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Essentials of Teaching and Integrating Visual and Media Literacy

Danilo M. Baylen  •  Adriana D’Alba Editors

Essentials of Teaching and Integrating Visual and Media Literacy Visualizing Learning

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Editors Danilo M. Baylen Educational Technology and Foundations University of West Georgia Carrollton, Georgia USA

Adriana D’Alba Educational Technology and Foundations University of West Georgia Carrollton, Georgia USA

ISBN 978-3-319-05836-8         ISBN 978-3-319-05837-5 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-05837-5 Library of Congress Control Number: 2015930552 Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is a brand of Springer International Publishing Springer International Publishing is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)

Foreword

“The question is not what you look at, but what you see.” —Henry David Thoreau, Journals, Vol. 1, November 16, 1830

Visual and media literacy have been a part of my life and my educational interests for, well, forever it seems. I am honored to have been asked to introduce this book, and am hopeful that the many interesting chapters shared here will make a difference to educators at all levels of teaching, administration, and design of curricula or professional development. The topics are multidisciplinary and involve multiple aspects of media and visual literacy. One of the editors, Danilo M. Baylen, has grown from a young doctoral student at Northern Illinois University, sharing his home country culture through a display of native textiles in my visual literacy course years ago, to an experienced, respected member of academia with a strong interest in visual and media literacy as part of his work in literacy and technology, as well as having an enviable career in higher education both as a professor and an administrator. As his former professor, I am proud of his having co-proposed and completed the editing of this text.

Becoming an Advocate for Media and Visual Literacy With all the attention focused on media and visual literacy in the twenty-first century, it might be helpful to look at the interest as it developed over time. My own history mirrors the growth of visual and media literacy in education, and the experiences of many of the experts in these areas who have been active in promoting and researching these topics over the past 40 or more years. How do educators become advocates for visual and media literacy? As a baby boomer, I grew up loving the movies. Early TV was nothing like it is today, but it was still a cultural influence not to be ignored. After all, the Beatles first appeared on TV when we boomers were in high school! And since my father was a photographer, I spent hours in our home darkroom learning from those emerging images, like many others did in the “Kodak” era of the 1950s. v

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In the 1970s, with media and visual literacy concepts emerging from communication scholars like McLuhan and visual communications experts such as Donis Dondis, Jack Debes, and others, we had a great deal of freedom to explore current events and media as part of our language arts curriculum. In 1972, along with many of those still working to promote and improve these literacies, I was teaching language arts to middle school students (in Illinois, USA). We showed educational films as part of our instruction, and used literature to film translations such as The Diary of Anne Frank to help motivate students. We taught media literacy, using public media such as billboards, newspapers and magazines, and television news, and had students create their own publications. We developed a unit on television and studied narrative structures, character development, genre, stereotyping, advertising, humor, and suspense. Students wrote, recorded, and edited news and comedy programs with original commercials as a culminating activity. After school hours, I started a film club to both study and create movies with students, and sponsored the school newspaper. We knew that our activities were motivating and that they helped develop literacy and language skills and critical thinking abilities. But I do not recall ever having heard the terms visual literacy or media literacy until, after 5 years of teaching, I started to study educational technology and communications in graduate school. At the University of Wisconsin–Madison, I focused my attention on visual communications media and critical analysis skills for students of all ages. Many of us in our doctoral studies were interested in critical analysis and images. Our student cohort included David Considine, now considered one of the pioneers in media literacy, and his colleague Robert Muffoletto, and so discussions about film, photography, affective learning, and the impact of images were a regular part of my education. My first published article presented ideas for teachers wanting to add critical viewing of video to their curriculum activities, based upon my earlier experiences. And my doctoral dissertation investigated 8th graders’ understanding of narrative elements of short fiction from film and video. This represented a change in education, since previous research in technology-related topics was quasi-experimental and rarely involved real classrooms of students. During and after graduate school, my early articles included “You’ve Ruined TV for Me,” an article titled after a comment from an 8th grader after our long television unit was over. He was complaining that he now saw all the misplaced microphones and bad shadows in TV programs; he had developed critical viewing skills along with our language arts activities. It was through other members of that Madison cohort that I learned of the International Visual Literacy Association (IVLA), in which I have been very active since 1982. This organization was one of the first to offer a definition of visual literacy and a place for scholars, educators, artists, videographers, and so on to debate ideas and share strategies, projects, educational research, and materials. IVLA has annual conferences where research and projects from around the world in multiple disciplines have been presented and shared since 1969, with published Selected Readings from the conferences each year. It is one of the groups helping to promote the importance of media and visual literacy today.

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Through IVLA, I met the international scholar Rune Pettersson, who has continually added to the scholarship in information design and message design along with other aspects of visual literacy. Recently, he wrote about early visual literacy (Pettersson 2013): A historical view shows that discussions about the use of images have a long history. Several definitions reveal that visual literacy is an ability, a competency, or a skill. Visual literacy is an interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and multidimensional area of knowledge. Different kinds of visuals may be applied in almost all subject matter areas and in different media. From a theoretical view, visual literacy includes visual language, visual thinking, visual perception, visual communication, and visual learning. Seen from a communications view, presentation of an intended message involves a wide range of professional interest groups concerned with its design, production, distribution, and use. (n.p.)

To me, this brief discussion captures the essence of both visual and media literacy. The many foundational theory areas, the multidisciplinary nature of the issues, and the importance of helping to develop the skills for improved communication have always been the foundation of these literacies in my opinion. The two terms have often seemed competitive, overlapping, and not necessarily disparate in their meaning and approach. One difference often noted has been that visual literacy is less connected to any particular medium, and therefore, more universal. I often told students in my visual literacy graduate class that visual literacy was the overarching term, and media literacy fit within it. Media literacy may seem more fluid because it must respond to and change with the media and technology available, such as newer digital tools and global access to Web-based social media imagery. But that could make visual literacy the more static term. So with this shared background, it should not be surprising that visual and media literacies have been woven into my teaching and scholarship throughout my career at Northern Illinois University. I have been active in promoting these literacies to teachers, administrators, library media specialists, and researchers for over 30 years. Like many other academic programs around the country and the globe, we routinely have offered our graduate level visual literacy course for education and museum studies students, and I have been very pleased to see the increased attention to these concepts in the standards and professional expectations of K-20 educators. Professors across the USA shared syllabi and curricular ideas for courses like this at our conferences, so we learned from one another. We all saw the positive impact of our efforts to add media and visual literacy activities in educational settings.

Learning from Each Other Through Publications This is not the first collected and edited text on visual or media literacies. Since the 1970s, media studies have been promoted for public education K-20. Teachers like me were involved in helping their students become critical viewers, analyze historical events through archived images, and share learning through student productions. Books published from a variety of perspectives helped inform educators of this

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fairly new area of study. For example, members of the IVLA contributed to an introduction to visual literacy text edited by Moore and Dwyer in 1994. These editors sought to introduce a “spectrum of visual learning” including the definitions, the terms within the definitions, and a wide array of basic explanations and discussions around the terms. Historical and theoretical foundations, visual language, nonverbal communication, visual design, use of visuals, and social, political, and cultural aspects of visual literacy in teaching and learning were all included. Other texts preceded that one and others have followed, from a variety of perspectives. Authors such as Arnheim, Eisner, Baker, Monoco, Considine and Haley, Curtiss, Fleming and Levie, Tufte, Potter, and Hobbs all provided key texts in their areas of specialization that were popular and well received by educators. They provided strong arguments from backgrounds in the arts and art education, communication media (film and television), media and culture, visual communication and manipulation, perception, psychology, and teacher education (see reference list for sample titles). More recent texts have looked at the “visual” in particular fields of education, such as one edited which focuses on the impact of visual literacy on art history. Along with texts providing a wide spectrum of information, organizations and entities such as Edutopia and EDUCAUSE, the Center for Media Literacy (CML), the National Association of Media Literacy Education (NAMLE), the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), the International Reading Association (IRA), along with the venerable IVLA have all devoted themselves to understanding and promoting the vital aspects of these literacies. In the past 15–20 years, most have developed definitions, set standards, made recommendations to professionals, and shared strategies and materials for the promotion of these concepts and skills in educational settings. Filmmakers like Lucas and Scorsese have gotten involved (edutopia.org), promoting the importance of media literacy in education. National standards for teaching and learning, such as the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), adopted in all but a few states, have recognized the importance of improving all students’ understanding and abilities in a wide range of concepts related to media and visual literacy, often linking to critical thinking and creative expression. The CCSS, while controversial at this point, have included many standards for language arts and mathematics that require visual and media literacy activities and assessments. The vision statement for the language arts standards states: “Students Who are College and Career Ready in Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening, & Language… use technology and digital media strategically and capably” (CCSS, 2010). Those standards in language arts involve reading multimedia, getting information from Web sites, understanding from video, and using primary documents, including images, to understand science and history. For example, the Center for Media Literacy (http://www.medialit.org) promotes media literacy as a way of encouraging global awareness, critical thinking, and selfexpression. Media, they report, has an “unquestionable” impact on the “way we understand, interpret and act on our world.” They consider media literacy to be vital in this twenty-first century, where many mediated messages need to be “navigated”

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through developing these skills. They include five core concepts of media literacy (Media Literacy Kit 2003). To restate the obvious, there have been, for decades, a plethora of resources created by multiple disciplines and experts to help define, justify, and promote the importance and value of media and visual literacy. But during these 50 years or more, while popular media such as film, television, magazines, record or CD covers, digital games, and the Web all grew in global influence and audience, media education and visual literacy education have not been universally adopted. Texts, curriculum materials, YouTube videos, Web sites, easily available and free tools for productions, all have been produced and marketed. Our question should be: What is the reluctance of education to embrace the importance of visual/media literacy as vital concepts for the twenty-first century?

Introduction to This Book While historically (as Pettersson reviewed) visual literacy has been defined by skills, we realize now that both literacies involve theory, cultural knowledge, perception, and of course the newer tools which abound in society and in education. Many suggestions for organizing the aspects of visual and media literacy have been posited. This text uses three areas: framing, integrating, and teaching. Others have approached the topics by considering more specific media: arts literacy, film literacy, digital literacy. Information literacy, knowledge mapping, and graphical design have been included. The professional organizations most linked to this text include similar but distinct definitions of visual and/or media literacy: ACRL, NAMLE, and IVLA. All have been promoting similar foundational issues and providing support for those trying to teach the related skills. Whether or not these concepts and skills have been achieved by learners is another issue, however. Scharrer (2002) suggested that there has been little, if any, research reporting on the outcomes of visual or media literacy education. She adds that the positive impact of such programs has certainly been students’ cognitive growth in understanding terms and issues, and the development of the ability to carefully decode and analyze media messages and thus practice critical thinking and viewing. But it is possible, in this era of accountability, that this perceived lack of “proof” that visual or media literacy educational efforts have been successful has had a negative impact on the growth of all such educational programs. This text, with its collection of excellent chapters, details foundational issues, describes tools and strategies that have been implemented to evoke learning, and includes case study reports of different ways that have been designed, developed, implemented, and assessed to encourage learning in aspects of visual and media literacy. These efforts should assist readers in adopting new or revised practices and guide their consideration of increased efforts for learners to engage with these important topics and skills.

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In the Preface, the editors of this text have introduced the topic and definitions important to understanding teaching and integrating visual and media literacy. They provide a review of the definitions and the debates surrounding the terms visual and media literacy, and highlight the history of the development of the concepts. Their chapter also presents the concerns surrounding these important concepts, and traces the involvement of some of the professional organizations which have sought to encourage growth in research, teaching, and the development of more literate learners. Visual Literacy and Media Literacy. These terms have been used synonymously, in contrast to one another, and individually in literature and research throughout the last 60 years. Without suggesting a solution to this dispute the editors, in the Preface, help frame the need for visual and media education. They created this collection to provide a wide-ranging selection of distinctive essays selected to guide readers in understanding these literacies, help them develop strategies to expand their teaching and learning, and suggest ways to support these critically important and often underrepresented ideas in educational settings. This text is designed for educators: teachers, teacher educators, administrators, professional developers, and researchers. We all need to utilize the ideas shared here to involve ourselves in the field of visual/media literacy to continue its growth, explore the research questions raised by our digital culture, and improve learning in K-20 classrooms (real or virtual). Experts in my generation, as I have tried to describe, have done their best to define, explain, promote, and guide others in the many aspects of visual and media literacy. The authors of these chapters represent the next generation of teachers and designers who will help direct us to improved literacy and a more visually educated and critically aware society.***** Rhonda S. Robinson, PhD Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus Northern Illinois University, USA

References Arnheim, R. (1954/1974). Art and visual perception: A psychology of the creative eye. Berkeley: University of California Press. Barry, A. S. (1997). Visual intelligence. Albany: State University of New York Press. Center for Media Literacy. (2001). Media kit. http://www.medialit.org/sites/default/ files/mlk/01_MLKorientation.pdf. Common Core State Standards. (2014). About the standards. http://www.corestandards.org/. Considine, D., & Haley, G. (1992). Visual messages: Integrating imagery into instruction. A teacher resource for media and visual literacy. Englewood: Teacher Ideas. Dwyer, F. (1978). Strategies for improving visual learning. State College: Learning Services.

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Eisner, E. (1972). Educating artistic vision. New York: Macmillan. Messaris, P. (1994). Visual “literacy”: Image, mind and reality. Boulder: Westview. Moore, D. M., & Dwyer, F. (1994). Visual literacy a spectrum of learning. Englewood Cliffs: Educational Technology. Pettersson, R. (2013). Views on visual literacy. VASA Project. Journal on Images and Culture (1). http://vjic.org/vjic2/?page_id=214. Robinson, R. (1980). Video elements: Factors of critical analysis of commercial television. Media Message, 10(2). Robinson, R. (1984). Using television to teach visual literacy: “You’ve ruined TV for me.” In A. D. Walker, R. A. Braden, & L. H. Dunker (Eds.), Visual literacyEnhancing human potential (pp. 330–336). Bloomington: International Visual Literacy Association. Scharrer, E. (2002/2003, December/January). Making a case for media literacy in the curriculum: Outcomes and assessment. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 46(4), 354. http://www.readingonline.org/newliteracies/lit_index. asp?HREF=/newliteracies/jaal/12–02_column/index.html.

Preface

Since the earliest period of our civilization, images have been an essential part of our history and culture, and have become a fundamental aspect of our relationship with others and the world. From the earliest prehistoric paintings in Altamira and Lascaux to the Aztec codices in ancient America, and from the 3000–year-old Egyptian hieroglyphs to the magnificent Renaissance paintings, humans have attempted to capture and depict scenes of our daily lives, our traditions, celebrations, rituals, and other meaningful individual and global events. After the invention of photography in the 1830s, our society has had increased access to thousands, if not millions of images that have had a lasting impact. Photographs such as the Tiananmen Square protest by Jeff Widener, the disturbing and shocking pictures of torture at Abu Ghraib prison, the high-resolution images of Mars, or the Checkpoint Girl by Chris Hondros have influenced the course of history and educated people while helping us to shape opinions, and informing us of what is occurring in the world. Life in the twenty-first century is inundated by still and moving images, produced for personal and professional gains, and motivated by social, economic, or political needs. Definitely, these images are, in one way or another, defining a generation’s identity, popularity, and power. The influence on human behavior may not be as overt initially, though its appeal lingers in the subconscious. However, the impact can be observed in cash registers, election results, and anonymous postings in media online, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, to name a few. The rapid ascension of visual technologies as tools for delivering content, facilitating communication, developing critical thinking, and expressing creativity has become a game changer in encoding and decoding images. Young and old are bombarded daily with images without knowing what hit them. So it is important to teach them skills that will facilitate better understanding of what these images mean. Becoming visual- and media-literate must be part of one’s education.

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What is Visual Literacy? In 1968, John Debes coined the term “visual literacy.” The International Visual Literacy Association (IVLA) adopted a more inclusive definition of visual literacy as “a group of vision-competencies a human being can develop by seeing and at the same time having and integrating other sensory experiences. The development of these competencies is fundamental to normal human learning. When developed, they enable a visually literate person to discriminate and interpret the visible actions, objects, symbols, natural or manmade, that he encounters in his environment. Through the creative use of these competencies, he is able to communicate with others. Through the appreciative use of these competencies, he is able to comprehend and enjoy the masterworks of visual communication.” (Fransecky and Debes 1972). However, with the introduction of technology in our society and the development of media and computer literacy, other scholars have offered their own definitions (Avgerinou and Ericson 1997; Horton 1983; Kress 2003; Rezabek 1999; Robinson 1984). The Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) states that “Visual literacy is a set of abilities that enables an individual to effectively find, interpret, evaluate, use, and create images and visual media. Visual literacy skills equip a learner to understand and analyze the contextual, cultural, ethical, aesthetic, intellectual, and technical components involved in the production and use of visual materials. A visually literate individual is both a critical consumer of visual media and a competent contributor to a body of shared knowledge and culture” (Visual Literacy Standards Task Force, 2011). According to the ACRL, the abilities of a visually literate individual include the evaluation of images and their sources, the design and creation of meaningful images and visual media, the effective use of images of visual media, the understanding of ethical, legal, social, and economic issues surrounding the creation and use of images, and the effective localization of needed images and visual media, among others. We live immersed in a visual culture and images surround us, not only when we walk to school or drive our cars to work, but also when we navigate the internet or attend the latest movie premiere. We also contribute to that culture with our smartphones or cameras. According to a Pew Internet & American life reports, the percentage of adults who own a cell phone has reached 91 %, with 56 % of them owning a smartphone (Smith 2013). In 2010, it was reported that 83 % of teenagers take pictures with their cell phones (Lenhart et al. 2010). Sites such as Flickr, Instagram, Imgur, Panoramio, Photobucket, Picasa, and Pinterest offer the ability to share photos and to comment on them, creating an enormous repository of images. However, there is still a lack of understanding on how to read, use, and interpret these images. As Felten (2008) states, people can develop the ability to recognize, interpret, and use different visual forms. This learning process is a dynamic exercise that continues throughout our lives by acquiring more advanced ways to produce, analyze, and employ images.

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What is Media Literacy? The way we receive and assimilate information has been a transformative process, accelerated in the past few decades by the inclusion of the personal computer and the Internet. From the invention of the printed press to the ubiquitous presence of the smartphone in our daily lives, technology has made information more accessible; however, it also has caused an overflow of information which has sometimes proven challenging to interpret, classify, and understand. Our ability to create, process, dissect, and distribute information has been forever changed. There is a need to rationalize and understand the impact of media in our lives; thus, the need for cohesive strategies and regulations is imperative, especially in the educational setting. As Considine, Jorton, and Moorman argue (2009), students live in an environment in which reading and writing through digital media is pervasive. Students bring to school a different set of literacy practices and tools that are often unrecognized or underused by educators. Thus it becomes the teacher’s responsibility to connect the dots between what students already know, and what they need to learn. Same as with visual literacy, there is a need for evidence-based research strategies to help people to analyze and evaluate this continuous stream of information. The National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) defines media literacy as “the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and communicate information in a variety of forms—is interdisciplinary by nature. Media literacy represents a necessary, inevitable, and realistic response to the complex, ever-changing electronic environment and communication cornucopia that surround us.” The association argues that in order to become prosperous citizens, “individuals need to develop expertise with the increasingly sophisticated information and entertainment media that address us on a multisensory level, affecting the way we think, feel, and behave” (National Association for Media Literacy Education 2007). The core principles of media literacy education, according to NAMLE, include active inquiry and critical thinking, must include all forms of media, build and reinforce skills for learners of all ages, and develop informed, reflective, and engaged participants, among others. The Center for Media Literacy argues that there is a need for a more robust definition of media literacy. Their definition reads as follows: Media literacy is a twenty-first century approach to education which provides a framework to “access, analyze, evaluate, and create messages in a variety of forms—from print to video to the internet. Media literacy builds an understanding of the role of media in society, as well as essential skills to inquiry and self-expression necessary for citizens of a democracy” (Center for Media Literacy 2011).

