Today's students face a barrage of competing texts in many different forms and media, and it is now up to teachers to help students determine not only "what" should be read but "how" it should be read. This book addresses this issue. The book explores the idea of "textual intelligence"; offers both practical and…

Media education is expanding, both as a subject in its own right, and as a cross-curricular theme. Based on detailed classroom research, this book identifies the rewards and achievements, as well as the difficulties and contradictions, of teaching about the media in Great Britain. Four major themes emerge: the process of teaching and learning; the…

The corporate takeover of the Internet has moved literacy into uncharted territory. Couched in capitalist metaphors of liberation, choice, utility, and desirability, an expanded communications network that provides quick and easy access to vast amounts of information appeals to the national psyche. The commodification of literacy as a result of…

This paper describes how staff at McKendree College in Illinois are working to improve student teachers' visual and verbal literacy skills as part of a children's literature class. It explains the importance of visual literacy in teaching and learning within diverse classrooms and the need for children to express themselves with writing and art,…

Describes a study in which preschool children, enrolled in a Head Start Program in Texas, tested computer-assisted instruction facilitating visual discrimination. The study, in which a TRS-80 Model III displayed alphabetical characters, showed that four-year-olds are able to learn simple visual discrimination tasks from a computer. (JJD)

Education's effective utilization of electronic technology--especially microcomputers and wall-sized, interactive television--will require emphasizing five "techno-basic" skills, including computing, perceiving (comprehending what one sees), auditing (developing appropriate listening skills), articulating (presenting messages through…

This brief survey of successful visual literacy programs designed for students at the elementary and secondary level outlines projects to teach visual communication skills in Ohio, Indiana (Project Visual Understanding in Education/VUE), Virginia, Iowa (Media NOW), California, Canada, England, and Australia (Visual Education Curriculum Project).…

Discusses the differences of perception and interpretation of visual aids between African and Western students and considers the implications for designers and producers of learning materials for African students. (Author/JJD)

Since small children are more sophisticated readers of images than of words, pictorial reproductions represent an important means of bringing the visual thinking of the world's best artists to the attention of children. The use of pictorial images represents a solution to the teaching problems of gaining students' attention, interest, and…

This experiment compared six methods of teaching concepts of painting style. A practice-plus-verbal feedback teaching strategy (active condition) was compared to a strategy using modeled verbal response (passive condition). Each strategy was combined with three amounts of information: none, artist's name, and name plus style rule. (Author/SJL)

Argues that visual literacy should be studied through a cognitive approach, and describes principles of punctuating and structuring that can be used to develop a new standard of experimental validity. Triadic interaction theory and the role of strategies in research are discussed, as well as a new orientation to research. (BK)

The 24 reviews in this article include textbooks on journalism and media studies; multimedia kits on advertising, TV news, reporting, and the "grammar" of media; resources on making ad interpreting films in the classroom; supplements on writing for both print and nonprint media; and professional references on improving visual literacy. (Editor)

Argues that films and documentaries are useful in promoting critical analysis and classroom discussion. Discusses films that are effective teaching tools. Warns that some films may provide only one side of a story, and teachers must be careful to present a balanced discussion. Includes sources for obtaining these films. (AJL)

Reports on research by the Television Literacy Project on the effectiveness of courses designed to help viewers learn from television. Subjects were 386 secondary school students. Increases in viewing scores on posttests indicate that major improvements in learning from television are possible. Four tables present results by program type, learning…