This is an ethnographic study of the literacy practices of a group of rural Northeastern Thai women participating in a community-based literacy programme. Field research for the study examined the women's literacy practices and domains of literacy use in daily life, and the strategies they used to negotiate day-to-day life tasks in the context of…

This paper is a report of a research project on critical multiliteracies and multimodality in Brazilian education. In the context of a growing concern for the construction of images in contemporary society, the paper discusses the interrelations between image, language and interpretation. The specific object of the investigation described below is…

Pictures abound in history classrooms and teachers use them in many different ways. They add--often literally--some colour to the past, helping us to imagine what different worlds were like. Pictures can be used quite legitimately in this way to fire imagination and stimulate interest. But we can also use them to develop important skills of visual…

Notes that the curriculum in Canada includes viewing and visually representing, joining the traditional skills of reading and writing, listening and speaking. Concludes that viewing and representing can help students learn to read and write but they are also unique literacies unto themselves. Lists 10 sources of information in both electronic and…

Summarizes purpose, membership, services, publications, conferences, and activities of the Association for the Development of Computer-Based Instructional Systems; Association for Educational Communications and Technology; Association for Media and Technology in Education in Canada; International Society for Technology in Education; International…

Images can be and have been used in various ways, and by their man-made nature they cannot be considered independent of their providers' intentions. Yet, identifying such intentions is complex, and requires a critical look supported by relevant information on what is being represented, how, and why. In this article, the author illustrates some of…

Developing visuals for a low-literate population is a complex process which must take education, visual literacy, culture, and way of life into account. This article describes cultural barriers to some South Africans' understanding of common pictures used to relate instructions for taking medication, and discusses tactics for modifying and…

For the thirty-seventh year, the Research and Theory Division and the Division of Instructional Design of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) sponsored the publication of these Proceedings. Papers published in this volume were presented at the annual AECT Convention in Jacksonville, Florida. This year's Proceedings…

The word 'literacy' is a familiar one in relation to the forms of expression and structure of verbal language. In this collection of papers the definition of literacy is expanded as it can be applied to individual art forms of dance, drama, media, music, visual art, and design. These art forms are those specified as the subjects forming the Arts…

Gives an overview of the Schools Council Communication and Social Skills Project at Brighton Polytechnic in which children ages 9-17 have developed and used audiovisual media such as films, tape-slides, or television programs in the classroom. The effects of audiovisual language on education are briefly discussed. (JJD)

A study to explore Filipino farmers' comprehension of pictorial messages on environmental protection found that educational attainment, visual exposure, and knowledge of environmental protection positively influenced visual comprehension. Color did not necessarily improve comprehension. (Contains 24 references.) (JOW)

In some contexts, a photograph may be worth a thousand words. Previous research revealed a dialectical character of photographs: they simultaneously lack determinacy and exhibit an excess of meaning. The purpose of this study was to understand how, under this condition, high school students interpret photographs that were accompanied by different…

This article discusses a study that explored first-grade students' responses to and interpretations of eight picture books with metafictive devices. The article focuses on children's visual and written responses to the picture books and describes the relationship between the students' visual and verbal texts with respect to storytelling. The two…

This paper will explore aspects of past practice and belief and how relevant these are to the future. New Zealand Curriculum guidelines for English will be examined in relation to best practice. Oral and visual texts will be discussed, as will the blurring of the boundaries between written and visual text with examples from picture books and…

Studied visual literacy over 2 years in the English language arts classrooms of three Canadian middle school teachers. Teachers' previous experiences influenced their implementation of an expanded notion of literacy in English language arts, as did the influence of the university-based researcher conducting the study. (SLD)