This article begins with a synopsis of the film "Edward Burtynsky: Manufactured Landscapes", directed by Jennifer Baichwal. While the author can relate to the statements made in this synopsis, her experience and understanding of this 90-minute journey is much more intense and complex. In this essay, she attempts to dissect and examine…

Less attention has been paid to teachers' relationship to contemporary visual culture, and specifically about their own visual culture. In this paper, the author would like to focus on how they relate to these global visual discourses, in order to discuss their participation in the production of visual imaginaries. She will confront the argument…

Discusses the effect television has on youth in making them visually literate and how educators should use this information to make education more effective. (CHC)

This paper examines the role of myths and symbols in society through the use of a hypothetical dialogue. The paper begins by explaining what myths are and the functions they serve. Mythology and mythical symbols of past and present are compared. These changes in the nature of mythological symbols are explored through a dialogue between an artist…

Maintains that an anthropological perspective offers exciting possibilities for developing intercultural understanding in the visual arts. Examines the problems encountered when applying this perspective to the visual art of radically different cultures. (JDH)

Information graphics or diagrams are two-dimensional maps of relationships that present information. Creators and interpreters of diagrams need to know what makes some diagrams more effective in communicating information. This paper suggests a theoretical framework for diagram classification to make this possible. This framework consists of two…

The central premise of this paper is that there is a group of visual thinking skills which are becoming increasingly foundational and basic to the education of a contemporary citizenry. These skills are becoming more vital as the use of digital imagery increases. The skills are independent of the external technologies (i.e., hardware and software)…

Synectics is an approach to creative thinking that depends on understanding together that which is apparently different. Its main tool is analogy or metaphor. The approach, which is often used by groups, can help students develop creative responses to problem solving, to retain new information, to assist in generating writing, and to explore…

One theoretical model for understanding the visual event suggests that a visual event has both a surface (descriptive) and a deeper (experience) level of understanding. Both levels are needed to comprehend and appreciate images, with each level affecting the other. A person's perspective is an important part of the visual event, which depends upon…

Addresses a "critical" or "reflective" visual literacy. Situates visual representations and their interpretation (the construction of meaning) within a context that raises questions about benefit and power. Explores four main topics: the image as text; analysis and meaning construction; visual literacy as a liberatory practice;…

Discussion of visual literacy, visual cognition, visual thinking and learning, and visual knowledge focuses on women and gender differences. Topics addressed include educational equality and the visual, including equality versus difference; women and mass culture; difference and the design of visual instruction; and feminist education and the…

This paper is a report on a decade of teaching visual literacy at the American University (Washington, D.C.). Visual literacy is defined as an awareness that comes with appropriate development of basic visual and aural competencies. The 15 reasons for studying visual literacy are perception, drawing, expression, brain awareness, design elements,…

An increasingly visual culture is affecting work and training. Achievement of visual literacy means acquiring competence in critical analysis of visual images and in communicating through visual media. (SK)

Visual learning, the capacity to construe meaning from visual images and to create meaningful visual forms, distills complex information and presents information directly. It plays an important role in development of the ability to abstract and decode. (SK)

Describes two hours in the life of an eight-year-old to demonstrate that children acquire information and develop language skills from multiple sources. Argues that the conceptualization of literacy must be broadened from reading and writing skills to a definition that recognizes the layering of information and that includes all forms of the…