With business documents, visuals can serve to enhance the written word in conveying the message. Images can be especially effective when used subtly, on part of the page, on successive pages to provide continuity, or even set as watermarks over the entire page. A main reason given for traditional text-only business documents is that they are…

Traditional literacy practices and educational policymakers define reading as a process of vocabulary recognition and print-based decoding. This perspective is especially prevalent in the primary-grade literacy classroom. Yet, a growing movement sees literacy encompassing not only printed text, but a wide range of cultural, technological, and…

Anne Burke and Shelley Stagg Peterson argue that "picture books offer a medium for teaching visual and critical literacy across the curriculum." To support this idea, they describe a multidisciplinary unit on World War II that pushes high school students to utilize visual and print literacies to analyze, comprehend, and relate to public events and…

In addition to surveying the writings of Henry Holmes Smith, this paper explains his importance as a theoretician and practitioner of photography. After a discussion of Smith's ideas on "reading photographs" and his concerns with the ethics of photography, particularly of photojournalism, the essays in the book, "Henry Holmes Smith:…

The concept of visual literacy as a performance criterion is briefly considered and difficulties inherent in such a concept are discussed. Previous work in the area of visual literacy is selectively and critically reviewed, noting recurrent problems in research methodology. A rationale is then presented for conducting research which would be…

Partnership between industry and education is important in establishing programs in visual literacy. The field is likely to become better established as the result of the formation of the Conference on Visual Literacy as a permanent group. However, as yet very little is known concretely about research and demonstration on this subject. Green…

Reviews historical thinking about visual literacy; addresses the issue of setting visual literacy's parameters; provides a rationale linking individuals in an otherwise multidisciplinary movement; proposes a redefinition of visual literacy; and postulates proposals designed to foster further development and understanding of the theoretical…

A model is proposed that organizes factors related to visual function into three dimensions: visual abilities, available resources and past experiences, and environmental cues. The model is explained to be useful in determining how to elicit visual behaviors or maximize visual function in persons with low vision. (Author/CL)

Discusses the difficulties directors face when trying to capture Shakespeare's plays on film, citing Polanski's "Macbeth," Brook's "Lear," and Zeffirelli's "Romeo and Juliet" as examples. (RB)

Description of the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, New York, and the philosophy of director Nathan Lyons. (SP)

Suggests that verbal and visual literacy are interdependent and that English departments should take on the task of heightening visual literacy. (AEA)

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)

Analysis did not show significant differences between watching one or two sound films with regard to information retention. (KS)

A new concept of effective communication is evolving. This new form of communication, known as new media literacy, incorporates visual, aural, and textual elements as well as a sense of immediacy. New media literacy is closely associated with Net Generation learners and is commonplace among higher education institutions. Larry Johnson, CEO of the…