As the keeper of the library's fun tools, the author was one of the school's original digital photographers. She was hooked on the ease of digital photography after using it one summer and realized its value--first personally, then professionally. Thus it seemed natural for her to develop a digital photography class to address visual literacy,…

Like a printed text, an architectural blueprint, a mathematical equation, or a musical score, a visual image is its own language. Visual literacy has three components: (1) learning; (2) thinking; and (3) communicating. A "literate" person is able to decipher the basic code and syntax, interpret the signs and symbols, correctly apply terms from an…