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A Review of the Concept of Visual Literacy
Abstract
Many people from very diverse disciplines have attempted to define the concept of Visual Literacy (VL), but with little general consensus so far. This is probably due to the fact that those representing the different disciplines and paradigms are each wanting to interpret Visual Literacy in a way that reflects and flatters their contribution or way of thinking. As a consequence, a theoretical concept with seemingly little practical value has been created, but cannot be used productively until an agreed definition is established.
It is self evident that if a concept does not have a broadly accepted definition, if the theory behind it is confusing, and if its viability on practical terms is a matter of continuing controversy, then the only reasonable way to cope with it is to abandon it. Nevertheless, with the exception of very few and of minor importance cases, no serious attempt has ever been made towards discarding VL altogether.
... Κυρίαρχος ανάμεσα στους σημειωτικούς τρόπους καθίσταται όλο και περισσότερο ο οπτικός. Εικόνες διαφορετικών μορφών χρησιμοποιούνται στην ιδιωτική και τη δημόσια σφαίρα μέσα από διαφορετικούς διαύλους επικοινωνίας προκειμένου να μεταφερθούν πληροφορίες και νοήματα με γρήγορο, άμεσο και αποτελεσματικό τρόπο (Avgerinou & Ericson, 1997;Danos & Norman, 2009;Jolley, 2018). Ωστόσο, η εκπαιδευτική πρακτική παραμένει προσκολλημένη στα παραδοσιακά κείμενα και στον έντυπο γραπτό λόγο. ...
... Ολοένα και περισσότερο η εικόνα αναλαμβάνει λειτουργίες όπως η εισαγωγή, ο ορισμός και η ανάλυση νέων εννοιών, με το ρόλο του γραπτού λόγου να επαναπροσδιορίζεται διαρκώς μέσω των νέων του σχέσεων με τον οπτικό και άλλους τρόπους αναπαράστασης. Μαζί του επαναποσδιορίζονται και οι έννοιες του γραμματισμού, της δημιουργικότητας και της μάθησης (Avgerinou & Ericson, 1997;Coleman, McTique, & Smolkin, 2011;Cope & Kalantzis, 2009;Dimopoulos, Koulaidis, & Sklaveniti, 2003;Jarman et al., 2012;Jewitt, 2008;Jewitt et al., 2001;Liu, 2009;Pozzer-Ardenghi & Roth, 2005;Trumbo, 1999;Unsworth, 2004). Πιο συγκεκριμένα, η στροφή στην εικόνα και τη συνέργειά της με το γραπτό λόγο υπογραμμίζει την ανάγκη θεώρησης του μαθητή ως ενεργητικά εμπλεκόμενου στην κατανόηση και την παραγωγή νοημάτων από τα πολυτροπικά κείμενα, επιτρέποντας διαφορετικές εναλλακτικές αναγνώσεις. ...
... Για τον οπτικό γραμματισμό έχει προταθεί πλήθος ορισμών ήδη από τη δεκαετία του 1960, με τους ειδικούς στο χώρο να μη συμφωνούν απόλυτα μέχρι τις μέρες μας σε έναν κοινά αποδεκτό προσδιορισμό του. Όλες ωστόσο οι θεωρίες για τον οπτικό γραμματισμό συγκλίνουν σε ορισμένες κεντρικές παραδοχές, μεταξύ των οποίων (Avgerinou & Ericson, 1997;Avgerinou & Pettersson, 2011;Coleman et al., 2011;Trumbo, 1999): ...
Η εκπαίδευση στις Φυσικές Επιστήμες (Φ.Ε.) στηρίζεται στη χρήση πληθώρας οπτικών αναπαραστάσεων που συνιστούν ένα αυτόνομο σύστημα κατασκευής νοημάτων. H αποκωδικοποίησή τους απαιτεί ικανότητες Επιστημονικού Οπτικού Γραμματισμού (Ε.Ο.Γ.), που περιλαμβάνουν την κατανόηση, χρήση και κατασκευή εικόνων με επιστημονικό περιεχόμενο. Έτσι, ο Ε.Ο.Γ. θεωρείται ουσιώδης πτυχή του επιστημονικού γραμματισμού και κρίσιμος εκπαιδευτικός στόχος σε όλες τις βαθμίδες. Για την επίτευξή του προτείνεται η εμπλοκή των παιδιών στην ανάγνωση και παραγωγή οπτικών αναπαραστάσεων στο πλαίσιο της εκπαίδευσής τους στις Φ.Ε., ώστε να αναγνωρίζουν τους επιστημονικούς οπτικούς κώδικες και να επιλέγουν τους κατάλληλους σε κάθε περίσταση προκειμένου να εκφράσουν επιστημονικά νοήματα. Στην εργασία παρουσιάζονται παραδείγματα πρόσφατων συναφών ερευνών, προτείνονται πρακτικές που μπορούν να λειτουργήσουν ως ‘σκαλωσιές μάθησης’ για την ανάπτυξη του Ε.Ο.Γ. των παιδιών και καταγράφονται περιοχές που χρειάζονται περισσότερη διερεύνηση για τον προσδιορισμό των όρων και των προϋποθέσεων καλλιέργειας του Ε.Ο.Γ.