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From Dream to Reality This edited book was an idea that became a dream, and finally a reality. It was an idea nurtured by the first editor, Danilo M. Baylen, as a graduate student enrolled in a visual literacy course more than 20 years ago. It became a dream when the first editor and his colleague, Cristine Goldberg, co-presented a session at the International Visual Literacy Association (IVLA) 2009 conference in Chicago. Two years ago, it became a reality when Adriana D’Alba, the second editor, joined the faculty at the University of West Georgia, and both editors found common and complementary interests in areas of instructional technology, instructional design, technology integration practices, and multimedia development. What makes this edited book different? As editors, we believe that the 14 chapters provide an opportunity to showcase practice and evidence that supports curricular integration efforts of visual and media literacy in K-12 and higher education contexts. The chapters describe and discuss various models of integrating visual and media-based tools and resources, as well as provide ideas and advice from a wide range of experts and practitioners. Using the definitions from national and international groups of educators, researchers, and practitioners—NAMLE, ACRL, and IVLA—this book not only provides theoretical background but also step-bystep guidelines, expert advice, and practitioner experience to those interested, with a wide range of perspectives and possibilities on how to use and integrate visual and media-based tools and resources to promote literacy at all levels with various levels of guidance.

Finding Common Ground The book was developed over a period of 9 months, during which potential authors went through a rigorous and extensive peer review process. After submitting the chapter proposals, potential authors received suggestions for manuscript development by an editorial team including the book editors. Authors were asked to identify their targeted audience and format (e.g., literature review/theoretical, evidence-based/data-driven, or case study), to align their topics to the adapted definition of visual and media literacy and outline potential implications. The subsequent blind peer review process included the participation of over 78 scholars, including potential authors. It also included practitioners from different professional backgrounds, such as higher education faculty (e.g., arts, sciences, education, library and information science), K-12 educators, and library media specialists. Reviewers were asked to provide extensive comments on the adequacy of literature, analysis of issues, and legitimacy of conclusions, while examining weaknesses and strengths of the submissions. Reviewers were also encouraged to include recommendations and constructive comments to improve the manuscripts. This exercise resulted in authors receiving feedback from four, or even five, different perspectives. Feedback

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received from the majority of authors indicated that they were pleased with the review process and suggestions. Comments made mention that the review process had contributed to stronger manuscripts. After the second review, authors resubmitted their final work. The editors made the final selection from those chapters that were better aligned with the scope of the book.

Framing, Learning, and Teaching The 14 book chapters are categorized into three sections: Framing, Learning, and Teaching. The first section on framing laid the groundwork for the conversation on visual and media literacy with connections to graphic design, multiliteracies, visual thinking, and culture (i.e., Chaps.  1–4). The second section focuses on learning specific content and illustrated how the use, application, or integration of visual or media literacy into the curriculum can be helpful (i.e., Chaps. 5–10). The last section focuses on teaching visual and media literacy. The chapters illustrate how visual or media literacy can be taught across disciplines. Each chapter in this edited book includes a unique perspective and a critical analysis about the usefulness of visual and media literacy within different settings in the educational arena. It offers different strategies to include these inquiry-based, process-oriented concepts to improve the way we learn and teach. Chapter 1, “Graphic Design as a Learning Process,” written by Kristina Lamour Sansone, contends that graphic design’s combined language of pictures and text is an essential literacy for teaching and learning. The author analyzes the value of using images and written words to construct meaning by using picture–text integrated projects in the classroom and presents a review of literature focused on the definition and history of graphic design, while discussing the relationship between this discipline and visual and media literacy. She provides definitions for the terms pictures and texts and how they integrate with each other, and delivers examples of these integrations. The chapter includes an analysis of picture-text integration in early childhood, and describes research associated with picture–text integrated literacies, based on Mayer’s multimedia learning and Paivio’s dual-channel theories. Sansone presents the learning phases of graphic design, and offers diverse strategies to construct meaning. She also describes several useful examples on how her K-12 students use pictures and words in classroom activities, and enlists tools and resources for teachers and practitioners. Chapter 2, “Reinforcing Multiliteracies Through Design Activities” presents an array of instructional strategies to develop the skills necessary to engage and process the extensive variety of information that students encounter in their daily lives. The author, Tonia Dousay, argues that educators must address curriculum that prepares visual literate citizens, and contends that this process can start with preservice teachers, but must include teacher educators and professional development personnel currently in service. Within the chapter, the reader encounters the definitions of visual and media literacy from different scholars and institutions.

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The chapter provides a careful selection of design activities based on digital stories and comic books, and offers an analysis of their essential components, steps, processes, and digital applications used in their creation. The author presents sufficient literature background that supports the design of these activities, and delivers successful examples used in the classroom, along with standards and assessment procedures. Dousay contends that, while design activities present outstanding benefits, there are challenges and considerations that must be addressed. Ethical dilemmas related to image manipulation, race, religion, and socioeconomic classes can influence the outcomes of these activities. In addition, the author presents an exploration of the availability of activities that promote multiliteracy for learners with disabilities. Dabney Hailey, Alexa Miller, and Philip Yenawine, authors of Chapter 3, “Understanding and Teaching Visual Literacy: The Visual Thinking Strategies Approach,” present a comprehensive review of literature on the definition of visual literacy, and discuss in detail the Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) method, developed by Abigail Housen and Philip Yenawine. The authors analyze Housen’s work and research process that ultimately resulted in the development of VTS, and provide an elaborated account of her first two of five proposed aesthetic stages: accountive and constructive viewers. The authors argue that previsually literate individuals reach basic visual literacy at the end of stage two. Readers of this chapter can examine the VTS protocol and its implications for teaching, while reviewing research-based evidence on the impact of VTS in elementary and healthcare education. Hailey, Miller, and Yenawine indicate that visually literate people “have the disposition to sustain the act of observation, recognizing that taking time to look is an essential part of the inquiry process and remaining confident that such looking will reveal new information and possibilities,” and contend that visual literacy can be cultivated through VTS. The authors discuss the need for further research on the impact of visual thinking strategies in the development of visual literacy, and identify possible future research on the impact of VTS in areas such as critical thinking, attention and metacognition, standardized test performance in K-12 education, and diagnosis accuracy and patient satisfaction. Brooke Scherer, author of Chapter 4, “Visual Communication and Culture: Design Education for a Globalized World,” offers a unique perspective on cultural awareness and visual communication among audiences of varying backgrounds. The author’s job experience working for a global advertising agency provides a valuable and candid account of successes and failures when trying to communicate an idea by thinking locally, but acting globally. She contends that current design pedagogy teaches students how to visually communicate with their peers, but does not account for culturally diverse audiences who do not share the same backgrounds and beliefs. Scherer argues that there is still a lack of educational awareness regarding audience backgrounds, and hints at the need for the incorporation of these cultural issues into higher education curriculum using graphic design as a “discipline that both adapts, and advances through modern-day visually communicative needs.” In this chapter, readers can encounter foundational components that help to create effec-

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tive designed visual communications. Those elements—dimensions, environmental context, symbolism, and consumer behavior—are included in a component matrix designed by Scherer, along with an example of how to use this tool. In addition, this chapter describes and analyzes the stages of a practical project developed by Scherer’s students, where they were required to create global campaigns for American companies. Students were expected to conduct background research in the audience assigned by the instructor, formulated their findings in a formal presentation, and created the campaign utilizing Scherer’s component matrix. Chapter  5, “Cameras in Classrooms: Photography’s Pedagogical Potential,” written by Jeff Share, introduces cameras as an ideal tool to be used in classrooms to support the teaching of different content through photography. The author discusses the power and limitations of photography and its ability to convey messages that no other medium can do in the same way. Photographic images, Share argues, can start or end wars, send people to jail, inspire political dissent, and have caused people to fall in love. The author presents documented examples and citations from multiple authors and scholars regarding this medium, and contends that “everyone today is a photographer.” He describes advances in technology as the perfect way to engage our society in picture taking. This engagement can benefit teachers and students alike, as the prohibitive expenses related to the purchase of photographic equipment and film development have been diminished by the introduction of digital cameras and smartphones. The author presents a critical media literacy pedagogy used in the teacher education program at the University of California, Los Angeles, and analyzes five conceptual understandings of media education derived from this pedagogy. Share discusses a detailed account of his experiences using photography in both the elementary school and higher education settings, and concludes that photography and media are youth’s tools of choice for engaging with others and expressing themselves; thus, it is imperative for educators to prepare students to critically analyze visual images and printed texts. Mary Christel examines image creation as a medium of communication in ­Chapter  6, “Presenting My Selfie to the Digital World: Visual Composition for ­Better Representation.” She argues that, although students have become instant creators of images aided by technological tools, they still lack advanced levels of digital, media, and visual literacies in order to access, analyze, interpret, evaluate, use, and create visual messages. The author contends that understanding the principles of visual composition allows novice and experienced image curators and creators to expand their insight and ability of image analysis for their emotional and narrative potential. The chapter presents a series of specific activities designed to prepare image producers to use these principles, resulting in producers using available technology in a manner that demonstrates their ability to interpret and select the essential tools to communicate their views, while examining and understanding existing media messages. Each of these activities, tied to the NAMLE standards, promote the use of a variety of social media channels to share visual and verbal messages. Christel contends that students need to construct a set of digital citizenship competencies to support their emerging digital competencies, provides suggestions

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for their development, and concludes with the idea that Common Core presents a unique opportunity for teachers and students to construct learning relationships to perfect their visual and media literacy awareness and image production skills. Chapter  7, “Multimodal Composition in Teacher Education: From Consumers to Producers,” written by Jill E. Flynn and William Lewis, presents student project examples and multimodal assignments used in their undergraduate methods courses offered for English language arts teachers at the University of Delaware. The authors utilize digital tools such as iMovie, Windows MovieMaker, and VoiceThread to help students produce digital content directed to English language arts, while engaging in creative and reflective tasks. In this chapter, Flynn and Lewis discuss the concept of “metaphorical construct,” introduced in the early 1990s as a method for group problem solving and innovation. They present several student examples and explain the process of using this approach: students select an element of the text they consider of high importance; then, identify a physical or cultural object related to the text and deconstruct it to its constituent parts; and finally, present their creative metaphor to their peers. The authors also create a connection between the “metaphorical construct” and digital tools, as they “provide an opportunity for students to not only read, but also practice composing multimedia texts, and to efficiently share their work with their peers.” The authors examine digital stories and their relationship with identity and teaching within the course “Literacy and Technology.” Students brainstorm ideas about the story they want to tell, use mind mapping digital tools, create storyboards using online resources, develop a script, and produce an artifact that describes their own stories. Chapter 8, “Integrating Visual and Media Literacy in YouTube Video Projects,” written by Chareen Snelson, presents the social media platform YouTube as one of the largest depositories of online video, and defines its potential for the development of visual and media literacy competencies. The author describes the creation of a graduate-level course named “YouTube for Educators,” and accounts how visual and media literacies were infused in the curriculum. The chapter explains in detail the curricular, technological, and societal factors involved in the decisionmaking process to produce the course. It also identifies challenges encountered in the development and implementation phases, and provides advisement and solutions to those issues. Snelson introduces an overview of visual and media literacy competencies and their embedment in the YouTube course. She describes in detail a series of projects divided in two broad categories: video curation and video creation. These projects include a video blog, a PowerPoint movie, a remix video, and interactive YouTube videos. The author concludes that although the course will most likely evolve as continuous evolution of social media and student experiences occurs, “visual and media literacy and educational technology competencies will remain central to future iterations of the ‘YouTube for Educators’ course.” Taralynn Hartsell argues that graphic organizers help students and instructors organize information visually, and permits learners to examine patterns and relationships in Chaper 9, “Mapping Concepts for Learning.” She provides literature

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background on visual learning theories such as dual coding, schema, and cognitive load, and discusses how these theories explain the basis which graphic organizers are built upon. Hartsell contends that concept maps serve as the foundation of lesson plan and module content, as they are graphical representations of ideas, relationships, and connections. The chapter documents a case study where the author created concept maps to organize the content of a graduate-level course. Hartsell had previously used this strategy in her undergraduate courses; however, in those, students were the ones required to create concept maps regarding a subject area of their choice. She explains the content creation process and procedures implemented, paying special attention to the description of instructional materials and tools used during this exercise. The author also points out challenges and outcomes encountered during and after the course ended, and provides directions and recommendations for future research. Chapter 10, “Using Scientific Visualization to Enhance the Teaching and Learning of Core Concepts,” introduces the readers to the concept of scientific visualization as a new type of literacy, which requires appropriate scaffolding for learners, while using static and dynamic visual and graphical media. The team of S. Raj Chaudhury, Lynn Mandeltort, Amy B. Mulnix, Eleanor V. H. Vandergrift, and Jennifer R. Yates, as authors, discuss the importance of incorporating graphical elements and activities that foster visual literacy, specifically in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses, which are often viewed as abstract, uninspiring, and rigid. The chapter also illustrates how college-level faculty in STEM effectively uses media literacy skills to enhance their courses. The authors argue that introducing scaffolding and opportunities for students to interpret, analyze, predict, and construct representations of phenomena with static and dynamic visual and graphical media in their courses, provided their pupils with a deeper understanding of the course content through visual interpretation. The authors present several vignettes and discuss their application in physics, chemistry, biology, and neuroscience courses, while introducing teaching takeaways for practitioners interested in each of these subject areas. In Chapter  11, “Digital Knowledge Mapping as an Instructional Strategy to Promote Visual Literacy,” Darryl C. Draper presents a detailed account of an exploratory case study focused on the effectiveness of concept mapping and graphic organizers to promote visual literacy. The case study was conducted in an 8-week online graduate-level course named “Special Topics: Digital Knowledge Mapping/ Management,” in which digital knowledge maps and graphic organizers were used both for course design and course activities. The research attempted to explain how these tools promote visual literacy and learning outcomes. Draper provides literature-based definitions of Bloom’s taxonomy (revised), CmapTools, knowledge visualization, graphic organizers, knowledge vee diagrams, communities of practice, and ties the concepts and tools to visual and media literacy practices. The author also provides an explanation on how those tools supported the instructional activities, along with the design and development of the course. After the conclusion of the course, Draper analyzed students’ knowledge maps and their correspondent written justification and encountered four emergent themes:

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r­ esearch, construction process, organization, and behavior. The author concludes that digital knowledge maps are a viable tool in promoting visual literacy and learning effectiveness, and can also be relevant evaluation instruments for instructors and students alike. Lindsay K. Mattock documents a case study developed in a higher education setting in Chapter 12, “Teaching Visual and Media Literacy Skills in Media Production Technology.” This chapter is mainly directed to archivists, librarians, and those charged with training informational professionals at the graduate level; however, as the author indicates, the approach presented within the chapter can be used in other academic disciplines where students are not required to create, but rather analyze and interpret specific media products and images. Mattock discusses the need for visual and media literacy in the library and information science graduate curriculum, while providing a detailed literature review of visual and media literacy definitions. She includes well-documented research-based practices used by archivists and librarians, and offers a rationale for a visual and media literacy approach in an elective course named “Moving Image Archives” that addresses visual materials in the archival context. The author exhibits strategies and procedures followed in the design and revisions of the 12-week graduate course and discusses in detail the activities, outcomes, and feedback provided by students at the end of the term. Chapter 13, “Visual Literacy and Art History: Teaching Images and Objects in Digital Environments,” presents a unique perspective on the use of visual and media literacy strategies for teaching art history at the undergraduate level. The author, Julia Finch, states that with the introduction of the Internet to the educational arena, professors and students can access digital image collections and virtual spaces without the financial burden or time restrictions that real spaces often present. The author cites that “students born into a digitally literate culture have a set of skills that is not only conductive to the study of art and architecture, but that can be honed through art history as a life skill that will serve them well beyond the classroom in our image -and media- saturated world.” The chapter provides an art historical perspective on visual literacy and offers a particular view on digital imagery and applications for the classroom. It also analyzes how visual media literacy can be used to recreate material objects and digital environments where instructor and students can meet and have meaningful interactions while working on assignments and exercises that are easily accessible on their own media devices, such as smartphones, computers, and tablets. Finch also discusses the usefulness of visual thinking strategies (explained in deep detail in Chapter 3 of this book) as successful and necessary foundations for visual analysis assignments. The author provides the reader a detailed explanation of four activities and assessments for visual literacy in digital environments, which include social media image sharing, understanding the digitized object, understanding digital spaces, and digital curating. These activities exhibit the opportunity for students and teachers to meet and interact, using digital environments and tools. Finally, Chapter 14, “Teaching Visual Literacy: Pedagogy, Design and Implementation, Tools and Techniques,” written by Elizabeth K. Anderson, Rhonda S. Robinson,

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and Kristin Brynteson, presents a case study which includes a detailed account of strategies applied to a newly redesigned graduate-level, interdisciplinary course in visual literacy offered through The Department of Educational Technology, Research, and Assessment at Northern Illinois University. In this chapter, the authors explain the reasoning for the redesign, present detailed steps of the process, and offer an elaborated account of materials, tools, and strategies used for the redesign. These include a themed blended approach, reflective writing, online portfolios, and collaborative projects in Weebly, interactive online discussions in Blackboard, and several low-stakes production assignments using diverse technological tools such as Animoto, Pixton, and GoAnimate. The authors provide several screen captures related to the course, which allow the reader to visualize its content and structure and introduce strategies for instruction and assessment. The chapter enlists several student quotes taken from the end-of-course survey, which illustrate the successfulness of the modified class, and provide a detailed insight about student opinions and deep reflections regarding this blended course. The authors also offer implications across educational settings and provide recommendations for the delivery, design, instruction, and assessment of courses focused on, and beyond, visual literacy.

