Week 4 - Image Reflection

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I found photo editing very quick to use. I love the convenience of being able to save the photo editing tool, MobaPhoto, to a USB. This would enable students to edit their photos on any computer making the process quick, simple and easy.

The implications of using images for learners is that it enables them to develop a sense of visual literacy (Thibault & Walbert, n.d). Visual literacy begins as a foundational skill of identifying what a person sees and develops into more complex critical thinking skills, including the ability to understand, evaluate and comprehend what is being shown to you. Visual literacy skills are important across the KLAs. Here are a few examples from Thibault and Walbert (n.d)

 

Science – observation. Noticing changes and developments

Math – deconstructing problem solving tasks

Art- developing an analytical perspective of an artwork

English – descriptive writing skills in writing a haiku poem from an image

The New Media Consortium (2005) goes on to say that visual media presents information in a whole new language that is being used more and more in today’s classrooms. It is one of the new set of skills that learners must develop in the 21^st century. The focus is on understanding the power and influence that images have and how when, and where to use them effectively.

Students of today were born in the visual culture era, whereby they have increased sensitivity to images. Teachers need to harness this sensitivity and utilise it in the classroom in ways that faciliate learning. Learn NC has an extensive list of classroom lesson plans that explicitly target learning through the use of visual images. One great example is the analogy of “Kids as decision makers - wantvs need”  Students are given a number of images and asked to sort them into what is a want and what is a need. This activity would yield very interesting results when possibly conducted in separate classes in different continents.

Images are just one of the Group 2 tools that have become part of the ‘basic tool kit’ for the modern classroom (The New Media Consortium, 2005)

source: www.spacefurniture.com.au 

References

1. The New Media Consortium. (2005). A global imperative: The report of the 21st century literacy summit. Retrieved July 27 2011 from http://archive.nmc.org/pdf/Global_Imperative.pdf
2. Thibault, M., Walbert, D. (n.d.). Reading images: an introduction to visual literacy. Retrieved March 31 2013 from http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/675