... information literacy (Association of College and Research Libraries, ACRL, 2000); digital literacy (Martin, 2005), visual literacy (Avgerinou & Ericson, 1997); digital competence (Calvani, Fini & Ranieri, 2009); digital literacy skills (Eshet-Alkalai, 2004). ...
This research focuses on the digital practice among Chinese international students during the transition from undergraduate study to postgraduate, and how they refine their skills to adapt to digital practice in the UK at the level of master’s study. The research questions are: What are digital practices among Chinese international students during the transition from undergraduate study to master’s study? How have Chinese international postgraduate students’ digital skills developed during master’s study? How can Chinese international students be supported in enhancing their digital skills to adapt to learning in a UK university?
The research was conducted in a UK university, using mixed convergent design. The study took place during 2014-2016 academic year. Data sources include: survey with 409 postgraduate students; photographic journaling with 4 participants; mind map activities with 14 participants; semi-structured interviews with 30 participants; and observation with 4 participants.
The study found that participants had challenges in digital practice upon arrival; however, they are able to refine their skills to make adjustment. Students’ agency and reflective practice with social support are important factors for development of digital skills. However, there seems to be a disconnect between students’ use of digital technologies in their own time and those determined by institutions. With students bringing their own cultural scripts (e.g., their existing patterns of using technologies) to postgraduate study and appropriating digital technologies for their own use and students’ digital practice tends to be constrained by the context in which each student in situated. Students’ digital skills and issues ought to be better understood within a context. It is hoped that more research attention can be directed towards ‘bottom up’ research, to hear the student voice and to study students’ digital practices in day-to-day situations.
... Hortin (1983) added the division of education to the concept, stating that "visual literacy is the ability to understand (read) and use (write) images, and to think and learn in terms of images, ie, to think visually" (Hortin, 1983, 99). In their review of the term, Avgerinou & Ericson (1997) also stressed the importance of education to the terminology. ...
Increasingly, educators are using peer review as a pedagogical tool to engage students in higher education. Studies of the effectiveness of student peer review have found that thinking critically about the work of peers improves student learning (Mulder et al. 2013). Separately, while visual literacy communication courses, in which educators teach effective visualization practices, are gaining in popularity, few options exist to measure student engagement with the course material. Recently, however, Friedman and Rosen (2017) developed a student peer review model of visual assessment to provide insight into student engagement in this area. In this study, we build upon that work using sentiment-based methods to analyze student peer review comments and relate elements of the text to assignment and final project grades. As part of this effort, we developed a new data dictionary to support natural language processing in visual literacy in the liberal arts. The results of the textual analysis show that students who received high grade scores from the instructor used nouns extensively. However, further examination revealed that the correlation between grades and speech was moderate (R = 0.3). Future studies should examine whether behavioral nudges may promote more complete sentences by students performing peer review.
... The term 'visual literacy' was first coined in 1969 (Debes & Williams, 1969). At the time, however, the term was very extensive and often misleading, embracing too many underlying concepts, and the need for a more palpable definition was evident (Avgerinou & Ericson, 1997). Visual literacy has since been defined in a less complex, and perhaps more comprehensible way, as "the ability to construct meaning from visual images" (Giorgis et al., 1999, p. 146). ...
A summary of the master's thesis "Developing Intercultural Competence through Picturebooks: the case of The Silence Seeker and The Island" (Veddegjerde, 2022)
... Advertising literacy, which has existed even before the digital era, has now emerged as a distinct category among the various literacies that have evolved (Malmelin, 2010) due to the increasing digitalization of our daily lives (Selber and Selber, 2004). In addition to advertising literacy, other important literacies include algorithmic literacy (Dogruel et al., 2022;Shin et al., 2021), visual literacy (Avgerinou and Ericson, 1997), informational literacy (Behrens, 1994), and data literacy (Sagirolu and Sinanc, 2013), among others. While these literacies may primarily focus on specific perspectives that are currently of great interest, the knowledge, skills, and attitudes required for acquiring these literacies can be widely applicable across various domains. ...
