Visual literacy is based on the idea that pictures can be “read” and that meaning can be communicated through a process of reading.
Wikipedia defines Visual Literacy as the ability to, negotiate, and make meaning from information presented in the form of an image. Ofcourse, it is not limited to modern mass media. Even though the name ‘visual literacy’ itself as a label dates to the 1960’s, the concept of reading signs and symbols is prehistoric, such as animal drawings in ancient caves and includes all images which are designed to convey meaning.
Visual literacy 