A Million Thanks We, the editors, appreciate the chapter authors for their quality work. Though we divided the edited book into three sections, we believe that some of the book chapters can be placed in more than one section. The topics that each chapter addresses can apply to multiple sections. Furthermore, we believe that these chapters can serve as excellent materials for those interested in visual and media literacy—as a new teacher, faculty member, researcher, or practitioner. It may not give an immediate answer to one’s question, but it will at least provide an idea that may inspire an act of courage and a sense of adventure given the rapidly changing educational contexts. This edited book has become a reality due to numerous individuals, from those who initially proposed, authored manuscripts, and acted as peer reviewers, and their multiple contributions. The editors would like to thank them all for what has been accomplished. At a personal level, the editors acknowledge a good friend, Cristine Goldberg, who cheered and provided sage advice “when things got tough,” while making this dream a reality, and three research assistants; Kristen Grabowski, Kendal Lucas, and Michelle Michael, who did more than their share of proofreading. Adriana expresses her appreciation to her husband, Lee Brown, for his support and understanding. Finally, we hope that you will enjoy reading the book chapters as we did, and will be inspired to do more teaching, learning, and research related to visual and media literacy in the near future. Danilo M. Baylen and Adriana D’Alba University of West Georgia, USA

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References Visual Literacy Standards Task Force. (2011). ACRL Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. Association of College & Research Libraries. http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/visual literacy. Avgerinou, M., & Ericson, J. (1997). A review of the concept of visual literacy. British Journal of Educational Technology, 28(4), 280–291. Considine, D., Horton, J., & Moorman, G. (2009). Teaching and reading the millennial generation through media literacy. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 52(6), 471–481. doi:10.1598/JAAL.52.6.2. Fransecky, R. B., & Debes, J. L. (1972). Visual literacy: A way to learn, a way to teach. Washington, DC: AECT Publications. Felten, P. (2008). Visual literacy. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 40(4), 60–64. Harris, B. R. (2005). ‘Big Picture’ pedagogy: The convergence of word and image information literacy instruction. Currents and convergence: Navigating the rivers of change: Proceedings of the ACRL 12th National Conference. ALA, Chicago. Horton, J. (1983). Visual literacy and visual thinking. In L. Burbank & D. Pett (Eds.), Contributions to the study of visual literacy (pp. 92–106). Bloomington: International Visual Literacy Association. Kress, G. (2003). Literacy in the new media age. New York: Routledge. Lenhart, A., Ling, R., Campbell S., & Purcell K. (2010). Teens and mobile phones. Pew Internet & American Life Project. http://www.pewinternet.org. National Association for Media Literacy Education. (November 2007). Core principles of media literacy education in the United States. http://namle.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/CorePrinciples.pdf. Rezabek, L. (1999). Importance of visual literacy. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology. Houston, Texas. Robinson, R. S. (1984). Learning to see: Developing visual literacy through film. Top of the News, 40(3), 267–275. Smith, A. (2013). Smartphone ownership. Pew Internet & American Life Project. http://www.pewinternet.org.

Contents

Part I  Framing Using Strategies from Graphic Design to Improve Teaching and Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3 Kristina Lamour Sansone Reinforcing Multiliteracies Through Design Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   27 Tonia A. Dousay Understanding Visual Literacy: The Visual Thinking Strategies Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   49 Dabney Hailey, Alexa Miller and Philip Yenawine Visual Communication and Culture: Design Education for a Globalized World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  75 Brooke N. Scherer Part II  Integrating Cameras in Classrooms: Photography’s Pedagogical Potential . . . . . . . . .  97 Jeff Share Presenting My Selfie to the Digital World: Visual Composition for Better Representation Mary T. Christel Multimodal Composition in Teacher Education: From Consumers to Producers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   147 Jill Ewing Flynn and William Lewis Integrating Visual and Media Literacy in YouTube Video Projects . . . . . .  165 Chareen Snelson Using Scientific Visualization to Enhance the Teaching and Learning of Core Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  185 S. Raj Chaudhury, Lynn Mandeltort, Amy B. Mulnix, Eleanor V.H. Vandegrift and Jennifer R. Yates xxv

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Mapping Concepts for Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   203 Taralynn Hartsell Part III  Teaching Digital Knowledge Mapping as an Instructional Strategy to Promote Visual Literacy: A Case Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   219 Darryl C. Draper Teaching Visual and Media Literacy Skills Through Media Production Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   237 Lindsay Kistler Mattock Visual Literacy and Art History: Teaching Images and Objects in Digital Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   251 Julia A. Finch Teaching Visual Literacy: Pedagogy, Design and Implementation, Tools, and Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   265 Elizabeth K. Anderson, Rhonda S. Robinson and Kristin Brynteson Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   291

About the Editors

Danilo M. Baylen  is a professor of media and instructional technology at the University of West Georgia. Prior to his faculty role, he worked as an instructional designer at Florida Gulf Coast University, director of instructional technology services at the University of Akron, and coordinator of the Center for Instructional Design and Development at the Ohio State University at Mansfield. He also worked as a teacher of English as a second language, and social worker in Southeast Asian refugee camps. His academic credentials include graduate degrees in instructional technology, library and information studies, elementary education, and counseling, and an undergraduate degree in economics. Currently, Dr. Baylen is the president of the International Division of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT). He has published articles, book chapters, and conference proceeding papers and presentations on technology integration practices, online teaching and learning, and faculty development. He has been involved in several advisory boards including the International Visual Literacy Association; Southern Regional Faculty and Instructional Development Consortium; and the Technology, Colleges and Community Online Conference. He serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of International Students, Quarterly Review of Distance Education, Social Studies Research and Practice, TechTrends, and To Improve the Academy. Adriana D’Alba  is an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Technology and Foundations at the University of West Georgia. She holds a PhD in educational computing and an MPhil in 2D/3D motion graphics. After finishing her bachelor’s degree in graphic design, she spent several years developing Web sites and managing Web services for diverse clients. She switched to academia in 2001 where she focused her research on digital multimedia, and taught classes in two universities in Mexico. Her research interests include multimedia applications and technology integration in the classroom, instructional design and assessment of 3D online environments for learning, virtual museums, online games for learning, and integration of emerging technologies in the STEM curriculum. xxvii

Contributors

Elizabeth K. Anderson  College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn, IL, USA Kristin Brynteson  Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL, USA S. Raj Chaudhury  Auburn University, Auburn, AL, USA Mary T. Christel  Adlai E. Stevenson H.S. (emeritus), Wheeling, IL, USA Tonia A. Dousay  Department of Professional Studies, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, USA Darryl C. Draper  Department of STEM Education and Professional Studies, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA Julia A. Finch  Department of Art and Design, Morehead State University, Morehead, KY, USA Jill Ewing Flynn  Department of English, University of Delaware, Newark, USA Dabney Hailey  Hailey Group, LLC, Cambridge, MA, USA Taralynn Hartsell  Department of Curriculum, Instruction, and Special Education, The University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS, USA Kristina Lamour Sansone  Lesley University, College of Art and Design, Cambridge, MA, USA William Lewis  School of Education, University of Delaware, Newark, USA Lynn Mandeltort  Auburn University, Auburn, AL, USA xxix

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Lindsay Kistler Mattock  School of Library and Information Science, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA Alexa Miller  Arts Practica, LLC, Guilford, CT, USA Amy B. Mulnix  Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, PA, USA Rhonda S. Robinson  Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL, USA Brooke N. Scherer  Department of Art, The University of Tampa, Tampa, FL, USA Jeff Share  Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA Chareen Snelson  Department of Educational Technology, Boise State University, Boise, ID, USA Eleanor V.H. Vandegrift  University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA Jennifer R. Yates  Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, OH, USA Philip Yenawine  Visual Understanding in Education, Wellfleet, MA, USA

Acknowledgment

We, as editors, cannot express enough our gratitude to the reviewers for the detailed feedback they provided on assigned manuscripts. We appreciate the time they spent reading the submissions and crafting their reviews. The comments and suggestions received during this rigorous peer-review process contributed to the quality and success of this edited book.

Elizabeth Anderson, College of DuPage, IL Maria D. Avgerinou, American Community Schools of Athens, Greece Deborah Banker, Angelo State University, TX Anne Barnhart, University of West Georgia, GA Joan Beaudoin, Wayne State University, MI Joy Blackwell, University of North Texas, TX Kristin Brynteson, Northern Illinois University, IL S. Raj Chaudhury, Auburn University, AL Sonal Chawla, Panjab University, India Geri Chesner, National Louis University, IL Mary Christel, Adlai Stevenson High School, IL Lauren Cifuentes, Texas A&M University Corpus Christi, TX O.P. Cooper, University of West Georgia, GA Ana Donaldson, Association for Educational Communications & Technology Tonia Dousay, University of Wyoming, WY Daryl Draper, Old Dominion University, VA Joan Dunlap, University of Colorado Denver, CO Charles Elfer, Clayton State University, GA Brian Fahey, South Forsyth High School, GA Julia Finch, Morehead State University, KY Jill Ewing Flynn, University of Delaware, DE Diane Fulkerson, University of South Florida, Sarasota-Manatee, FL xxxi

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Cristine Goldberg, University of Cumberlands, KY Jonathan Gratch, University of North Texas, TX Dabney Hailey, Hailey Consulting Group, LLC Taralynn Hartsell, University of Southern Mississippi, MS Linda Haynes, University of West Georgia, GA John Hedberg, Macquarie University, Australia Kate Highfield, Macquarie University, Australia Shannon Howrey, Kennesaw State University, GA Rebecca Hunt, Northern Illinois University, IL Mariko Izumi, Columbus State University, GA Erin Johnson, University of West Georgia, GA Jackie Kim, Armstrong State University, GA Jung Lee, Roger Stockton College of New Jersey, NJ Susan Levine, DeKalb Country School District, GA William Lewis, University of Delaware, DE Lijia Lin, East China Normal University, China Patrick Lowenthal, Boise State University, ID Christine Malinowski, Lewis & Clark College, OR Lynn Mandeltort, Auburn University, AL Caydee Manning, California State University Long Beach, CA Lindsay Kistler Mattock, The University of Iowa, IA Marilyn May, Georgia Gwinett College, GA Alexa Miller, ArtsPractica, LLC Bruce L. Mims, Excell Education Innovations, CA Amy B. Mulnix, Franklin and Marshall College, PA Stacey Nickson, Auburn University, AL Jerry Mobley, Fort Valley State University, GA Jen Mooney, Virginia Polytechnic and State University, VA Laura Ng, University of North Georgia, GA Titilola Obilade, Virginia Polytechnic and State University, VA Janice Odom, Georgia Gwinnett College, GA Annie Olson, Le Tourneau University, TX Angela Pashia, University of West Georgia, GA Caroline Perjessy, University of West Georgia, GA Dawn Putney, University of West Georgia, GA Karen Redding, University of North Georgia, GA Scott Roberts, Central Michigan University, MI Rhonda S. Robinson, Northern Illinois University, IL Kristina Lamour Sansone, Lesley University, MA Wilhelmina Savenye, Arizona State University, AZ Brooke Scherer, The University of Tampa, FL Molly Schoen, University of Michigan, MI Jeff Share, University of California Los Angeles, CA Carmen Skaggs, Columbus State University, GA Chareen Snelson, Boise State University, ID

Acknowledgment

Acknowledgment

Phyllis Snipes, University of West Georgia, GA Christine Sorensen, University of Hawaii at Manoa, HI Glovis South, Heard County Middle School, GA Michael Stevenson, Macquarie University, Australia Frank Stonier, University of West Georgia, GA Eleanor V.H. Vandegrift, University of Oregon, OR Don Walling, Association for Educational Communications & Technology Jennifer R. Yates, Ohio Wesleyan University, OH Philip Yenawine, Visual Understanding in Education, MA

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Part I

Framing

Using Strategies from Graphic Design to Improve Teaching and Learning Kristina Lamour Sansone

Abstract  This chapter calls attention to the value of graphic design education in K–12 settings by explaining the history and practice of graphic design, identifying the uses and value of graphic design in education, and sharing a case study of how it can be applied in the classroom. The chapter focuses particularly on the value of constructing meaning with pictures and text, both for teacher use in the classroom and in student picture–text integrated projects. It argues that the visual draft process, which uses pictures and words together, can operate just as powerfully as the writing process to facilitate and demonstrate student learning. This graphic design process gives learners control of their content and liberates them to see different relationships between elements and ideas. At the same time, it frames picture and word relationships as malleable and builds flexible, critical thinking in multiple dimensions.

Introduction As a struggling learner in traditional text-heavy subjects such as English and Math, I found refuge in graphic design. Working simultaneously with words and pictures felt natural, yet it was not legitimized in my public high school. I was not introduced to graphic design concepts until I enrolled in a professional school of design. By and large, graphic design is considered to be a subject and skill accessible only in professional school settings that teach commercial expertise. But since college, I have used the teachings from my graphic design mentors to train teachers in early childhood settings, elementary and high schools, and higher education. In general, the American education culture sees visual communication as a matter of display, in what we might call a bulletin board mindset. Go to any teacher supply store, and you will find rainbow colors, crazy typefaces, and clip art banners. Teachers decorate their rooms and students decorate their science posters and book reports. But treating the visual language of typestyle, color, and picture choice simply as decoration is like focusing on the neatness of the handwriting in a student K. Lamour Sansone () Lesley University, College of Art and Design, Cambridge, MA, USA e-mail: [email protected] © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 D. M. Baylen, A. D’Alba (eds.), Essentials of Teaching and Integrating Visual and Media Literacy, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-05837-5_1

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essay: It negates the value of visual language as a means of understanding content. Graphic design is not about decoration; it is about meaning. Teachers have fully accepted the importance of the writing process as a means of generating effective, articulate, and content-rich student writing. I argue here that the visual draft process, which uses pictures and words together, can operate just as powerfully to demonstrate student learning. This graphic design process gives learners control of their content and liberates them to see different relationships between elements and ideas. At the same time, it frames picture and word relationships as malleable, not fixed, and builds flexibility of thinking in multiple dimensions. Indeed, the central contention of this chapter is that recognizing graphic design’s picture–text integrated language as an essential literacy for teaching and learning can significantly improve K–12 education. I focus particularly on the value of constructing meaning with pictures and text, both by teachers in the classroom and in student picture–text integrated projects. I do so by explaining the history and practice of graphic design, identifying the uses and value of graphic design in education, and sharing case studies of classroom applications.

Part 1: The What Is What is graphic design? Graphic design is a field based on the construction and communication of ideas using pictures and words together as one simultaneous language. It creates relationships between pictures and words through practices, such as information design and page layout. Graphic design does not discriminate between pictures and words, seeing them as two equal elements of language and identifying all language as visual. One way of describing graphic design, which I believe to be the most relevant aspect for teaching and learning, is picture–text integration, a term used consistently in this chapter. Picture–text integration includes various languages, which are used to construct a variety of forms: Pictorial languages: symbols, logos, data visualization, maps Typographic languages: logotypes (logos made from type), fonts, book text Sequencing languages/page layout: books, digital presentations Environmental/spatial languages: exhibits, signage Interactive screen based languages: websites, apps, kiosks

All of these languages and forms have implication for teaching and learning, as we think about graphic design’s potential to reinvent the way teachers think about designing classroom tools and projects. The history of graphic design and the origins of picture–text language. To understand the value of graphic design and picture–text integration in the educational setting, we need to understand the origins and evolution of the field. In Graphic Design, A Concise History, British scholar Richard Hollis (2011) suggests that graphic design emerged in the late nineteenth century out of what he calls the “art poster,”

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Fig. 1   This is an image of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s poster Moulin Rouge, 1891. (© The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, NY)

which combined images with text for the purposes of presentation and promotion (p. 11). According to Hollis, this created a form “where image and word need to be economical, connected in a single meaning, and memorable” (p. 11). Reproduced in multiple copies and visually and thematically combining picture and words purposefully to support a message, the art poster led industry to recognize the value of using visual art skills to create an intentional user-centered relationship between pictures and text. The posters of Henri de Toulouse Lautrec are an early example of the form (see Fig. 1). Although their letterforms are awkward (uneven forms, long stems), they work visually with the picture, in this case, as Hollis explains, because “the fact that the lettering of such posters, though crudely amateurish, is hand-painted by the artist and integrates it into the design” (p. 12).

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Fig. 2   German advertisement for “Opel” brand cars, printed by Hollerbaum & Schmidt, Berlin, 1911 (color litho), Erdt, Hans Rudi (1883– 1925)/Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin, Germany/© DHM/Bridgeman Images

Early packaging and magazine work shows the progress of picture–text integration, as the visual aspects of letterforms began to align more closely with pictures. Visual representations of corporate identity (aka: logos) began to emerge, in which symbols and text fuse as one language, as seen in Hans-Rudi Erdt’s 1911 advertisement for Opel Automobile Company, where the white shape of the goggle and the enlarged O in Opel connect the driver to the Opel he desires (see Fig. 2). As commercial use of graphic design grew, so did the need for education in this new field of expertise. The Bauhaus School of Design opened in Germany in 1919 and developed the core values of what became known as design education. Unlike the academies that produced painters and sculptors, who envisioned their work as expressive, design schools saw visual language production as communication. Text and pictures were meant to be used, and therefore the new field of graphic design, first named as such by Boston-based book designer William Addison Dwiggins in the early 1920s, had to consider the user of an image. The field of typography emerged, as did new kinds of picture making, while new schools of design in Europe and the USA developed teaching strategies for design forms such as posters, books, and packaging. This model of design education, which teaches students a process for generating, exploring, and evaluating visual ideas, persists today and is the basis for this chapter’s discussion of the possibilities for graphic design in education (Fig. 3). Graphic design vis-a-vis visual and media literacy. Just as graphic design has a particular position in art history, it is also can be understood as a visual field particularly situated within the broader umbrella of visual and media literacy. Its expertise specifically attends to the visual aspects of words combined with images and to the discipline of typography, making it unique within the visual arts. Fine artists, photographers, and illustrators sometimes include text in their work, but this skill is not taught explicitly in their educational programs. The fields of document design and instructional design are connected to graphic design and have a similar relationship to visual and media literacy, but their educational programs have differ-

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Fig. 3   A study in picture and letter relativity from my first year in a graphic design program, 1989

ent origins and purposes. Document design tends to be taught in technical schools, while instructional design emerges out of schools of education; both are professional programs. Graphic design education lives mainly in art and design programs and schools, and while it can be used in many professions, I believe its focus to be communication. In the Association of College and Research Library (ACRL) and International Visual Literacy Association’s (IVLA) definitions of visual literacy, Visual literacy is a set of abilities that enables an individual to effectively find, interpret, evaluate, use, and create images and visual media. (ACRL) Visual Literacy refers to a group of vision-competencies a human being can develop by seeing and at the same time having and integrating other sensory experiences. (IVLA)

terms such as image, visual media, and visual communication cast a broad net. This is because visual and media literacy needs to distinguish itself from verbal and textual literacy. However, every field of study, from chemistry to auto mechanics, uses some kind of visual language, and collectively, these specific visual languages expand the field of visual literacy’s abilities and competencies. It is important to note, however, that overly broad understandings of visual and media literacy can be a problem for teaching, because they negate the specific abilities and competencies of individual fields, whether we are talking about traditional art and design fields or academic fields. The term visual and media literacy has often been used to describe the work I do in schools, where it seems to be pervasive as a catchall phrase that can encompass anything having to do with art, digital technology, and media. Yet its very pervasiveness lets teachers miss opportunities to go deep with knowledge embedded in specific visual media disciplines such as graphic design—or auto mechanics. For example, the particular knowledge base of graphic design helps teachers to identify the most legible typefaces (typography), to spatially organize pictures and words on the page or screen so their importance is clear to students (hierarchy), and to use the most effective delivery format (small, big) and/or medium (paper, screen) for their teaching purposes.