Engaging with influencer posts has become a prevalent practice among adolescents on social media, exposing them to the combined elements of promotional content and entertainment in influencer marketing. However, the versatile and appealing nature of this content may hinder adolescents’ ability to engage in critical thinking and accurately interpret this hybrid form of advertising. This study aims to investigate adolescents’ capacity to critically process persuasive content shared by influencers, utilizing the five components of digital critical thinking outlined by Van Laar (2019): clarification, evaluation, justification, linking of ideas, and novelty. To analyze minors’ online experiences, a qualitative approach was employed involving twelve discussion groups with a total of 62 children and adolescents aged 11 to 17 in Spain. The findings indicate that the exercise of critical thinking in response to influencer marketing is closely associated with the cognitive and affective dimensions of advertising literacy in adolescents, while wamong them.
zet: Kitle iletişim araçlarının aralıksız iletiler yaydığı ve görsel kültürün giderek yükseldiği enformasyon çağında, bireyin çoklu okur yazarlıklarının yanısıra görsel okur yazarlığı da zorunlu hale gelmiştir. Sayısız bildirişim ögeleriyle karşılaşan birey, hem günlük yaşamında hem de eğitim sürecinde algıladığı imge ve görselleri, doğru anlamlan-dırıp, değerlendirmek durumundadır. Kuşkusuz, imgelerin süratle akıp geçtiği görsel dünya içinde etkili iletişim kurabilmek, farklı görselleri tanımlayabilmek, yorumlayabil-mek için görsel okuryazarlık becerilerine sahip olmak gerekmektedir. Günümüzde düşünme, öğrenme ve imgeler yoluyla kendini ifade ede-bilme ancak görsel okuryazarlık becerileriyle mümkün olacaktır. Eğitim sürecinde görsel okuryazarlık; bireyin görsel mesaj oluş-turma ve yorumlama yeteneklerini zenginleştiren, aynı zamanda öğren-cilerin görsel imgeleri kullanarak okuma ve yazma becerilerinin gelişi-mini sağlayan yeni eğitim programlarıyla mümkün olacaktır. Anahtar Kelimeler: Görsel Okuryazarlık, Görsel Algı, Görsel Eğitim VISUAL LITERACY AS AN EDUCATION PROCESS Abstract:In the information period where means of mass communication conveys masages continously and where the visual culture is gettig wider day by day, the visual literacy as well as multi-literacy of an individual has become compulsory. An individual who faces with numerous elements of communication transfers has to evaluate and give meanings to perceived visual imageries during both in his daily life and education process. It is doubless for an individual to discribe and interpret the different visuals to construct effective communication in the visual world. In today's world, expressing one's self with thinking, learning and imageies is only possible with the skills of visual literacy. The field of visual literacy is credited with the development of educational programs that enhance students' abilities to interpret and create visual massages, as well as improvement of reading and writing skills through the use of visual imagery.
Un libro no es un conjunto de páginas en las que se articulan ideas y se dicen cosas. Un libro es la representación de un modo de pensar, de estructurar, de conceptualizar la realidad. Un libro deja ver una elección de elementos en las que el autor transita y traza una ruta, una forma de moverse dentro de esa elección, representando así, un elemento vivo que conduce al lector de manera organizada y culturalmente aprendida sobre una estructura de ideas, conceptos, historias, analogías, hipótesis, críticas, etc. Así pues, un libro es un sistema complejo, como la realidad misma. Con el término complejo, no se hace referencia a dificultades que derivan del significado de las cosas, no se trata de complicación, sino de un sistema en el que hay entradas y salidas para la interpretación, aprehensión, significación del libro. Como refiere Edgar Morin: El libro, como sistema complejo, tiene un adentro y un afuera sin un límite riguroso como lo explica Gèrard Genette (2001). Se hace necesario deconstruir el libro y diferenciar la obra literaria, entendida como el texto escrito por un autor que consta de “una serie más o menos larga de enunciados verbales más o menos dotados de significación” (p.7) y todos aquellos elementos que lo complementan, lo organizan de manera coherente y lo presentan ante el lector.
his book constitutes the refereed conference proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Web-Based Learning, ICWL 2022 and 7th International Symposium on Emerging Technologies for Education, SETE 2022, held in Tenerife, Spain in November 21–23, 2022.
The 45 full papers and 5 short papers included in this book were carefully reviewed and selected from 82 submissions. The topics proposed in the ICWL&SETE Call for Papers included several relevant issues, ranging from Semantic Web for E-Learning, through Learning Analytics, Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, Assessment, Pedagogical Issues, E-learning Platforms, and Tools, to Mobile Learning.
