More on Visual Literacy

It feels good to have the group presentation behind me. It was exciting to hear from the class all the different ways students bring visual literacy into their classes already. It felt like preaching to the choir. I think I learned more from the class than they learned from the presentation. But preparing the presentation was quite a learning experience. I found many websites that will be useful in the classroom. I also found some I was able to use for my teachnology presentation.

It was also useful to reflect on the whole idea of visual literacy. I found myself thinking back on the ways I learned visual literacy. We used to make posters, drawings, maps, and diagrams. We would tell stories through collages. So, like everything else, I think there has always been visual literacy in the classroom but it is evolving. There is more emphasis on it now because of the new technology. The “information age” includes more graphics and images than perhaps there was in the “olden days.” There is more reliance on the visual over alphabetic than in the past.

Selfe said without visual literacy composition studies may become irrelevant. I don’t believe that. Yes, students need to be visually literate, but I don’t see how composition studies can become irrelevant. Students still need to have the ability to write. They can’t do all their communication through images. I think they need to be taught side by side.

On another note--my husband is taking a class in video documentaries. He was interested in the digital storytelling websites I found. I’m not sure what the difference is between digital storytelling and a documentary. One site said that digital storytelling is more of a first person narrative—a personal story. However, I found some story examples on some of the sites that were very much like a documentary.

After reading Selfe’s chapter and preparing the class presentation, I’m sure I will be incorporating more new media texts and visual literacy into my ESL teaching.