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Pictures and text in the language of graphic design. The effective use of graphic design’s picture–text integrated language in the classroom requires an understanding of the unique attributes of pictures and text within a given form, such as a poster or handout. This is a language that is foreign to many teachers and students, given the emphasis on text in most K–12 environments. Given the interconnected nature of picture and text in both the design process and graphic design products, it is somewhat ironic to separate the two, but in teaching and learning graphic design, it is essential to address each one and then talk about the integration of the two as a fused language. Graphic design students must be able to mentally process pictorial and textual elements separately while considering how each choice they make supports the concept they are communicating. It is about connecting design choice with intention. Just as writers explore individual word choices within a sentence or paragraph, image making in graphic design comprises a visual sentence that spatially integrates pictures and words. Picture-text integration: the picture. Pictures or pictorial elements play a specific role in the creation of forms in graphic design, such as posters, symbols, digital presentations, or blogs. Essentially, a picture is anything that is not text. A picture within a graphic design image can be a: • • • • • • •

Symbol Photograph Texture Color Illustration Painting Diagrammatic (arrows, dotted lines, etc.)

Mentally, a graphic designer enters the construction of a graphic design with numerous pictorial choices in mind. Like playing several tapes in one’s head, the graphic designer runs through alternatives. Could my concept use a photograph? Or, should it be illustrated? Or, communicated purely through text? In the design process, pictures are flexible entities. If, for example, the background of an image is distracting, a designer will take it out and make it a solid color, altering the picture to enhance the meaning. Picture–text integration: the text. In The Education of the Graphic Designer, former WGBH design director and well-regarded graphic design educator Christopher Pullman (2006) states: Graphic Design is unique among all design disciplines because of its deep roots in language. Graphic communications rely on the interaction of words and images to convey a message that is almost always dependent on language and its cultural con-text. As a consequence, the heart of our practice is typography, a set of conventions that allow us to represent, however crudely, the rich inflections and rhythms of spoken language. (Heller 2006, p. 171)

One of the unique aspects of graphic design is its sensitivity to the visual aspects of textual language. This specific discipline is called typography. Typography is considered a field unto itself, but it is also part of the glue for graphic design’s picture–text integration.

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Text within graphic design can be a: • • • •

Letterform Word Paragraph Long text

Learning typography involves such topics and practices as: • • • •

Different kinds of typestyles and their use The anatomy of a single letter that names each part Appropriate and readable lengths of text Legibility of both headlines and body text

In graphic design, text is often referred to as an image, because a graphic designer cannot use text without seeing its visual aspects. At the microlevel, a graphic designer might examine the inside curve of an S when designing a typeface. At the macro level, a designer will pay attention to the shape of a long text such as novel or newspaper or to the arrangement of text blocks on a website. A fused language. The practice of graphic design strives to understand the dual nature of words and pictures by recognizing that each contains a property that functions both optically and communicatively. Philip Meggs (1989), a highly regarded graphic design educator and author of the classic book, Type & Image: The Language of Graphic Design, said: “Almost every graphic form—from a small period at the end of a sentence to the most complex color photograph—has a dual existence: It is an optical phenomenon with visual properties, and it is a communicative signal that functions with other signals to form a message” (p. 2). Initially, this is a tough concept to grasp because the student has to learn to see things beyond their surface. With practice, graphic design awakens the eye to the dual nature of language in all content, helping us to see text in books, on the web, and in daily life in a whole new way (Fig. 4 and 5).

Fig. 4   The dual nature of a letter

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Fig. 5   The dual nature of a picture. (© Can Stock Photo Inc./[Freezingpicture])

In graphic design, every letter lives as both a form with visual properties and a form with a communicative function. In this way, every letter stands in relationship to itself in both its form and function. For example, the letter O has a communicative function: it signals a difference between c-o-t and c-a-t. In graphic design, the circle also has a visual property: it has an inside and outside (described in the field as its form and counter form); it can be bold, small or large, or colored. These visual aspects can be viewed as the pictorial aspects of a letter: the letter’s color, style, weight, size, etc. are inherently not text based; they can pertain just as easily to an A or an X, a single letter or a paragraph. Graphic design also sees words and pictures as essential, rather than supplemental, in their relationship with one another. In place of the simple dynamic of pictures illustrating words, as in traditional textbooks and picture books, fusing the two together allows a viewer to consider the value the word holds that the picture lacks, and the value the picture holds that the word lacks. When the picture–word relationship is used effectively, the pictures reveal aspects of the concept that the text is incapable of explaining, and vice versa, as in a scientific diagram that enhances the text of an article. To see all of these concepts at work, we can look at an iconic example from graphic design history. Milton Glaser, the graphic designer credited with I (heart) New York (see Fig.  6) recognized how the image of the heart adds value to the phrase. If we write out the word heart, it loses this value. Glaser similarly recognized the value of typeface choice. If we change to a blocky square typeface, we can see why Glaser chose the rounded typestyle to visually connect to the style of the heart shape. The choice of rounded type shows evidence of Glaser’s powerful capacity for picture–text integration: He finds alignment in form to strengthen his content and activates the unity that the letters and pictures provide as one common visual language. In this design, Glaser is constructing language and image so that we feel the content more powerfully than we would if it were simply expressed in text. In other words, we learn the message more effectively, as Glaser processes his content simultaneously through text and picture, both personally constructing his meaning and communicating it to his audience.

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Fig. 6   I LOVE NEW YORK by Milton Glaser, 1973. ( is a trademark of the NYS Dept. of Economic Development, used with permission)

Establishing the criteria for successful design and then integrating it with the dual nature of words and pictures is crucial to teaching and learning. It brings attention to the ubiquitous, often-unnoticed visible aspects of language that can have a huge impact on learners as a vehicle for communicating ideas. For instance, successful logos, such as I (heart) New York, call for design that is simple, memorable, timeless, versatile, and appropriate. While graphic design in the classroom follows similar principles, it has its own criteria. Where illegibility might be a valuable part of an artistic or commercial message, using an illegible typestyle in a class handout can make it challenging for students to understand the material. A teacher may like a cute child-like typeface, but if he is teaching a serious subject and uses this type in a handout, a student’s entry into the subject may reflect the nonseriousness of the visual choice, rather than the seriousness of the content. An overly literal picture with a student’s digital presentation can limit the student’s capacity to express complex ideas. Even banal text in a textbook contains visual content. It is a particular size, set in a typestyle, with a line length. Graphic design thinking encourages the habit of breaking down each of these decisions as its own choice, so the maker can connect this single decision to an overall logical and usable whole.

Part 2: Graphic Design’s Connection to Learning The value of graphic design in K–12 education. Consider the use of picture–text integrated language in K–12 settings: Writing with pictures in early writing Flash cards Books Poster presentations Blogs Graphic organizers Mind maps Online teaching tools Bulletin boards Diagrams and visualizations Tests that use pictures to illustrate a concept Digital presentations (aka PowerPoints) Documentation of student learning using pictures and words

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Now imagine this list without pictures. What is missing? Almost everything. Picture–text integrated forms have been essential to teaching and learning since the dawn of education. The question of “Why” reveals the value of graphic design in education. Pictures and texts together are fundamental to communication; both in early childhood and for older students, they enable students and their teachers to explain, persuade, and engage. Though schools may seem, on the surface, to be highly visual environments, it is rare to find visual language strategically directed toward improving learning. Aside from the occasional instructional technology or media course, teacher training programs pay little attention to visual communication skills, and teachers often lack the expertise to produce and understand effective visual communication using the invaluable tools of graphic design. Giving teachers a graphic design education can provide them with the tools, methods, and criteria to enhance learning outcomes for existing school assignments such as timelines, posters, maps, and digital presentations. Graphic design can also connect learning directly to the highly visual-lived reality of students and teachers, as manifested everywhere from the peace sign on a teacher’s door, to the graphic symbol on a student’s cell phone, and to the many hours that both spend working and playing on computers with personalized screensavers and social media. Graphic design helps us understand how these languages work—through unique images, typestyles, patterns, and symbols—and helps us make these languages work for us, in both education and daily life, in the process better connecting the two. Picture–text integration in early childhood. Picture–text integrated language plays a significant role in early childhood literacy, where children draw to accompany their initial attempts at writing. These forms are the first parts of a child’s language. But as children grow older, the letter separates from its ability to be accompanied by a picture or seen in play as a visual element. The integration of pictures with words is left behind like training wheels, seen as unnecessary to cognitive processing, to understanding concepts and content, and to seeing the world (Fig. 7). Letterforms evolve as a part of a child’s written language, emerging as one element of a complex grammar alongside other pictorial forms. In other words, deFig. 7   A drawing called both an O and a tire, Enzo, age 2

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Fig. 8   First-grade writing assignment using pictures to support writing, Enzo, age 6

velopmentally, for children, letters emerge out of shapes, rather than entering their vocabulary as a separate and other form. This seamless connection between pictures and words gives rise to the first true manifestation of graphic design in the learning process. For a child, O is both a shape and a letter. The child sees and writes like a graphic designer, fusing pictures and words as one. Although young children spontaneously use these different parts in deliberate relationships to form their own written languages, when they arrive at elementary school, their innate, flexible, visually oriented, broad concept of language narrows immediately to the rigidly textual A, B, C, and 1, 2, 3. In school language, even inherently graphic symbols like +, −, and % are treated as lingual. The visual parts of abstract shape, color, texture, and picture, which have been so integral to the child’s preschool explorations of visual language, become categorized as art and disappear from the vocabulary a student is expected to use for school—aside from a few posters and science projects. As a result, the language available for learning is dramatically constricted (Fig. 8). Research associated with picture–text integrated literacies. While visual literacy is currently a popular research topic, there is little research to date that focuses specifically on the role of graphic design in education. Research in graphic design or visual communication typically relates to why a design works, rather than the learning process it takes to create or comprehend a design. Researchers and practitioners interested in the practice of graphic design in education thus must draw on insights from adjacent fields to support our work, especially cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience related to visual communication at large and more specifically to the value of learning using pictures and text simultaneously. Gunther Kress, a professor of semiotics and education, has written extensively about a wide net of visual image language such as advertisements, paintings, and photography. In Reading Images (p. 185), he (1996) describes images that include pictures and text as multimodal, that is, as texts whose meanings are realized through more than one semiotic code. His work points broadly to the value of diverse textual and visual languages for classroom practices.

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Psychologist Richard Mayer (2010), the core researcher to substantiate picture– text integrated literacies, defines learning as a change in knowledge attributable to experience (p.  60). His definition has three parts: learning is a change in the learner; what is changed is the learner’s knowledge; and the cause of the change is the learner’s experience in a learning environment. Mayer’s theory of multimedia learning demonstrates that people learn more deeply from words and pictures than from words alone. Mayer’s (2010) work is based on the work of Allan Paivio. Paivio posited a dual-channel theory showing how humans possess separate information channels for visually and auditorily represented material. (p. 9) Mayer states: A cognitive theory of multi-media learning assumes that that the human information-processing system includes dual channels for visual/pictorial and auditory/verbal processing, each channel has limited capacity for processing, and active learning entails carrying out appropriate cognitive processing during learning. (p. 57)

The visual/pictorial includes both pictures and text as printed or screen content. The eye sees this visual/pictorial information as one image, and our brain recognizes pictures and words within one channel. As a result, we see the two as one unified language. Furthering the alignment of words and images as one, Mayer distinguishes printed (or typographic) text from auditory (or heard) text, indicating that the distinctive element is not words, but medium. Dynamically using pictures and words as one language to understand materials and content, but also to communicate that understanding to others, is at the core of using graphic design to construct classroom (and other) communication. During what I call the image construction phase, teachers and students test alternatives, weed distractors, and figure out a clear hierarchy. As Mayer says, “Selecting relevant material occurs when a learner pays attention to appropriate words and images in the presented materials” (p.  70), Later he adds, “Integrating selected material with existing knowledge involved building connections between incoming material and relevant portions of prior knowledge.” As noted above, this theory can also work in reverse. If visual information is too chaotic, it can hinder learning, as in the case of a speaker whose PowerPoint has too many bullet points and decorative borders that actively detract from his process. This is why a graphic design education is so important. It strengthens critical thinking within picture and word processing, providing scaffolding for how students can think about and steer picture–word integrated language for their own learning and for the learning of those who interpret their constructed images. Like Mayer, Stephen Kosslyn (2007) is a psychologist who studies the nature of visual mental imagery and visual communication by identifying choices that can hinder a learner’s capacity in areas such as memory and processing. His recent, more publicly accessible books focus specifically on PowerPoint presentations, but his research substantiates sound strategies for constructing and reflecting on picture–text forms in a graphic context, even though Kosslyn tests his concepts in labs, rather than working in a design studio. In his book Clear and to the Point, 8 Psychological Principles for Compelling PowerPoint Presentations (2007), he uses PowerPoint, which is a picture–text integrated literacy, to examine and connect:

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Relevance Appropriate knowledge Salience Discriminability Perceptual organization Compatibility Informative changes Capacity Limitations

For example, he explains how research in cognition shows that we can only remember in four groups at a time. Therefore, if a teacher adds numerous bullets, text blocks, and pictures to a presentation, her students are less likely to remember the content. However, if she clusters that content into no more than four digestible chunks, it is more likely that her students will retain the material. Kosslyn’s work scientifically confirms many principles of good design practice that have long been at work in the graphic design classroom. Historically, graphic designers have looked to the principles of gestalt psychology to understand the logic of successful unified visual forms—such as the Olympic rings or the Nike swoosh—through concepts such as continuity (the flow of separate elements within a design), closure (separate elements in space that connect), and proximity (elements close together inevitably relate in meaning). Kosslyn helps us to see how these concepts work in our minds to build clarity, memory, and comprehension pointing out that “Those principles of perception and cognition are at work no matter what we humans are doing, be it interpreting graphs, playing golf, reading tea leaves, or anything else” (Preface). Combining research from the fields of psychology, cognitive psychology, and cognitive neuropsychology with strong graphic design teaching has great implications for teaching and learning. Professional schools of art and design are not learning research environments, but do provide examples of countless students who struggled with textheavy writing environments in high school enjoying constructing and communicating with picture–text-based language in design school. Having been a professor of graphic design in professional design programs for over 15 years, I have seen this case by case and yet evidence of these student transformations remains in the shadows. Professional art and design schools tend to stigmatize and separate learning in traditional subjects from learning that is meant to support the trade, when in fact these schools have the potential to truly transform learning, in a way that will also significantly advance their impact on communication as a whole.

Graphic Design’s Learning Phases Designers working in K–12 education commonly codify the design process into a definitive cycle of stages often referred to as a “design thinking” method or protocol. Design thinking takes strategies at the core of all design disciplines and makes them one process. While this streamlining of the design process is simple for teachers to access, it misses the unique abilities, competencies, and knowledge base that

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lives within each of the design disciplines. From my years as a professor of graphic design in professional schools, I have adapted the specific phases of graphic design learning in a format that will allow teachers to access graphic design’s unique picture–text learning via three mental models or checklists. These allow teachers to reflect on the design process as they examine their existing teaching tools and projects and consider new ones. The following three phases (observation, construction of meaning, and effective communication) can deepen all learning because they widen our senses and ability to both understand and communicate through picture–text integration. Observation (to visually research). What if teachers approached the visual presentation of content as if they were learning it for the first time? Like scholars such as archaeologists, who rely on visual language to understand their findings, teachers and students can use observation to simultaneously obtain pictures and words as part of their research language and understanding of content. Tools such as phone cameras and image search engines have increased the ease of gathering pictures as references, to use themselves or models for drawings during the construction phase. Bauhaus teacher, Paul Klee (Klee and Klee 1964) said, “One eye sees, the other feels” (p. 310). As one senses the visual as well as traditional textual aspects of content, one is researching. Through observational research, students learn about content but also identify options for pictures and text elements to support their graphic designs. Pictures can be drawings, photos, symbols, or a combination. Text can be digital or drawn. This process helps students remember—and at first they often need to be reminded—that all visual choices hold meaning. Construction of meaning (to make). The processing part of content understanding and communication through picture–text integration is at the heart of owning and communicating understanding. Teachers and their students work intensively, connecting intellect with intuition and using paper, pencil, or computer tools to explore meaning through their word and picture choices. In this process, language is flexible and malleable within appropriately selected confines (poster size, digital slide proportion). One goal is to understand the meaning of content by exploring the relationship between the form and function. Another is to connect design choices with intentions. All the while, the process strengthens communication and understanding. This kind of processing allows a student to become intimate with language in a way that text alone cannot enable, helping students to think more deeply about the processing of language in their picture–text integrated communications. Constructing meaning uses the following strategies: Testing visual ideas through iteration. A process of visual drafts, alternatives, or iterations to see different possibilities is a crucial step in the graphic design methodology. The process of drafts helps both the teacher and the learner figure out which visual strategy best represents the idea. It also builds in a flexible mindset, which helps both teachers and students appreciate multiple ways of doing things. Constructing a visual hierarchy. We often think about and are educated to think about hierarchy linearly, in terms of a branch chart. Hierarchy in graphic design is spatial. It means exploring picture and words within space and using scale to determine what needs to be read first, second, and third. The viewer must measure with his eyes, and the measurements must be conducive to the meaning. The process provides a control of picture and text elements, supporting perceptual organization, a term used by cognitive psychologists.

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Fig. 9   A science teacher’s digital slide. (Image credits: eye diagram © Can Stock Photo Inc./shumpc, eye chart © Can Stock Photo Inc./b79, light bulb © Can Stock Photo Inc./In8Finity and optical illusion © Can Stock Photo Inc./casejustin)

Weeding distractors. Along the way, a student must determine if all of the elements within his or her design are necessary. Does this choice (color, paper, and typestyle) effectively participate in the concept or not? Distractors can include unnecessary borders, backgrounds, and inappropriate typefaces. When deciding whether a design is finished, it is important to consider each element separately to evaluate its necessity to the concept being communicated.

Effective communication (to analyze). Once an image feels right on the page or behind the screen, how do we know it is doing its job to communicate? Communication provides a mental checklist for understanding the relationship between the graphic designer and the user or reader of his image. A designer asks: Can the reader see my design from their viewing distance? Is the hierarchy I chose clear? Is each element in my design supporting my understanding and communicating what I want to say? Have I selected the right media to deliver my message? The three phases described above provide a framework for teachers and their students to think more critically about picture and word forms in K–12 settings. How that works in practice is the focus of the next section. Case studies. Here is a scenario inspired by one of my coaching contexts. Bill, a science teacher, is presenting a lesson on perception tomorrow and needs to create a digital presentation. It is his second nature to go into an image search engine, find what he needs, and quickly create a slide (see Fig. 9). This time, I help Bill look at his design from my lens. I see a provoking text element, an interesting question, and a set of pictures that will appeal to Bill’s tenthgrade audience, but note that students might have difficulty navigating the elements within the slide, since they are all basically the same size and do not have a selfevident order. As a critical friend, I help Bill by asking, “What is the most important element on your slide?” and “What do you want to say?” Working dynamically on “constructing,” I show him several alternatives (see Fig.  10) by recomposing the elements using different hierarchies in PowerPoint to show how the same elements can project a different message and experience. My efforts show the power of the flexible graphic design mind at work.