In addition to regular papers, ICWL&SETE 2022 also featured a set of special workshops and tracks:
The 5th International Workshop on Educational Technology for Language Learning (ETLL 2022),
The 6th International Symposium on User Modeling and Language Learning (UMLL 2022), Digitalization in Language and Cross-Cultural Education,
First Workshop on Hardware and software systems as enablers for lifelong learning (HASSELL).
This article focuses on the sociological context of magazine advertisements--particularly gender role depictions--as a means of developing students' visual literacy. The techniques described are suitable for undergraduate or graduate students and are usually employed as an initial exercise in sensitizing students to some of the issues involved in the content analysis of visual media.
Teaching students how to decode advertising images enables them to move away from being passive receivers of messages to active unravelers. Some concepts from semiotics and the deconstruction of advertising messages are tools teachers can use.
The theoretical stance of visual literacy advocates is described as a multi‐sign approach that goes beyond the usual focus on print literacy but does not deal adequately with nonlinguistic signs other than the visual. Semiotics, the general theory of signs, is seen as a more cohesive basis for theory‐building in education. Five areas of overlap between visual literacy and print literacy are discussed: (1) use of graphic organizers as learning aids; (2) study of propaganda; (3) video technologies; (4) use of computers; and (5) children's drawing and writing. The authors state that the points of contact further suggest the need for a semiotic frame of reference. They describe an expansive semiotics‐based model of human experience developed by Deely, but modified by Cunningham and Luk to be a comprehensively multi‐sign model. Suhor's general model for a semiotic theory is presented as a way of depicting relationships among not only linguistic signs and visual signs, but other signs and sign systems in educational contexts
This paper develops a theoretical context for the concept that visual literacy involves a specific type of information processing that has been discussed in the literature on symbolism and epistemology for a number of years. Literacy is discussed first, as a general process of information processing involving the generation of knowledge through the mediation of symbolic forms; this allows the concept to be applied to nonlanguage symbols. A distinction is made between two types of knowledge, the theoretical symbolic (the domain of language) and the qualitative symbolic (the nonlingual symbol). The perceptual context for the qualitative symbolic is discussed. Perception is treated as the basis for communication, which involves attitudes, knowledge, communication skills between individuals, and the social and cultural context in which these attributes are located; this leads to the assertion that our knowledge of reality is governed by our visual literacy. The notion of levels of abstraction is then introduced and related to both the theoretical symbolic and the qualitative symbolic and, in turn, to the concept of visual literacy. (AA)
Summarizes the basic concepts and principles of visual literacty, sketches the technocultural background in which it is founded, and suggests some ideas about how it might be put into practice by educators. (Author/JEG)
Many disciplines, including semantics, linguistics, philosophy, psychology, and the practical arts, have contributed to our knowledge of visual literacy. Insights these disciplines have made about the nature of meaning, art, or perception apply to visual literacy. If, as some studies indicate, some children are visually rather than verbally oriented, training in visual literacy is important for them and for those who wish to reach them. In addition, children who are visually literate may have an easier time becoming verbally literate. Many projects involving photography or filmmaking can encourage visual literacy. In language arts, they can be used to study modes of discourse, the structure of language, and literacy conventions and genres. Social studies and science students can also use them. Scientists and engineers should be encouraged to create visual systems suitable for use in schools. Too often, equipment is used insufficiently because it is too complicated. Better communication between educators and engineers would alleviate this problem. (JK)
This brief survey of successful visual literacy programs designed for students at the elementary and secondary level outlines projects to teach visual communication skills in Ohio, Indiana (Project Visual Understanding in Education/VUE), Virginia, Iowa (Media NOW), California, Canada, England, and Australia (Visual Education Curriculum Project). (EJS)
It is proposed that visual literacy be defined as the ability to understand (read) and use (write) images and to think and learn in terms of images. This definition includes three basic principles: (1) visuals are a language and thus analogous to verbal language; (2) a visually literate person should be able to understand (read) images and use (write) visual language; and (3) a visually literate person should be able to process information visually in order to think visually. Noting that the third principle is supported by research findings, it is argued that teaching students to be visually literate involves sharing mental strategies or processes that use mental imagery, visualization, mnemonics, dual coding, and symbolic systems to store information, interpret and develop ideas, solve problems, and process information. It is suggested that it is time to take another step toward the management of information by teaching people strategies and methods for thinking visually. An extensive bibliography is appended. (Author/MER)