Digital Literacies

For my digital literacy project I chose to create a video, using iMovie, about visual literacy. Once the project was finished, I posted it to YouTube, making it accessible to the public. Although I have always been interested in photography, and interpreting pictures to find meaning, I have never considered using it in the classroom. Once the idea was introduced to me, I realized what a powerful tool visual literacy can be. I understood the concept of visual literacy very quickly once I was given a definition which I found online (http://k-8visual.info/). In my free time I often peruse the images on the National Geographic website and various creative advertisements I find on the web so I immediately began thinking of images I have viewed in the past which demonstrated the concept of "reading" an image. This assignment may have been more difficult for someone who had not had the hobby of viewing images on the web.

I have also had experience using iMovie before. This time around, I used a newer version, which is acutally quite different from the version I have used before, so there were a few things I had to learn while creating my project. I was unfamiliar with how the program published projects and how to add sound to my video. Because I had used the program before, I was already literate with how it worked in general. Also, it would be helpful to have experience using Mac computers while making this project. All of these technologies can be learned, but often, it takes time to be able to learn how to manipulate the programs in the way you would like.

I believe that this program might be suitable for middle school students to use, but might be difficult for elementary students. A more user-friendly techonology that creates movies with sound from pictures is Photostory from microsoft. With this program, children could easily create movies using images they have taken themselves, or have found on the internet, to create a powerful visual literacy project. With the program that I used, I was able to convey the exact message I had pictured in my head, but children could accomplish a similar task using a much easier program.

From the beginning of the semester, my idea of literacy has been altered greatly. I once thought that literacy only involved picture books and novels, I now understand that literacy can be found in many real-life situations. It is very common for children to use the internet on a daily basis. Children today are bombarded with advertisements and images through various media devices. If our students already have the capacity to understand literacy through various technologies, and through images, why not utilize this understanding to create a new type of ecucation that is more suitable for the 21st century.

Visual literacy is a more effective tool for teaching many subjects. Sometimes, a picture can explain a concept in a much more meaningful way than words. Students should learn how to "read" these images in order to gain the knowledge necessary for meaningful learning. Although text will obviously always be the most essential piece of literacy, there are other pieces that can be used to make a more complete picture.