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Fig. 10   a & b. Additional versions of Fig. 9. (Image credits: eye diagram © can stock photo inc./shumpc, eye chart © can stock photo inc./ b79, light bulb © can stock photo inc./in8finity and optical illusion © can stock photo inc./casejustin)

Bill picks a slide (see Fig. 11) that articulates the message he intended to communicate but did not have the skills or practice to construct: That visual perception— what we take in through our eyes—has diverse ramifications across the cognitive and visual planes. I have seen Bill’s story happen in schools again and again. Many teachers consider these forms to be a matter of display, rather than essential to learning. When I observe classrooms, I take many pictures of graphic design forms living in the classroom and then ask teachers to reflect on their practice. This mirroring of practice has proved to be very effective as a way to help teachers see what their students see. With just a little awareness, I have seen teachers make significant changes in a short amount of time. Bill was never trained in design. He was trained as a scientist. By its nature, science is a field that uses observation, but science teachers are not taught the construction and communication parts of a visual process. Bill told me that he would never look at his slides the same way again, once we turned on the visual fuse boxes that he felt had been dormant since he was a kid. Carol is another teacher I worked with to illuminate picture–text integration opportunities in her classroom and curriculum. When I walked into her classroom, I saw typical store-bought posters and classroom learning tools filling the walls and a few computers lined up on the back wall. The white board struck me immediately. I noticed the density of text, filled with information but difficult to access. Otherwise, the room was relatively well organized. Carol had a set of textbooks in egg crates and binders with the students’ names on them on her desk (Fig. 12).

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Fig. 11   The version that meets Bill’s intended message. (Image credits: eye diagram © can stock photo inc./shumpc, eye chart © can stock photo inc./b79, light bulb © can stock photo inc./ in8finity and optical illusion © can stock photo inc./ casejustin)

Carol knew her content inside and out. She was a former music teacher who had been a humanities teacher in the Boston Public Schools for many years. She also was working with a paraprofessional, or teaching assistant, on a regular basis. In her curriculum, she was in the process of laying a historical foundation to introduce the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., in four phases, using the white board as a vessel of information.

Fig. 12   White board in Carol’s high school classroom

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Fig. 13   Carol and her assistant working on a timeline

The day after my observation, I walked in and saw Carol and her assistant creating a timeline that distinguished the four sections of King’s life. They used a long roll of white paper 12in. high by 8 ft. long. Like the white board, Carol had filled up the page with text on an angle; she noted each section with pencil, and then her assistant copied each pencil line with a marker. The text was small, about 14 points in typographic measurement, which made the lowercase letter about one quarter of an inch high (Fig. 13). When the form was put up above the blackboard, like an alphabet banner chart in a kindergarten classroom, it was too dense and small to be read high up on the wall. Interestingly, Carol’s background as a music teacher draws her into timelines. She thinks in scores, so I supported her to reflect on the visual form being read by her students. I worked with her to create an inner dialogue between the visual forms she is drawn to, the forms she is creating, and her students’ use of the form. When I suggested to Carol that she consider adding images and more breathing room to loosen up the text in her white board and timeline, she said she wanted to do that but did not know how to start. As her critical friend, I worked side by side with her and her teaching assistant for several months. We revisited the timeline as if for the first time, letting go of our natural impulses to jump into a solution without first thinking about all aspects of the communication: viewing distance, accessibility, use, engagement, color, etc. I suggested Carol back away and allow her students to rethink the timeline with her, to observe the world of King’s life through her teaching, books, and primary sources in the classroom and library, videos, and websites, in conjunction with their own background knowledge. Along with her assistant and students, she organized key texts, moments, ideas, and images such as photos, primary sources, and symbols on their desks and in the

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Fig. 14   Students’ arrangement of images from their observation phase

lab. You could sense an intensity in the students during this process. What felt like chaos funneled into a deep, contemplative space. Carol was amazed to find her students had the innate ability to identify and collect a huge pile of images and to order Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life using just picture elements (Fig. 14). After this stage, I worked with her assistant to construct the timeline to show Carol the possibilities. Her assistant used the students’ images to reconstruct the timeline and considered adding some of Carol’s text back in, albeit with a careful editing of extraneous information. I suggested that Carol and her assistant identify a size (format) and a structure by exploring different combinations of text and pictures and by doing some of their own writing and then editing it to be digestible while making sense of the pictures alongside the text. At this stage, they decided to make the timeline digital rather than paper. The digital form would allow Carol to zoom in on critical features of the picture–text integrated content. It would also allow her to edit, and it was less expensive than a large color print. Her assistant continued to explore iteration, hierarchy, and editing to assure that all of the elements could be read easily and there were are no distractors. This posed a challenge for Carol because her impulse is to add, not edit, but once she was able to reflect and see the timeline as a tool for her students, to see or mirror what they were seeing, she was able to make the changes (Fig. 15). Carol tested her communication by turning off the lights and sharing the timeline design with her students. Immediately, a different level of engagement in the learning environment was palpable. It was the same content but constructed differently. Since the students owned part of the process, she was able to hook them into the process of learning and engagement with the form.

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Fig. 15   The revised timeline ( left)

Once Carol had confidence and recognized the engagement and comprehension of her students, she brought more text–picture integrated projects into the classroom by introducing an assignment in which her students compared the lives of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. First, her assistant worked with students collaboratively at a big table to mind map different ideas, combining key phrases and text. Carol said, “It would be so nice to make a Venn diagram.” Immediately, I thought to make a graphic organizer to which students (piggybacking off the timeline process) could add collage elements (Fig. 16). Carol worked with me to construct a large, tabloid-sized (11 × 17) Xerox paper Venn diagram graphic organizer for her students to construct comparisons between the two leaders’ lives in symbols. It is important to use common office supply materials for graphic design work, so teachers see the materials as accessible to everyday practice (Fig. 17). The work was expanded still by a writing prompt. Students put tracing paper on top of their Venn diagram collages, so they could use the picture–text integrated language they had created as provocation for key words and concepts to write an essay (Fig. 18). The comparative essay was measurably richer in vocabulary than if it had been done with text alone. Students felt ownership of their work because they had the opportunity to construct knowledge, both collaboratively and individually, through the construction of their picture–text integrated form, opening up their own definitions of language, in a significant expansion and deepening of the learning process. This case study suggests that:

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Fig. 16   Students mapping symbolic representations for Martin Luther King and Malcolm X in preparation for the Venn diagram collage

Fig. 17   High school student constructing a Venn diagram comparing Martin Luther King and Malcolm X in a prewriting exercise

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Fig. 18   Tracing paper was laid on top of the Venn diagram collages to expand vocabulary for a comparative essay

• Graphic design is not based in talent, but is an acquired skill set. • Teachers can change their practice when others help them to reflect on materials visible to their students in the classroom. • Exposure to the graphic design process inspires and builds confidence in teachers to include more picture–text integrated projects in their curriculum. My hope is that if we merge existing graphic design forms with related instruction in teacher training programs and ongoing professional development, graphic design education can systematically penetrate the K–12 classroom so that teachers and students everywhere can access these powerful learning experiences. For more on this case study, see Connecting the Dots: The Unexplored Promise of Visual Literacy in American Classrooms by Larry Myatt (2008). Tools and resources for teachers who want to learn more or try it out. Many teachers I work with say they would like to integrate pictures into their text documents, classroom tools and assignments, but do not know where to start. Giving them even a bit of entry into this process opens up the possibilities for the construction of picture–text integrated forms. I have found that my design phases can act as a bridge, giving access to the many graphic design resources that exist in design schools and for design professionals. In addition to the strategies outlined in this chapter, I recommend two teacher-friendly texts:The Elements of Graphic

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Design:Space, Unity, Page Architecture, and Type by Alex White (2002) is invaluable for basic graphic design process information, while A Type Primer by John Kane (2003) is the most accessible entry point for typography basics.

Conclusion We have before us a great opportunity to bridge the picture–text integrated literacies of a graphic design education that live primarily in art departments in high schools (if they are found at all in K–12 schools), and the insights and learning of professional schools of art and design to advance K–12 education. In an article titled “Education in the New Millennium: The Case for DesignBased Learning,” Lee et al. (Lee & Breitenberg 2010) describe the work of Gunther Kress: Kress appropriates “design” in the broadest sense to describe the emergent multimodal model: here, meaning is communicated through “assemblage,” through the relationships among different media and discourses. Very few secondary schools have fully understood the consequences of this shift: it means that visual learning, spatial and holistic thinking, the need to work simultaneously in different media, and (most critically) the importance of active learning over passive learning, are fundamental to the learning and cognitive processes of students today. (p. 55)

I believe we are in the middle of a significant shift in learning. Rather than reinventing the system completely, I believe we can transform existing strategies, languages, and forms in the classroom to produce dramatic effects. Moving from a textual to a picture–text integrated language in schools could dramatically increase teachers’ flexibility, ability, and competencies in the classroom, and will generate a significant increase in student understanding and achievement.

References Association of Research & College Libraries. (1996–2015). ACRL Visual literacy competency standards for higher education. http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/visualliteracy. Heller, S. (2006). The education of a graphic designer. New York: Allworth. Hollis, R. (2011). Graphic design: A concise history. New York: Thames & Hudson. International Visual Literacy Association. (2012). What is “Visual Literacy?”. http://www.ivla. org/drupal2/content/what-visual-literacy-0. Klee, P., & In Klee, F. (1964). The diaries of Paul Klee, 1898–1918. Berkeley: University of California Press. Kress, G. R., & Van, L. T. (1996). Reading images: The grammar of visual design. London: Routledge. Kosslyn, S. M. (2007). Clear and to the point: 8 psychological principles for compelling powerpoint presentations. Oxford:Oxford University Press. Lee, H.-K., & Breitenberg, M. (2010). Education in the new millennium: The case for designbased learning. International Journal of Art & Design Education, 29, 54–60.

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Mayer, R. E. (2010). Multimedia learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Meggs, P. B. (1989). Type & image: The language of graphic design. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. Meggs, P. B., Purvis, A. W., & Meggs, P. B. (2006). Meggs’ history of graphic design. Hoboken: Wiley. Myatt, L. (2008). Connecting the dots: The unexplored promise of visual literacy in American classrooms. Phi Delta Kappan, 90, 186–189.

Resources Kane, J. (2003). A type primer. Upper Saddle River: Prentice-Hall. White, A. (2002). The elements of graphic design: Space, unity, page architecture, and type. New York: Allworth Press. Kristina Lamour Sansone  is Associate Professor and Chair of Design at Lesley University’s College of Art and Design. She holds a B.F.A. in Graphic Design from The University of the Arts, an M.F.A. in Graphic Design from Yale University College of Art, and a C.A.G.S. in Curriculum and Instruction from Lesley University’s School of Education. Kristina found refuge from her own learning challenges in graphic design, a communication and learning process that connects pictures and words into one simultaneous language. Over more than twenty years of practice, teaching, consulting, and research, her primary goal has been to connect the graphic design process with teaching and learning, including assessment, STEM, English Language Learners and Universal Design for Learning.

Reinforcing Multiliteracies Through Design Activities Tonia A. Dousay

Abstract  Now, more than ever, the need to incorporate literacies into instructional strategies is important. As an instructional strategy, design activities bring together available resources to encourage students through the process of constructing new meanings and motivate students to take ownership of the media and content they transform into new creations. Two examples of design activities include digital stories and comic book creation. Digital stories provide a unique outlet for students to find a voice and share their stories with one another. Creating comic books, specifically, draws upon the visual nature of the medium and blends writing activities with design activities. This chapter explores the ideas of design activities and provides general guidance for educators seeking to incorporate design activities as an instructional strategy.

Introduction The support for literacy and literate students is not new. Cazden et al. (1996) noted that literacy education plays an invaluable part of preparing students for their future. The challenge is that evolving technology and the media created with it have changed the landscape of literacy and what we consider to be a literate individual (Bleed 2005). This literacy evolution has occurred through both social and cultural shifts (Kellner 2000), and, with this shift, a renewed focus on visual and media literacies has arisen. Now, more than ever, the need to incorporate literacies into instructional strategies is important. Students are constantly bombarded with media-saturated messages that influence the way they process information and construct meaning of the world around them (Chung and Kirby 2009; Metros 2008; Morrison et al. 2002). This construction is part of the social revolution that is permeating classrooms of all levels. As learners become increasingly multimodal, they must therefore develop the skills necessary to process and engage with the vast amounts of information so readily available (Black 2009). No longer are literacy and technology separate T. A. Dousay () Department of Professional Studies, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, USA e-mail: [email protected] © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 D. M. Baylen, A. D’Alba (eds.), Essentials of Teaching and Integrating Visual and Media Literacy, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-05837-5_2

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entities but rather intertwined elements of life and learning. This is only the beginning, though. Today’s students are likely to encounter multimodal communication tasks in their future careers, and educators must address curriculum that prepares a visually literate citizen (Brumberger 2005; Mills 2010). This process can start with preservice teachers, but must include teacher educators, and, eventually, in-service teacher professional development. Shoffner et  al. (2010) conducted a case study examining the meaning of literacy to secondary English language arts teachers and found that although in-service teachers are able to expand and adapt broadening concepts of literacy, teacher educators must also recognize this importance. Indeed, in a survey of preservice teachers’ views regarding literacies, Al-Hazza and Lucking (2012) noted that future teachers are often assumed to be media literate and make the connection to increasing technology use among their future students, but fail to make the connection between literacies. This disconnection and lack of definition provide insight into a growing issue with teacher preparation and eventually inservice teacher adoption.

Defining Literacies Before examining methods to address visual or media literacy in the classroom, it is important to review the background and definitions of these terms. Brill et al. (2007) noted that the many dimensions of visual literacy make it difficult to accept a common definition. However, from a historical perspective, Debes’ (1969) definition provides a comprehensive overview: Visual literacy refers to a group of vision-competencies a human being can develop by seeing and at the same time having and integrating other sensory experiences. The development of these competencies is fundamental to normal human learning. When developed, they enable a visually literate person to discriminate and interpret the visible actions, objects, symbols, natural or man-made, that he encounters in his environment. Through the creative use of these competencies, he is able to communicate with others. Through the appreciative use of these competencies, he is able to comprehend and enjoy the masterworks of visual communication. (p. 27)

In short, the visually literate person can discriminate, create, and comprehend visual objects as well as conceptualize and mentally visualize images (Bleed 2005; Brill et al. 2007; Metros 2008). The multimodal nature of current trends, therefore, highlights why visual literacy is such an important consideration in education and learning. Until fairly recently, defining and applying only traditional and visual literacies have been sufficient to fulfill the needs of society. Literacies, collectively, are socially recognized and encompass all of the ways in which an individual generates, communicates, and negotiates meaning through a medium (Lankshear and Knobel 2011). The current techno-centric shift calls for multiliteracies, consisting of traditional reading literacy, digital literacy, media literacy, and more (Bazalgette and ­Buckingham 2013; Black 2009; Garcia 2013; Kellner 2000). Even if the trend is to adopt the term multiliteracies, scholars and educators must explore and agree

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upon individual components, and how each is defined in order to proceed with best practices for collective integration. Reading literacy focuses on the ability to read and write. The term literacy usually implies reading literacy in most contexts. As previously stated, visual literacy focuses on interpreting and using visual elements. The National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE; 2014) views media literacy as multiple competencies focused on accessing, analyzing, evaluating, and communicating information in a variety of mediums. Broadening the scope of literacy to an integrated approach reveals that these concepts are deictic, meaning that literacy no longer focuses on the sole concept of reading, but is influenced by the context in which it is referenced (Leu et al. 2004). Thus, the different contexts in which materials are presented requires not only multiple literacies but also multimodal literacy (Gee 2003), which calls to mind the current trend and renewed focus in education. The result is that interconnected multiliteracies heavily influence the way information is processed and used, and modern technologies have had a significant impact on study and application. Educators who seek to address multiliteracies may find that there are practical benefits to introducing and applying these skills in the classroom. From news outlets to social media, sharing videos, images, photographs, and user-generated memes are common practice. However, Baker (2013) found that students often lack the ability to recognize digitally altered images. This phenomenon can hinder classroom instruction if students fail to adequately assess resources referenced for homework and projects. Noting that media literacy, specifically, is reflective and encourages critical evaluation of design constructs, deconstructing artifacts to derive personal meaning and distinguishing between overt and covert messages becomes an invaluable skill (Chung and Kirby 2009; Rogow 2011). Learners who master multiliteracy skills, therefore, are able to meet, and exceed, expectations as their proficiency increases with each applied practice. Less time is spent remediating concepts and more time is available to devote to more complex assignments. By incorporating multiliteracies into the curriculum, students develop the knowledge and skills necessary to identify incorrect or outright false content or carefully consider how to use content for their assignments.

Design Activities Simply recommending that educators consider multiliteracies is not enough. Guidance must be provided on how to introduce and reinforce multiliteracies throughout the curriculum. It is most common to find visual literacy in the art education classroom (Baker 2013) and indeed preservice art education teachers are more often exposed to these concepts, but there is clearly a need to distribute it into other ­disciplines. Considering the interconnected nature of multiliteracies when using media literacy, the result is individuals developing critical thinking skills, thus, ­enabling the transition from media consumers to media producers (NAMLE 2014). It is reasonable to think that approaches which provide hands-on opportunities to

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practice and apply concepts may find the most success. As Kamerer (2013) noted, (media) literacy education must include a production component. In fact, instructional strategies that include design activities, mixing and remixing the works of others, have the potential to motivate even the most reluctant of learners, increasing students’ attitudes towards reading, and empowering students’ ability to visualize reading materials (Kenny 2011; Mills 2010). This means that educators must consider the importance of incorporating created multimodal media, or the combination visuals, text, and audio (Bazalgette and Buckingham 2013), into literacy education. One possible strategy is to implement design activities for students to learn and practice the competencies of multiliteracies.

What Is a Design Activity? Design-based learning activities, or design activities, are a constructivist instructional strategy with applications of problem solving. Specifically, design activities situate learners in an experience that requires specific tasks. It was Jonassen and Reeves (1996) who suggested that design be put into the hands of learners to allow the opportunity to use technologies as cognitive tools, analyzing, accessing, interpreting, and creating new meaning and products. Rather than just read about or listen to an explanation of a concept, learners use the very tools their teachers often implement to engage with the concepts and construct their own meaning. From a more in-depth perspective, Black (2009) stated: Designing is the process of drawing from available designs to construct new meanings and representations of the world. Listening, speaking, reading, and writing are all examples of designing, as an individual takes in or utilizes available semiotics resources and then uses his/her own resources (linguistic, cognitive, semiotic) and life experiences to translate the available designs into the redesigned. (p. 76)

As an instructional strategy, design activities bring together available resources to encourage students through this process (Black 2009) and motivate students to take ownership of the media and content they transform into new creations (Chung and Kirby 2009; Lawanto et  al. 2013). Interestingly, students who participate in design activities exhibit higher levels of intrinsic motivation and knowledge retention (Lawanto and Stewardson 2011). When a learner is given ownership of his or her learning, this motivation phenomenon takes over. The design activity, therefore, is a powerful and interdisciplinary strategy with the potential to engage learners in an autonomous journey to explore and apply multiliteracies.

