by ayisha brailsford * visual literacy refers to the learned ability to interpret visual massages...

By Ayisha Brailsford

*Chapter 8Enhancing Learning with Visuals

*Visual Literacy

*Visual Literacy refers to the learned ability to interpret visual massages accurately and to create such messages.

*Visual Literacy  can be delivered through two major approaches: helping learners to decode, or "read", visuals proficiently by practicing visual analysis skills and helping learners to encode, or "write", visuals to express themselves and communicate with others.

*Decoding: Interpreting Visuals

*Seeing a visual does not automatically ensure that one will learn from it. Learners must be guided toward correct decoding of visuals. One aspect of visual literacy, then, is the skill of interpreting and creating meaning from visuals.

Another aspect of visual literacy is the ability to create visual presentations. You should encourage students to present reports to the class by carefully selecting images from a CD or online collection, which can help them to develop their aesthetic talents.

Encoding: Creating Visuals

* Types of Visuals Used in the Classroom

*Let's Explore the six types of visuals commonly found in the classroom: pictures, drawing, (including sketches and diagrams), charts, graphs, posters, and cartoons.

*Pictures

*Pictures are photographic (or photograph-like) representations of people, places, and things. They are readily available on the internet and in books, magazines, and newspaper.

*Drawings

*Drawings, sketches, and diagrams employ the graphic arrangement of lines to represent persons, places, things, and concepts. Drawings are readily found in textbooks and computer-based materials.

*Charts

*Charts are visual representations of abstract relationships such as chronologies, quantities, and hierarchies. They appear frequently as tables and flowcharts.

*GraphsGraphs provide a visual representation of numerical data. They also illustrate relationships among units of data and trends over time.

*Posters

Posters can incorporate visual combinations of images, lines, colors, and words. They are intended to capture and hold the viewer's attention at least long enough to communicate a brief message, usually a persuasive appeal.

*Cartoons

Cartoons are drawings that are rough caricatures of real fictional people, animals, and events. They appear in a variety of print media, newspapers, periodicals, and textbooks.

*Purposes of Visuals

*Provide a concrete referent for ideas

*Make abstract ideas concrete

*Motivate Learners

*Direct Attention

*Repeat Information

*Recall Prior Learning

*Reduce Learning Effort  

*Categories of Visuals

*The visual selected for a particular situation should depend on the learning task. Visuals can be subdivided into six categories.

*Realistic Visuals

Realistic Visuals show the actual object under study. They can translate abstract ideas into a more realistic format, allowing instruction to move from one level of abstract symbols on the concrete-abstract continuum to a more concrete level.

*Analogical Visuals

Analogical Visuals convey a concept or topic by showing something else and implying a similarity.

*Organizational

Organizational visuals show the qualitative relationships among various elements, Common examples include classification charts, timelines, flowcharts, and maps.

*Relational Relational visuals communicate quantitative relationships. Examples include bar and pie charts or line and pictorial graphs.

Airport; 17,456,056

Park-ing;

7,897,526

Solid Waste; 17,845,287

Wastewater; 13,985,695

Water Us-

age; 32,356,236

Wa-ter-

front; 10,945,369

Enterprise Fund Expenditures

Exercise Bikes Elliptical Machines

Treadmills Rowing Machines

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$60,000.00

$80,000.00

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$120,000.00

Second Quarter Cardio Sales

April May June

*Transformational

Transformational visuals illustrate movement or change in time and space.

*Interpretive

Interpretive visuals illustrate theoretical or abstract relationships. Examples include a schematic diagram of an electrical circuit, the food pyramid, or an evacuation plan.

*Viewing Visuals

There are many ways to view visuals in a classroom

*Presentation Software

Presentation Software provides a format for displaying computer-based visuals with a digital projector. The most widely known presentation software is a PowerPoint.

Digital Images

Visuals can be captured and stored in a digital format by using a digital camera or a scanner. Digital storage methods include CDs, DVDs, portable storage devices, and computer hard drives.

*Overhead Projector

The overhead projector system is still widely used in classrooms because of its availability, low cost, and ease of use.

*Visual Design GuidelinesDesigning a visual begins with gathering or producing the individual pictorial and text elements that you expect to use.

• Arrangement• Balance• Legibility• Color• Appeal • Universal Design

*Creating Visuals

Planning is an important component of creating visuals

Planning Lettering Technique

s

Drawing Sketching,

and Cartooning.

Designing Visuals

with Computer

s

Creating Presentati

on Graphics

Creating Overhead Transpare

ncies

*The End