Multiliteracies and the Design Activity Finding appropriate strategies and methods with which to incorporate multiliteracies may be difficult for some educators. From the myriad of resources available to the shifting landscape of instructional methods and emerging technologies, many

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classroom teachers struggle with how to effectively incorporate or use current technologies (Robin 2008). Part of the issue is that of teacher attitudes and abilities in addition to access to technologies. Addressing this issue with targeted applications in preservice teacher education is only the beginning. In-service teacher professional development must follow suit. What many teachers and administrators overlook is that today’s young children show evidence of using, producing, and sharing media as part of their regular, daily activities (Buckingham et al. 2014). It follows, then, that leveraging this trend and providing sound guidance to in-service and preservice teachers may be the key to introducing and practicing multiliteracies in classrooms and formal education. Strategies that promote engaging in multiliteracies begin with informal experiences that incorporate media (Jenkins 2006) and encouraging media-centered projects, regardless of discipline (Bleed 2005). While design activities can begin in a specific, singular subject area, they must extend into other areas of the learning environment. The flexibility of the design activity allows for implementation and adaption at every grade level and within every discipline. From language arts and history to mathematics and science, students can engage in design activities within a specific subject or blend subjects together as they rely on textual knowledge, contextual content, and multimodal components required to produce an artifact (Mills 2010). Design activities can also be incorporated into the curriculum at any level. Preservice teachers could benefit substantially from design activities in their technology integration coursework, which is common among teacher education programs. As these preservice teachers transition into in-service teachers, they should be called upon as teacher leaders, providing guidance and training to their peers. Given the benefits of addressing multiliteracies and increasing learner motivation, incorporating design activities into preservice teacher curriculum creates a potential multiplier effect as these educators consider implementing design activities into their future classrooms. Thus, regardless of context, design activities address the needs of a wide variety of learners.

Practical Applications of Design Activities in the Classroom The broad, inclusive nature of design activities also means that there are a number of ways in which to apply the strategy in classrooms. Engaging in design activities encourages students to use available resources to conduct research online, identify appropriate visuals, plan narration, and address ethical considerations, such as copyright (Baker 2013). This level of engagement in a singular activity illustrates an integrated approach to teaching and reinforcing multiliteracies. Specifically, when engaging in design activities, five questions adapted from applied media literacy instruction (Hobbs 2007) can guide students through the process of selecting appropriate media for use in design activities. These questions are: 1. Who sent the message and why? 2. How does the message attract and hold attention?

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3. What emotional and sociological factors are expressed in the message? 4. How might others interpret the message differently? 5. What is missing from the message? Answering Hobbs’ questions engages learners in decision-making tasks, which Jonassen (2012) identified as a primary skill necessary to develop for complex problem solving. Problem solving is also identified as an essential twenty-first-century skill for learners (Partnership for 21st Century Skills 2011), which is discussed in more detail under Standards and Assessment. With the design questions in mind, practical activities that fit the description of design activities include digital storytelling and comic books. Both activities require students to critically evaluate existing artifacts, deconstruct individual components, plan their own project, and engage in design to produce an artifact of their own. The following sections provide guidance based on literature and best practices for introducing digital storytelling and comic book creation as design activities.

Digital Stories Like the concept of visual literacy, digital stories are not a new idea. The digital storytelling movement began in the late 1980s with the Center for Digital Storytelling (CDS) in Berkeley, California (Robin 2008). From an operational viewpoint, digital stories combine traditional storytelling techniques with media production tools, and often consist of photographs, video, music, and narration (Kearney 2011). For nearly 30 years, and through various advancements in technologies, the basic essence of digital storytelling has remained unchanged; instead, the advancements have been in terms of the tools used to create and disseminate stories. Indeed, the CDS continues to provide assistance and resources to individuals seeking to create digital, personal narratives (CDS 2014). Similarly, the University of Houston provides support specifically for educators and students seeking to integrate digital storytelling into educational activities (Robin 2013a). Educators considering the usefulness of digital storytelling as an instructional strategy with preservice teachers should note Li’s (2007) findings that all participants in a preservice teacher survey using National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers as a benchmark for evaluating the effectiveness of digital storytelling as an instructional strategy “gained knowledge and improved skills in all areas” (p. 4). If the education community expects teachers to effectively integrate technology, it stands to reason, based on Li’s research, that implementing digital storytelling provides a compelling case for introducing and applying multiliteracy skills. As a design activity to support multiliteracies, digital stories take advantage of user-contributed content and provide an outlet for teachers to productively use common technologies found in the classroom (Robin 2008). Generally speaking, designing and creating digital stories depend upon low-cost digital cameras, editing software, and computer applications (Meadows 2003). If a teacher finds him or herself without access to necessary equipment provided by the school, there are a

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few options, including taking advantage of other tools and services, such as mobile devices owned by students/parents, writing grants to obtain the necessary resources, or appealing to crowdsourcing websites such as http://www.donorschoose.org/, where anyone may browse projects created by public school teachers and opt to donate towards the project expense. Although the purpose of this explanation is to describe how digital stories support multiliteracies, it should be noted that digital stories have extended benefits. For example, van Gils (2005) identified five specific advantages of digital storytelling: (1) variation in instructional methods, (2) personalized learning experience, (3) provide a more interesting means of presenting or practicing concepts, (4) easily and affordably simulate situations, and (5) more actively involve learners in the process. These advantages connect directly to the general benefits of a design activity. Digital stories also offer engagement in deeper learning, representing a convergence of student engagement, reflection, technology integration, and project-based learning (Barrett 2006). Through deeper learning, further connections can be made between teacher and learner as well as among learners. Indeed, Davis (2005) found that the personal narratives developed through digital storytelling provide a cognitive tool for emotional development of learners. The result is that implementing digital stories has widespread benefits to students, and many resources exist to support educators implementing the strategy. Decades of creating and sharing digital stories have provided many opportunities in which to study the activity and a wealth of tips and guidance related to creating stories, as detailed below. Regardless of subject or context, students must first identify what kind of story they want to tell in order to select appropriate components. Multiple scholars have introduced taxonomies to describe types of digital stories generated by students. Lambert (2010) and the CDS focused on personal stories and classified them as character, memorial, adventure, accomplishment, recovery, love, or discovery. Robin (2006) categorized digital stories as personal narratives, historical documentaries, or instructional/informational stories. From a different perspective, Nilsson’s (2008) taxonomy distinguished digital stories as being descriptive, argumentative, dramatic, or poetic. Regardless of which taxonomy is adopted for classroom use, once the type of story has been selected, students can then begin the process of planning, creating, and publishing his or her story. The essential components of a digital story have remained relatively unchanged over the years. Robin (2013b) referred to the seven elements of digital storytelling with attribution to the CDS. However, the current Digital Storytelling Cookbook, published by the CDS and written by Lambert (2010), explained these seven steps in a slightly different way. A comparison of Robin’s components and Lambert’s process appears in Table 1. Carefully reviewing the table, parallels can be drawn that point to specific elements in Robin’s list of elements appearing as components of Lambert’s steps. Specifically, framing a point of view relates directly to identifying the story and its meaning, identifying a dramatic question helps the author find the moment to illustrate, and emotional content is essential to the story line. Narration and sound track both comprise how the audience will hear the story. Similarly, balancing content

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Table 1   Comparison of digital story elements and process Elements

Steps

1. Point of view—frames the main point and perspective

1. Owning your insights—identify the story and its meaning

2. Dramatic question—central theme to capture attention

2. Finding the moment—identify the single moment to illustrate

3. Emotional content—issues or characteristics that create personal connections

3. Owning your emotions—identify the emotional resonance

4. Gift of voice—narration to personalize the story

4. Hearing your story—use of narration, music, and/or sound effects to bring the story to life

5.Power of the soundtrack—music and/or sound effects to embellish

5. Seeing your story—use of visuals to bring the story to life

6. Economy—balance of content between visuals and audio to prevent overloading

6. Assembling your story—structure the story, visuals, and audio

7. Pacing—rhythm of progression

7. Sharing your story—screen and distribute the story

and setting the pace are parts of assembling the story. Lambert’s inclusion of distributing the story once it has been created is a crucial step in bringing the activity to a close. Sharing the completed story triggers the multiliteracy cycle as the audience viewing the story begins to ask the five media literacy questions mentioned previously and embark on their own digital story journey. Sharing also provides a modeling example for future authors to follow in creating stories. Consider the following example of an instructional/discovery digital story created collaboratively in a preservice teacher technology integration course: 1. Point of view—story told from the perspective of college undergraduates to incoming freshmen. 2. Dramatic question—two themes frame the story: facts about the university and advice about college. 3. Emotional content—series of images relative to each theme, focusing on iconic landmarks and popular culture set to music. 4. Gift of voice—given the collaborative design, no voice narration is included. 5. Power of the soundtrack—the song College Kids by popular rock band Relient K comprises the entire soundtrack. 6. Economy—an equal number of images appear for each theme and align with lyrics in the soundtrack when possible. 7. Pacing—images with text are displayed for more time than those without, but all timing is set to align with the length of the soundtrack. This digital story follows Meadows’ (2003) observation that although digital stories are created as if a movie, the story is told through photographs. All students in the course contributed two photos, which were incorporated into the story by the instructor. In terms of multiliteracies, the student collaborators had to make a number of critical design decisions. All students first had to research facts about the

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Fig. 1   Four screens from a digital story created collaboratively by preservice teachers

university. Some students chose to look up demographic information as related to a personal interest or characteristics, such as number of enrolled students from Germany or oldest sorority on campus. The advice images almost always included the student presenting the information, and the students sought creative ways to depict the message. For example, one student wanted to encourage incoming freshmen to seek adventure. He depicted his advice by hanging upside down from a tree, holding a sign, and had a friend take the picture. Another student’s advice recommended that the freshmen read ahead for class. She illustrated the tip by sitting on the floor with various texts and materials stacked or spread out around her and used multiple mobile devices to spell out r-e-a-d—a-h-e-a-d. Four screen captures from this digital story are provided in Fig. 1. The students provided suggestions for the sound track, design theme, and sequence of images in the story. At the conclusion of the activity, students reflected on how their individual images fit within the larger story and how each component was intricate to the overall process. The collaborative effort was intended as a way to help the students learn the process before working on their own stories. The very brief overview provided here is not intended to be comprehensive, but rather introduce the idea of digital stories as a design activity. Successfully implementing digital stories in the classroom requires modeling appropriate story categories and practices, supporting projects that avoid copyright issues, mediating discussion about the published stories, and providing opportunities to evaluate and modify stories (Kearney 2011). Further, the tasks required to produce and distribute a digital story are open-ended and ill-structured (Kearney 2011). The answers to Hobbs’ questions guide students through the process and engage them in problem

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solving as each step of design is completed. This poses a challenge to students as they work through the steps required and exercise the multiliteracy skills necessary to accomplish the tasks. A later section of this chapter addresses resources and challenges to assist teachers with implementing digital stories as an instructional strategy.

Comic Books Another design activity to consider is creating comic books. Comic books have a unique way of bringing visual culture into the classroom (Wilson 2005), and creating one requires writing detailed, descriptive instructions, and exciting dialogue, while also exploring visual components of illustrations and colors (Carter 2014). Unlike digital stories, which may or may not have narration or written components, comic books blend together the visual and the textual. Comics have their own rules and patterns, and the process of creating a comic book involves writing a script, revising the script, selecting an illustration style, selecting characters, building the story, and revising the story (Yolen 2010). Here, the multiliteracies concept is really emphasized as traditional literacy forms the foundation upon which visual and media literacies are built. However, some educators may be reluctant to use comic books as a design activity due to a lack of knowledge about the genre and process or fear of using the wrong terms to instruct or engage students in discussion (Connors 2012). To that end, teachers should recognize that there are many resources available, as discussed later in this chapter, to support creating or integrating comic books into the classroom. Individuals concerned about how learners react to the use or design of comics should refer to Cirigliano’s (2012) study that found even the “strictly business” (p.  35) type of learner saw value in the technical aspects of comics, while other students enjoyed being edutained, or learning through materials typically used for entertainment purposes (Edutainment n.d.). The edutainment described by Cirigliano offers a different view of engagement and motivation not seen in other design activities. Deconstructing a comic book before implementing the design activity provides a basis for which teachers and students can both analyze and evaluate design elements that influence their story. Basic comic book construction includes page layout, story development, drawing, and narration (Morrison et al. 2002). These phases represent the general process involved in planning and creating a comic book. Within these phases, students use the following common components to tell their story (National Council of Teachers of English; NCTE 2005): 1. Script—written story with all dialogue 2. Pages—specifies page layout 3. Panels—rectangle or square blocks that contain illustrations and the script 4. Word balloons—bubbles that contain verbal dialogue from the script 5. Thought balloons—bubbles that contain characters’ thoughts

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6. Narratory blocks—smaller blocks that contain special information from the narrator 7. Open panels—panels with one or more sides open for dramatic effect 8. Splash page—a full-page panel to introduce a story or draw attention Continuing the granular breakdown, Connors (2012) described the panels within a comic book as follows: 1. Basic Shapes a. Horizontal—calm, stability b. Vertical—strength c. Circles—unity, whole d. Diagonals—action, movement e. Triangle—stability, unity 2. Perspective a. Size of frame i. Close up—establishes emotional relationship between viewer and subjects ii. Medium shot—establishes objective relationship between viewer and subjects iii. Long shot—establishes relationship between subjects and environment b. Vertical angle i. High angle—situates reader in position of power, omniscient viewpoint ii. Low angle—situates represented subjects in position of power 3. Left–Right structure a. Given—information that is known to the reader, taken for granted b. New—information that is previously unknown to the reader Figure 2 illustrates some of the elements and concepts described by Connors (see also Piekos 2013). Comic book illustrations are situated within the concepts described by Connors and the NCTE and play an important and integrated role to consider when designing a comic. For example, a close-up perspective paired with a whisper balloon in a panel intimates a close emotional relationship as the subject shares his or her private thoughts with the viewer, as illustrated in panel 2 of Fig. 3. Similarly, a high-angle, long shot paired with thought balloons indicates that the viewer has an omniscient point of view and is entitled to see and hear everything in the scene, as illustrated in panel 4 of Fig. 3. Once a student is ready to create his or her own comic book, planning involves determining what to use for a story and how to illustrate the story. From super heroes and villains to historical characters, comic books provide an open medium for telling different types of stories. It does not matter if students want to start with the illustration or the story (Slate 2010). The instructor can decide to impose a set process or allow students to freely engage in the activity. It is important, however,

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Fig. 2   Common comic book design elements

for the student to select a story line with which they are familiar, have personal experience, or are researching (Slate 2010). As such, teachers seeking to provide an engaging way to encourage students to study a specific subject area might consider introducing a design activity that requires reading about and researching an assigned topic; e.g., writing a comic book about the Battle of the Little Bighorn or folklore surrounding Butch Cassidy. In terms of illustrating a comic book, teachers and students alike may be reluctant to attempt drawing. Regardless of skill level, illustrations can be simple or complex. One of the most popular graphic novels on the market, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, is drawn entirely with stick figures (Slate 2010). Additionally, Douglas Fisher (as cited in Yolen 2010, p. 16) noted that software, such as Comic Life from Plastiq, and websites like MakeBeliefsComix.com, are excellent digital resources that support comic book creation by incorporating preexisting illustrated components and providing drawing tools. An example of a comic book created by preservice teachers in a technology integration course is depicted in Fig. 3. The students who created this comic book reviewed various materials from Japanese prisoners of war interred during World War II at the Heart Mountain internment camp located in Wyoming. Materials included camp newsletters, prisoners’ journals, and illustrations hand-drawn by one particular prisoner. The group of students decided to photograph the illustrations and established an order for the images, adding dialogue and thought bubbles following common

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Fig. 3   Sample student-designed comic book page

comic book elements to craft a story. Although the students used existing illustrations from another individual, the general comic elements remain unchanged. For example, in panel two, the closeness of the shot establishes an emotional relationship with the subject, and the high-angle, long shot in panel 4 presents an omniscient view and establishes an overall relationship and tone. Additionally, the types of bubbles selected represent thoughts, speech, and exclamations. The resulting product is a compelling example of bringing history to life for a new generation through a unique medium.

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Design Activity Resources Resources used by students engaging in design activities include examples of existing artifacts. Additionally, common resources include mind mapping or storyboarding software; media repositories for images, video, and audio; recording equipment; image or video-editing software; and a dissemination platform (Kearney 2011). ­Examples of digital stories can be found by searching media-hosting websites such as YouTube, TeacherTube, or Vimeo in addition to browsing repositories like the University of Houston Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling website (Robin 2013a). Examples of comic books, illustrating varying degrees of age levels and artistic talent, can be found by searching the Cartoons & Comics section of DeviantArt.com. When designing a story for either medium, students can make use of mind-mapping tools, such as Popplet.com or Bubbl.us, or storyboard templates created with common applications such a Microsoft Word or PowerPoint, which are both available as either desktop or mobile apps. Story content can be either incorporated from existing media or user created. Existing media may be personal photographs or video personally owned by the student. User-created content includes photographs and video that may be captured using mobile devices commonly owned by many students (Pew Research Center 2010, 2013). Schools should consider providing tablets or digital cameras when students do not have access to similar devices. However, if a student wishes to use media that does not belong to him or her, resources such as Creative Commons (n.d.) should be introduced. Creative Commons encourages the sharing and use of materials from images and music to written works and other art forms, and provides a number of resources, including a guide to licensing copyright to allow use and reuse as well as informational and instructional media related to copyright. Software and applications to produce, edit, and share digital stories and other artifacts of design activities are abundantly available (Baker 2013). Digital stories are commonly created using software such as Apple’s iMovie, Windows Movie Maker, or Adobe Premier. Web-based and mobile applications that foster digital story creation include Storybird, Tellagami, Toontastic, and ZooBurst. As previously mentioned, comic books can be created using Comic Life or MakeBeliefsComix.com. Additionally, Common Sense Media (2014) maintains a list of vetted digital tools that educators can consult to identify potential apps to use for creating comics. With constant advancements in technology, and the prevalence of updated or newly created tools, teachers should leverage personal learning networks to continuously evaluate available resources.

Challenges and Considerations Implementing design activities in the classroom not only has outstanding benefits but also entails a number of challenges and considerations. The explanation herein should be viewed as potential, but not conclusive, guidance, and these challenges are by no means a reason to eschew implementing design activities. The

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c­ ollaborative and social nature of many design activities carries a responsibility to recognize the need for tolerant artifacts. That is, designers need to be cognizant of or culturally sensitive to differences and similarities in cultures that influence the values, learning, and behavior of others. Race, religion, and even socioeconomic class can influence how the end result of a design activity is received (Buck-Coleman 2010). While it may not be feasible to consider all possible interpretations of an artifact, a well-planned design activity can encourage students to recognize personal limitations and knowledge related to beliefs and assumptions about other cultures (Buck-Coleman 2010). Teachers may find that including a reflective component with group or public screenings or displays of artifacts may help stimulate discussion and further development of multiliteracies.

Ethical Dilemmas Once students learn the tools useful in design, it is important to address ethical implications of using and manipulating images. Being able to detect altered images is one part of the conversation. Educators must also engage students in a discussion about the need to alter images; just because users can manipulate an image does not imply that they should (Baker 2013). Teachers should question students throughout the process to determine how best to support the activity and include a rationale component that encourages critically evaluating the need for a specific media e­ lement. Lastly, some teachers may encounter problems when looking at methods to publish and share the artifacts created by design activities. Some schools restrict access to popular hosting sites like YouTube, which limits the publicly available options to host media, but may mitigate privacy issues. If teachers have access to and wish to have students create YouTube accounts, it is important to read the terms of service and verify whether or not the students are of age or if creating an account would be a violation of the terms. Teachers who have access to a school- or district-wide learning management system should investigate if it is a viable way to collect and share stories. Regardless of what avenue is considered for publishing and sharing, always consult with administrators and technology staff to make sure that school and district policies are followed.

Learners with Disabilities An exploration of multiliteracies and learners with disabilities is worth mentioning, especially considering that approximately 19 million children worldwide are visually impaired (World Health Organization 2014). Historically, children with disabilities have had fewer opportunities to read or interact with classmates in terms of traditional literacy development (Beck 2002). However, education has seen a rapid increase in the availability and use of assistive technologies to help emerging

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literacy skills among children with disabilities (Burne et al. 2011). Additionally, the pedagogy underlying multiliteracies establishes a multimodal approach that extends traditional practice and encourages variety in technology (Cazden et al. 1996). The design activities described by this chapter align with the multiliteracy pedagogy and may easily be combined with assistive technologies or adapted to use in classrooms with visually impaired learners. For example, by making a design activity collaborative, visually impaired students are encouraged to interact with other students, providing socialization opportunities in addition to a team-based approach. Further, regular incorporation of assistive technologies, such as screen readers or video magnifiers, is essential for enabling and developing multiliterate learners with disabilities (Cohen 2011). Unfortunately, there is an existing participation gap in terms of assistive technologies (Alper 2012). Therefore, this consideration does require further exploration and should be encouraged among in-service and preservice teachers who seek to incorporate design activities in inclusive learning environments.

Subject-Specific Issues and Other Design Activities An assumption exists that subjects such as language arts cannot benefit from design activities, but research has shown that incorporating media projects are an effective method for engaging students and meeting traditional literacy goals (Falk-Ross et al. 2008). Further, Kearney (2011) noted that digital stories are relevant to most disciplines. When considering how to implement design activities into a specific subject, educators may need to target different kinds of design activities. For example, writing fan fiction and engaging in the transformative design of literature creates a unique opportunity for students to develop expertise and become producers of media (Black 2009). However, Black cautions that administrators and stakeholders often view fan fiction writing activities as foolish or impractical for classroom settings. It should be noted, though, that fan fiction encourages collaborative writing, reinforces literacy practices, and provides a platform for students to give voice to their thoughts and ideas (Black 2009). This description of fan fictions associates well with the concepts of both design activities and multiliteracies. Similarly, teachers might instruct students to deconstruct popular advertisements and create new advertisements as a way to introduce and reinforce vocabulary (Alvermann and Hagood 2000) or construct visual representations of passages from novels, short stories, or poems (Falk-Ross et al. 2008). Students in mathematics and science courses may benefit from implementing robotic and architectural design activities (Lawanto et al. 2013). More technical subjects, such as industrial arts might consider engaging students in practical projects that impact the school itself or the immediate community (Berkeihiser 2006). Examples of this later idea include engaging students in redesigning a common area of a school or building a playground for another school. In doing so, students take ownership of the activity and become excited about the visible impact. The point is to focus on experience design, allowing students to draw upon their own expertise and engage multiple disciplines (Search 2009).

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Standards and Assessment As more teachers look towards implementing design activities, they may find documentation to support the idea as an instructional strategy helpful. At a very minimum, instruction on best practices for creating digital stories addresses Common Core State Standards (CCSS), Reading Literature (RL) 7.7, “Compare and contrast a written story, drama, or poem to its audio, filmed, staged, or multimedia version, analyzing the effects of techniques unique to each medium (e.g., lighting, sound, color, or camera focus and angles in a film)” (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers 2010, p. 37). Additionally, reflective practice in design activities addresses RL 8.7, which states “Analyze the extent to which a filmed or live production of a story or drama stays faithful to or departs from the text or script, evaluating the choices made by the director or actors” (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers 2010, p. 37). The reflective practice encourages students to compare the final artifact to planning documents and evaluate the differences and similarities. In terms of assessment, design activities represent a nontraditional means by which student performance can be measured. Curating design activity artifacts in e-Portfolios also provides an environment for both reflective practice and formative assessment for teachers to follow through a student’s career (Sadik 2008). If these e-Portfolios are made across grade levels and subjects, a more complete assessment of student progress can be accomplished. Lastly, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (2011), which consists of the business community, educational leaders, and policy makers, has drafted a framework for twenty-first-century learning that focuses on preparing students for success in a global society. While not a curriculum standard required of teachers, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills framework is currently embraced by 19 states. Essentially, the framework blends the traditional reading, writing, and arithmetic (3 R’s) with innovation skills, to include critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity (4 C’s; Partnership for 21st Century Skills 2011). The framework also addresses life and career skills as well as information, media, and technology skills, which include problem solving. Educators in a state that has adopted the 21st Century Skills framework should be prepared to align instructional strategies with these skills.

Conclusion Although there are some challenges to manage and considerations to make when implementing design activities in the classroom, there are many benefits. Students who might otherwise be disengaged in learning or reluctant to participate enjoy the creativity and applied nature of designing and creating media. Creating comic books, specifically, draws upon the visual nature of the medium and blends writing

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activities with design activities. Digital stories provide a unique outlet for students to find a voice and share their stories with one another. Both design activities are an opportunity to introduce and reinforce multiliteracies in the classroom, including traditional reading literacy, media literacy, and visual literacy. Given the prevalence of media throughout all facets of life and society, in-service teachers and teacher educators would be well advised to consider instructional strategies that capitalize on this phenomenon and engage learners in design activities.

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Li, L. (2007). Digital storytelling: Bridging traditional and digital literacies. In T. Bastiaens & S. Carliner (Eds.), Proceedings of world conference on e-learning in corporate, government, healthcare, and higher education 2007 (pp. 6201–6206). Chesapeake: AACE. Meadows, D. (2003). Digital storytelling: Research-based practice in new media. Visual Communication, 2(2), 189–193. doi:10.1177/1470357203002002004. Metros, S. E. (2008). The educator’s role in preparing visually literate learners. Theory Into Practice, 47(2), 102–109. doi:10.1080/00405840801992264. Mills, K. A. (2010). What learners “know” through digital media production: Learning by design. E-Learning and Digital Media, 7(3), 223. doi:10.2304/elea.2010.7.3.223. Morrison, T. G., Bryan, G., & Chilcoat, G. W. (2002). Using student-generated comic books in the classroom. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 45(8), 758–767. National Association for Media Literacy Education. (2014). Media literacy defined. http://namle. net/publications/media-literacy-definitions/. Accessed 02 May 2014 National Council of Teachers of English. (2005). Comic book primer. Lesson plan: The comic book show and tell. Urbana, IL. http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/ lesson921/ComicBookPrimer.pdf. Accessed 08 May 2014 National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, & Council of Chief State School Officers. (2010). Common core state standards for English language arts and literacy in history/ social studies, science, and technical subjects. Washington, D.C. Accessed 06 May 2014 Nilsson, M. E. (2008). Digital storytelling as a tool in education. In T. Hansson (Ed.), Handbook of research on digital information technologies: Innovations, methods, and ethical issues (pp. 131–145). Hershey: IGI Global. Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (2011). Framework for 21st century learning (pp. 1–2). Washington, D.C. http://www.p21.org. Accessed 08 August 2014 Pew Research Center. (2010). Teens and mobile phones. Washington, D.C. Pew Research Center. (2013). Teens and technology 2013. Washington, D.C. Piekos, N. (2013). Comic book grammar and tradition. http://www.blambot.com/grammar.shtml. Accessed 13 August 2014 Robin, B. R. (2006). The educational uses of digital storytelling. In C. M. Crawford, R. Carlsen, K. McFerrin, J. Price, R. Weber, & D. A. Willis (Eds.), Proceedings of society for information technology and teacher education international conference 2006 (pp. 709–716). Chesapeake: AACE. Robin, B. R. (2008). Digital storytelling: A powerful technology tool for the 21st century classroom. Theory Into Practice, 47(3), 220–228. doi:10.1080/00405840802153916. Robin, B. R. (2013a). Educational uses of digital storytelling. http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/ index.cfm. Accessed 07 May 2014 Robin, B. R. (2013b). The 7 elements of digital storytelling. http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/ page.cfm?id=27cid=27sublinkid=31. Accessed 07 May 2014 Rogow, F. (2011). Ask, don’t tell: Pedagogy for media literacy education in the next decade. Journal of Media Literacy Education, 3(1), 16–22. Sadik, A. (2008). Digital storytelling: A meaningful technology-integrated approach for engaged student learning. Educational Technology Research and Development, 56(4), 487–506. doi:10.1007/s11423-008-9091-8. Search, P. (2009). The dynamic discourse of visual literacy in experience design. TechTrends, 53(2), 50–55. Shoffner, M., de Oliveira, L. C., & Angus, R. (2010). Multiliteracies in the secondary English classroom: Becoming literate in the 21st century. English Teaching: Practice and Critique, 9 (3), 75–89. Slate, B. (2010). You can do a graphic novel: Teacher’s guide. http://www.penguin.com/static/pdf/ teachersguides/you_can_do_a_graphic_novel_TG.pdf. Accessed 08 May 2014 Van Gils, F. (2005). Potential applications of digital storytelling in education. Paper presented at the 3rd Twente Student Conference on IT, University of Twente, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, Enschede.

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Wilson, B. (2005). More lessons from the superheroes of J.C. Holz: The visual culture of childhood and the third pedagogical site. Art Education, 58(6), 18–24, 33–34. World Health Organization. (2014). Visual impairment and blindness. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs282/en/. Accessed 12 August 2014 Yolen, J. (2010). How hard can it be? Voices from the Middle, 17(4), 15–18. Tonia A. Dousay  Tonia is an assistant professor of instructional technology at the University of Wyoming. Her teaching and research focus on design-based learning activities and the knowledge and skills acquired and reinforced through design activities. She was awarded the 2014 Mary Garland Early Career Fellowship Award by the University of Wyoming, College of Education, to support her efforts in establishing a makerspace to explore the application of design activities. She was a recipient of the 2013 Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) National Science Foundation Early Career Award, 2013 AECT Multimedia Production Immersive Learning Award, and 2013 AECT Information Age Publishers Distance Education Best Practices Award. Tonia has 15 years of instructional design and eLearning project management experience in continuing education and online environments, but began her career in the secondary agricultural science classroom. Her diverse background contributes to an emphasis on authentic learning experiences, and she specializes in preservice teacher education, multimedia design and development, and designing learning activities to stimulate the situational interest of learners. She is an avid user of social media, encouraging the shift from consumers of media to producers. Her teaching and research philosophies center around the phrase, “let’s make something!

Understanding Visual Literacy: The Visual Thinking Strategies Approach Dabney Hailey, Alexa Miller and Philip Yenawine

Abstract  This chapter makes the case for two aspects of visual literacy that the authors believe to be generally overlooked: (1) that visual literacy occurs by way of a developmental trajectory and requires instruction as well as practice, and (2) that it involves as much thought as it does visual awareness and is an integral component of the skills and beliefs related to inquiry. This chapter roots these ideas in the theory and research of cognitive psychologist Abigail Housen, coauthor of Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) with museum educator Philip Yenawine. Housen identified aesthetic stages that mark the development of skills helping to define visual literacy. Her research is also the basis of VTS, a method of engaging learners in deep experiences looking at art and discussing meanings with peers, a process that, this chapter posits, furthers visual literacy. This chapter presents that body of research and details the resulting VTS protocol. It reviews academic studies to date, subsequent to Housen, that document the impact of VTS interventions in various settings, and suggests beneficial areas for future research. In order to probe what development in visual literacy looks and sounds like on a granular level, two case studies of student writing from existing studies are presented and analyzed. Visual literacy skills enabled by VTS are briefly connected to broader educational concerns.

Introduction In order to produce children who know how to read well enough to perform practical tasks, at the very least, parents and caregivers talk to children as babies, introduce books early on, and prepare them for school, where various step-by-step D. Hailey () Hailey Group, LLC, Cambridge, MA, USA e-mail: [email protected] A. Miller Arts Practica, LLC, Guilford, CT, USA e-mail: [email protected] P. Yenawine Visual Understanding in Education, Wellfleet, MA, USA e-mail: [email protected] © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 D. M. Baylen, A. D’Alba (eds.), Essentials of Teaching and Integrating Visual and Media Literacy, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-05837-5_3

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processes are employed to help children achieve functional verbal literacy before the end of elementary education. Not so with visual literacy. The culture at large seems to assume that somehow, perhaps because of our constant bombardment with images, visual literacy will simply happen without specific instruction. This attitude carries over to formal education, where achievement in reading, writing, and arithmetic sets the agenda, and where leaders are often mystified as to what visual literacy even means, much less how it may contribute to the teaching of skills prioritized by convention and mandate. Even among the few who bemoan the consequences of a visually illiterate public, a gap exists between concern for the problem and offering solutions based in relevant theory and presented in terms of values common to those who set cultural and educational policy. In fact, as this chapter explores and tries to remedy, in the field of visual literacy there is no fleshed out, generally agreed-upon definition or shared understanding of the skills involved. The wider world therefore has no sense of the relevance of these skills to educational practices that result in success throughout schooling and eventually in adulthood, work, and civic engagement; there is even less understanding of the potency of integrating visual literacy with teaching the “3 R’s.” Fostering greater understanding in this area is the essential prerequisite for visual literacy to be regarded as the broad-ranging, pertinent, and teachable matter that it is. This chapter aims to deepen comprehension of visual literacy and how it can be developed through teaching a specific methodology, Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS). The authors’ perspective is shaped by long-standing practice as educators using VTS and regularly engaging in close study of VTS interventions. VTS is intended to nurture growth in aesthetic thought (the cognition that takes place as people look at art) as described by cognitive psychologist Abigail Housen, who coauthored the methodology. Beginning with a consideration of the definition of visual literacy, this chapter provides an overview of Housen’s theory and research, explains what is meant by aesthetic thought, and how it develops, and connects Housen’s insights to the wider field of visual literacy. It further describes in detail the mechanics of the VTS teaching methodology and reviews academic studies on its impact, which in turn are discussed to illuminate how visual literacy develops.

A Developmental Approach to Understanding Visual Literacy John Debes’s (1968) definition of visual literacy—he is credited with coining the term—establishes a clear starting point for understanding visual literacy at its core. He writes: Visual Literacy refers to a group of vision-competencies a human being can develop by seeing and at the same time having and integrating other sensory experiences. The development of these competencies is fundamental to normal human learning. When developed, they enable a visually literate person to discriminate and interpret the visible actions,

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objects, symbols, natural or man-made, that he encounters in his environment. Through the creative use of these competencies, he is able to communicate with others. Through the appreciative use of these competencies, he is able to comprehend and enjoy the masterworks of visual communication. (p. 27)

This definition is one of the broadest in the literature. One of its strengths is the fact that it refers to visual literacy as competencies that “develop.” Even though Debes states that they are “fundamental to human learning,” these competencies are acquired and enhanced by dint of effort, exposure, and, ideally, guided experience. The intended outcome, for Debes, is fluency: The ability to differentiate among and interpret the things one sees and to appreciate “masterworks of visual communication.” He also includes the ability to communicate creatively applying these skills, a topic explored at length below. (The development of visual communication abilities—from drawing to design to creating diagrams, graphs, and maps—requires teaching interventions beyond what is addressed here.) As with any literacy, visual literacy begins with the development of the brain’s capacities over time, through both structured experience (i.e., teaching) and ongoing, informal interactions with the visual environment. Just as parents and teachers take pains to develop reading literacy, we can and should employ a similar process to ensure visual literacy, ideally by building on existing skills, challenging them appropriately, and structuring the experience to allow children to construct their understandings of what they encounter visually (Bruner 1960). By stepping up attention to nurturing visual literacy through teaching methods rooted in research on its developmental and cognitive aspects, all levels of education will benefit (Arnheim 1969). But what are the cognitive aspects of vision? While the eye perceives, the mind processes observations, draws meaning from them, and organizes that meaning in connection with an array of current and prior experiences, memories, and ideas as well as such details as the immediate physical context. Though responses to what is observed can materialize in many forms, a primary one is language. The visual cortex connects directly to language centers in the brain. The content of the eye–mind connection commonly appears in what people say and may be further facilitated by the act of speaking, an iterative process. Influencing this concurrence of observation, thought, and language (which necessarily includes other senses as well) is crucial to achieving Debes’s version of visual literacy and has serious implications for teaching. In addition to Debes’s account, however, there is another powerful way to describe a visually literate person: someone who looks with a questioning state of mind. Importantly, visual literacy involves as much inquiry as it does visual acuity. “Inquiry,” write the authors from the National Committee on Science Education Standards and Assessment (Olson and Loucks-Horsley 2000), “is a multifaceted activity that involves making observations; posing questions; examining books and other sources of information to see what is already known in light of experimental evidence; using tools to gather, analyze, and interpret data; proposing answers, explanations, and predictions; and communicating the results.” This definition of inquiry, applied broadly in science education, is a useful framework for considering

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how developing visual literacy is integral to the cultivation of inquiring minds. As students engage with works of art and with each other in a structured group inquiry process, such as VTS, their visual literacy develops in tandem with a critical pathway into inquiry generally. Perhaps because of the apparent effortlessness of a child beginning to recognize, categorize, and classify what she sees—Rudolf Arnheim parses this brilliantly in his seminal book, Visual Thinking (1969)—society collectively fails to appreciate both the complicated cognition involved in visual literacy and the steps required to ensure it develops. One way to study its presence is through asking people to talk about what they see: by capturing in language the lightning-fast transition of perception to thought to language. Asking people to think out loud, talking about what they see as they look, and recording their comments result in concrete data about the process of visual meaning making. These insights came into focus in the work of Abigail Housen. Housen is a cognitive psychologist who, along with Yenawine, cocreated the VTS protocol. Her research casts light on both the skills involved in and the developmental arc of visual literacy. She completed her doctorate in 1983 at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education alongside a number of scholars interested in how the mind develops. Her specific interest was in how viewers process what they see in art, which she knew from her reading of James Mark Baldwin (1975) and Rudolf Arnheim (1966, 1969), among others, to be a particularly rich and complicated way of thinking. While visual literacy involves visual encounters with both the natural and the human-made world, viewing art, as a particularly complex form of visual stimulus, is, it turns out, an appropriate place to study the range of looking and thinking skills involved in visual literacy. Art usually includes a certain amount of readily recognizable information, but it is intentionally ambiguous and layered with meaning, creating the impetus for searching beyond the obvious over the course of extended, thoughtful examination.

Housen: Research Questions, Methods, and Findings Housen’s work began with a number of key questions: How could looking at art make some uncomfortable, others bored or edgy, and still others animated and excited? What goes on in people’s minds as they stand in front of a painting? Why do some individuals stay longer with art—finding more meaning for longer periods— than others? What goes on over their lifetimes as they look again and again at many works of art? (1983, 2007). Housen’s research process and resulting theory is ultimately indebted to the ­developmental psychologist Jean Piaget (1926, 1951), but is even more directly influenced by the methodologies and findings of Housen’s Harvard colleagues, including Lawrence Kohlberg (Kohlberg and Hirsch 1977; Duska and Whelan 1975) and Jane Loevinger (1976, 1993). Michael Parsons (1987), another scholar working at roughly the same time, was also inspired by Kohlberg and posited a stage theory

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related to aesthetic development. Though their methods were quite different, Housen’s and Parson’s findings correspond in many ways. One significant difference concerns the detail with which Housen came to understand the novice viewer, who, as will be discussed below, is the subject of teaching strategies aimed at developing visual literacy. Beginning in the 1970s, and continuing for almost a decade, Housen interviewed hundreds of individual subjects while they looked at art. She developed a rigorous protocol called the Aesthetic Development Interview (ADI), in which the viewer speaks in an undirected way about what he sees while viewing an artwork. Housen recorded individuals at all levels of viewing experience; she simultaneously collected detailed biographical information on each participant. After transcribing the interviews, she broke the comments into distinct units of thought and studied them, eventually developing a method of categorizing and coding the immense range of thoughts she found (1983). Housen’s analysis of her data is detailed, nuanced, and extensive. Analyzing the interviews thought by thought, she found a total of 13 domains—including observations, preferences, associations, evaluations, negative or positive comprehension, and questioning—which were further broken down into as many as 13 discernible issues or subcategories. All the interviews were coded by way of these domains and categories. She was able to determine that people with different experience in viewing art actually think in different patterns. Like her colleagues, she concluded that these patterns represent distinct sets of behaviors, with little overlap, that occur roughly sequentially. She found five such patterns and refers to them as aesthetic stages. (See Appendix for summaries of all five stages.) While Piaget noted that developmental changes seemed to occur naturally over time, Housen determined that a specific form of experience—deep looking at art specifically, or what Housen calls “eyes on canvas”—is required to produce aesthetic growth. Movement from one stage to the next comes as a result of extended, thoughtful examination of visually complex material over time. In other words, in the absence of observing and thinking about meaning in complex imagery, growth through the stages does not occur. Notably, it is not until the later stages that growth is usually combined with acquisition of information. Importantly, beginner viewers can be any age. The key factor is experience in looking at art, rather than life experience in general or simple maturation.

Housen’s Early Stages: The Pre-Visually Literate Housen’s account of the first two stages (called accountive and constructive viewers) clarifies what it means to be pre-visually literate and sheds the most light on the processes involved in reaching basic visual literacy, which, this chapter argues, occurs at the end of stage 2. She determined, for example, that people in stage 1, who have had little or no contact with art and therefore have no references for it, only apply what they know from their own lives to make sense of what they see. Experts

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also apply lived experience but add other ways of thinking that result from their interactions with art over extended periods of time, relying on a variety of strategies as well as specific concepts and information acquired through lengthy effort. Usefully, Housen found that a particular kind of observation—very simple ones—dominates stage 1. These viewers make random, basic, perhaps one-word observations of things seen piecemeal rather than holistically or systematically. At first, some observations are what Housen describes as “idiosyncratic”: clear to the viewer but not necessarily seen by others or intended by the artist. With time spent and experience looking, viewers begin to ground these observations in the logic of the image itself. They see things as connected to other things, in context, and in space. While at first, their observations are concrete—it is a tree, not a picture of a tree—gradually, the notion of images as representations created by someone with specific intentions comes into focus. Similarly, what is recognized early on in an image is based on the personal experience of the viewer making associations: that looks like my house. When people in stage 1 begin to make meaning from a set of observations, Housen found, that meaning usually takes the form of short pieces of narrative. For example, a beginner viewer will animate a still image by inferring that a depicted figure is walking or thinking. It is common to assign emotional meanings to what is seen, such as, he’s angry or sad. An early version of comparing shows up in phrases such as, this looks like. As viewers move into stage 2, they begin wondering why something looks as it does, comparing the image to others in their experience. At that point, the standard of reference is usually what the viewer expects based on reality. These viewers often note that discrepancies between what they see and what they expect make something weird. With additional experience viewing and thinking about art, other frames of reference are invoked during stage 2, such as craft ( the way he painted is kind of blotchy), medium ( this is a black and white photograph), or time/culture ( I think this is Egyptian).

Implications for Teaching The great majority of the thousands of individuals across age groups studied by Housen—her research continued for two decades following the completion of her dissertation—is in the most basic stages of aesthetic development, stages 1 and 2, with most in the former. Despite the plethora of images people encounter daily, they show little advancement in either range or scope of observations habitually made, and little development in terms of thinking. Virtually modifies all of the individuals found in later stages (3 through 5) are directly involved in extensive and self-motivated studying, making, or collecting of art—and they have been doing it for years (Housen 1983, 1999, 2007). Housen’s work prompted some major museums (notably, the Institute for Contemporary Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, both in Boston, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York) to request studies (Housen 1984–1991; Duke and Housen 1998). Sensing that there are gaps in their knowledge or experience, many museum

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visitors seek help finding meaning in what they see, and museum education departments are charged with providing the desired assists. Could something be learned from knowing visitors’ aesthetic stage? Could the impact of educational offerings be determined—did people learn what was taught in the programs provided? Three findings from these museum studies are significant to this chapter: (1) the majority of museum visitors were at an early viewing stage and not yet visually literate, in the sense of the skills laid out by Debes (1968), (2) very little of the intended impact of educational offerings could in fact be documented, and (3) to the extent that the effects could be noted, they corresponded to the person’s aesthetic stage (Housen 1987, Duke and Housen 1998). Consistently, the information offered and the teaching strategies adopted by museums were operating above the level of most of those who sought help. Their educational efforts failed to stick. Fortunately, Housen’s data analyses provided some major insights into how to redirect teaching, including what to avoid when creating interventions designed to help people see more, think in more complex ways, and find greater meaning and pleasure as result (De Santis and Housen 2007; Yenawine 2013). She and Yenawine—who was the Museum of Modern Art’s (MOMA) director of education from 1983 to 1993—set about using these analyses to create teaching methods that actually spurred aesthetic growth among MOMA’s visitors. Over the course of a dozen years and several research studies, they created Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS). The process involved many refinements and clarifications; the resulting teaching methodology and an associated elementary-school curriculum were published in 2000 and 2001 (Housen & Yenawine, 2000-2001). Housen’s original research, built upon by subsequent studies designed to document the impact of VTS, shows that the range of processes involved in aesthetic development are not distinct from, but instead are a part of, thinking processes more generally. This finding is now corroborated broadly in neuroscience, where vision itself is understood to be “information processing, not image transmission” (Livingstone 2002). Recent neuroscientific research continues to deepen our understanding of the art experience as particularly rich cognition. For example, JeanPierre Changeux (2012) describes the aesthetic experience, a multisensory activity rooted in the visual, as one that can make conscious short- and long-term memories and elicit empathy. He also notes that aesthetic experiences are highly synthetic in terms of brain activity, in that they stimulate the prefrontal cortex (the locus of complex cognition, decision making, personality, and self-moderation) in concert with the limbic system (which involves emotions, memories, and fundamentally, self-preservation). Art historian Barbara Stafford (2007, 2008), who explores the impact of recent neurobiological research on our understandings of art, vision, and cognition, describes viewing art as a somatosensory experience, one of heightened attentiveness. She notes that it activates, and crucially has the potential to enable awareness of, high-level cognitive functions like intention, organization, and selection. These neurobiological findings cast light on why “eyes-on-canvas” time is particularly influential to the development of aesthetic thought. The cultivation of aesthetic thought—and, as this chapter argues, visual literacy—is fundamentally intertwined with active engagement with art because of

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art’s mix of observable information, emotional valence, ambiguity, and inferred meanings, some symbolic or metaphorical. Interactions with art involve a constant exchange between stimulus and response and between the viewer’s memory and current experience, building new frameworks through which to view the world. VTS is designed to fully exploit the richness of the art experience and its impact on cognition.

The VTS Protocol VTS is constructivist in nature, aligning with precepts articulated by John Dewey (1934/1980, 1938/1997), Jerome Bruner (1966), and Lev Vygotsky (1962, 1978). It focuses on teacher-facilitated but viewer-directed discussions of art. The art is carefully chosen to provide subjects of relevance to the particular audience, always including accessible imagery to give participants a chance to begin by using their existing knowledge, interests, and abilities. Images also contain enough ambiguity to pique curiosity so that what is recognized is used as the basis for exploring what is puzzling (Yenawine 2003, 2013). The looking is activated by questions asking viewers to start with a task that is simple for them—making observations—and helps them improve upon existing skills by presenting challenges within their reach and by fostering discussion. These actions spur intensive, ongoing engagement with and authentic experience of complex visual material. VTS was developed over an iterative process of testing and using data to make revisions that lasted 10 years, beginning in 1991. The resulting protocol instructs facilitators as follows: Present a carefully selected image. Appropriate images account for the levels of experience with art, ages, and backgrounds of the specific group, and contain: • • • • •

Subjects of interest Imagery that represents both familiarity and newness Strong narratives, accessible but layered, i.e., deep Accessible intrigue: challenge but do not completely stump them Ambiguity: enough complexity to puzzle and inspire debate

Allow a few moments of silently looking before beginning the discussion. Pose three specific research-tested questions to motivate and maintain the inquiry: • What’s going on/happening in this picture? (Asked once to initiate the discussion) • What do you see that makes you say that? (Asked whenever an interpretive comment is made) • What more can you/we find? (Asked frequently throughout the discussion to broaden and deepen the search for meaning) Facilitate the discussion by: • Listening carefully to catch everything that students say • Pointing to observations as students make comments, providing a “visual paraphrase”

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• Paraphrasing each comment, taking a moment to reflect on it while formulating the response to make sure all content and meanings are grasped and helpfully rephrased • Linking related comments whether students agree or disagree, or build on one another’s ideas • Remaining neutral by treating everyone and each comment in the same way Conclude by thanking students for their participation and by citing behaviors that are particularly appreciated. The method was constructed from Housen’s data about beginning viewers (those in stages 1 and 2) and studied by way of her original research protocols. It was tested and tweaked to ensure that it nurtured the capacity of students to construct more and more complex meanings from works of art. Rigorous facilitation using the specific techniques is critical to a successful VTS conversation. For example, opening with silence is necessary, for it provides each student the opportunity to form independent thought. Wording matters: phrasing the evidence-seeking question as, What do you see that makes you say that? instead of, for instance, Why do you think that? establishes a psychologically safe environment in which focus is placed on the work of art rather than the student personally; provisional ideas are welcome but visual evidence is consistently sought. The teacher’s neutrality matters because it leaves students free to find and think what they will, and it nurtures mutual respect among students, necessary for wide participation and risk taking. Repeatedly asking What more can we find? extends the process, allowing the group to find many possible answers. Linking allows the discussion to cohere while honoring disparate ideas. By adhering to the method, which is intentionally precise, ideas can be openly discussed and tested; multiple perspectives can be reasonably, simultaneously considered based on evidence found in the image. VTS provides a means to hold the group in a process of inquiry, one in which divergent and convergent thinking, evidence seeking, and wondering intermingle. A modest intervention in terms of time, the VTS school curriculum (Housen and Yenawine, 2000-2001) involves ten 1-h lessons a year using the above method to look at two to three images per lesson throughout the elementary grades. The basic curriculum covers grades Pre-K to 6 and includes recommendations for building on experience with art in other lessons, including using images as prompts for writing; it also includes additional prompts and basic research projects when students show signs of entering stage 3. Currently, VTS is being implemented in over 300 schools in the USA (Yenawine 2013; Shifrin 2008). Versions for middle school and high school are being tested. Variations have been devised for use in museum teaching, university classes (Miller and Yenawine 2014; Hailey 2014), medical education (see next page), and the professional world. Data from studies designed to determine if VTS achieved the desired effect in elementary schools documented that it did indeed cultivate aesthetic development through stage 1 and well into stage 2; in concert, the techniques create a vigorous learning environment applicable with other imagery, subjects, and materials. Teach-

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ers currently use the strategy to allow students to construct meaning from a wide range of images as well as texts, and many teachers have implemented VTS in history, literature, math, and science lessons (Yenawine 2013).

Literature Review and Findings What is known in research about the impact of VTS? What do these findings mean for our understandings of visual literacy? This chapter’s summary of existing research is limited to peer-reviewed literature, two federally funded studies, and one recently published dissertation, though substantial knowledge from the realm of practice shapes the analysis of this research. It is important to note that Housen, Yenawine, Karin DeSantis, and others studied additional examples of VTS teaching and learning throughout the development of the VTS curriculum (DeSantis and Housen 1984–2003). Findings from many of these unpublished studies (undertaken in various school systems and in museums in different parts of the country) have been shared collegially across sites and at conferences. They were used to evaluate and inform the content of VTS curricula yet do not exist in peer-reviewed journals. Data discussed here came from two distinct realms in education: first, K-6 partnerships with art museums and second, training programs within the healthcare professions (often in collaboration with art museums). It is important to acknowledge a key difference between VTS in K-6 and in medical education; research from K-6 interventions reflects the impact of the sequential VTS curriculum (discussions of a consistent body of carefully chosen images facilitated at regular intervals, approximately 10 hours a year over 3 or more years, using the method of teaching across sites), while the VTS-based interventions in healthcare vary widely in scope (the longest intervention capped at about 12 hours of total time of VTS, allocated over 3 months), in the works of art used, and in the integration of VTS with other methods (such as structured reflections, clinical didactics, and drawing).

Impact Shown in Elementary Education The VTS school curriculum was tested in studies beginning in 1991 at MOMA in New York City as well as in St. Petersburg, Russia; Vilnius, Lithuania; Byron, Minnesota; and San Antonio, Texas (Housen 2002, 2007; DeSantis and Housen 2007). Formal academic longitudinal research was conducted in one semirural school in Byron. The study tracked two cohorts, one advancing from second to sixth grade and the other from fourth to eighth, and was published in 2002. Another formal study— still unpublished—was conducted in one urban school in San Antonio; it tracked mostly English language learners from grades 3–5 (DeSantis and Housen 2007). Both studies included matched control groups, the differences being that only the experimental students received VTS. Housen’s protocols for determining aesthetic stage were applied before and after the sequential-curricular intervention during each of the study years and were enlarged to include additional methods.

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The published data from Byron from 1993 to 1998 (as well as the unpublished San Antonio research) indicate that roughly 30 hours of focused experience with art—Housen’s “eyes on canvas”—nurtured a transition from the first stage of aesthetic development to solid ground in the second. In Byron, all the students grew by an entire aesthetic stage over the course of 3 years (Housen 2002). The study further documented the impact of aesthetic growth and VTS itself on a broader range of skills, including thinking behaviors considered aspects of critical thinking: habitually providing evidence to back up inferences and speculating among various possible interpretations, for example. The predictable expansion of these habits in the vast majority of students was correlated to their aesthetic growth; critical thinking capacities began to emerge predictably when students advanced into stage 2. The Byron study also showed that these thinking skills transferred from art images to objects from other realms such as science. These findings were derived from thoughts expressed in an additional protocol, the “material object interview,” in which students were given an unfamiliar object—fossils, foreign coins, unusual tools—and asked to look and talk about what they saw. Unexpectedly, Byron intervention students also improved in performance on standardized tests after 3 years of VTS, gaining 2.5 times the state average increase on Minnesota achievement tests, suggesting possible transfer of skills from aesthetic development to other domains. Two separate, federally funded studies (Curva et al. 2005; Adams et al. 2007) were conducted in schools participating in VTS projects at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston (Burchenal and Grohe 2007) and at the WolfsonianFIU Museum in Miami (Rawlinson et al. 2007). These longitudinal interventions, which included roughly 30 hours of VTS lessons over 3 years, were shown to impact student thinking patterns in a manner that correlated with the increases in critical thinking skills observed in Byron. VTS students consistently talked or wrote significantly longer than control students about artwork in posttest interviews and writing samples (examples of which are detailed below), indicating increases in students’ capacities to observe, infer meaning, and back up inferences with evidence. In the Gardner Museum study, for example, VTS students averaged 28 lines per interview compared to 14 lines for control students. Across the three K–6 studies (Byron, Boston, and Miami), all treatment students looked longer, had more to say, and demonstrated a wider range of thought categories in their responses following VTS interventions. Consistently, 30 hours of VTS discussions over 3 years facilitated changes from stage 1 into late stage 2 within the groups.

Impact Shown in Healthcare Education The literature on VTS interventions with students in medical training programs echoes the K–6 findings in the development of thinking and language skills, and also indicates attitudinal impact. A 2008 study at Harvard Medical School analyzed a 10-week intervention with first- and second-year medical students that mixed VTS with clinical didactics and drawing (Naghshineh et al. 2008). Results in posttest writing samples included significant increases in frequencies of observations—students made 38 % more observations on both medical and art imagery than control

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group students—and in frequencies of use of evidence to back up interpretations. Importantly, students who attended eight or more sessions increased observation and language skills significantly more than students who attended seven or less. This “dose effect” speaks to the developmental nature of acquiring visual literacy skills. This finding is underscored by a researched pilot experiment at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS; Jasani and Saks 2013), in which students who participated in one intensive VTS-based workshop (they discussed eight images over 3 hours) did not show any differences in frequencies of observations made in writing posttests. The Harvard and RWJMS studies, along with others from the healthcare sector, also illuminate the impact of VTS on language development. The Harvard study included qualitative analysis of student writing samples documenting “increased sophistication” in the words students chose to describe both clinical and art imagery (i.e., the increased or new use of words such as “shading” or “contour”). These language changes reflect that students’ abilities to observe, infer, and express meaning from visual material (either clinical or artistic) became more robust and precise. In addition, students’ descriptions of visual material became more comprehensive, as demonstrated in the RWJMS intervention, where analysis of writing samples documented increases in use of speculative language, visual analogies, and in the scope of interpretations. A third study conducted at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio (Klugman et al. 2011) looked at the results of three 90-min VTS-based sessions with medical and nursing students; researchers examined student responses to both art and clinical imagery with both qualitative and quantitative tools in order to assess learning. Across the three studies—Harvard, RWJF, and Texas—students looked longer and had more to say following VTS interventions, indicating their enhanced performance of three crucial aspects of clinical observation: the ability to describe concretely what is perceived, the ability to separate fact from inference, and the understanding that observation takes time (Boudreau et al. 2008). Finally, one radically different program in the Netherlands using VTS with brain-injured patients further probed the impact of VTS on language abilities (Ter Horst and Kruiper-Doesborgh 2012). This pilot study with 13 patients documented increases in the tendencies to take time to reflect before speaking and to give reasoned opinions. Subjects also reported increased awareness of their own abilities with regard to critical thinking, and their difficulties in this respect. This study underscores the way in which changes in visual literacy connect with metacognition and are reflected in language use. In addition to looking at skill development, studies on VTS from the healthcare professions have also focused on the methodology’s effect on attitudes and beliefs about learning. Klugman et al. (2011) documented increases in positive views towards the essential role of communication within health care, and the importance of discussions about what is seen and found as being necessary for effective diagnosis; they also showed an increase in participants’ tolerance of ambiguity—a cognitive variable significant to aspects of medicine including worldview, test ordering, defensive practice, and discomfort in scenarios of death and grief (Geller 2013). A

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separate qualitative study on nursing students’ experiences with VTS at Indiana University revealed two standout themes: “feeling safe in learning” and “thinking and seeing differently” (Moorman 2013). Students particularly valued that during VTS discussions, they were able to express differences of opinions without feelings of criticism or judgment. They also positively emphasized the experience of having their own judgments change based on observations made by others. “Ok, I can see how you got to this” is how one student describes this experience, which connects with “mutual respect,” a subtheme of the Indiana study. A qualitative study from the social work field, conducted at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, examined an intervention in which VTS was used in diversity training for teachers (Chapman et al. 2013). The researchers looked at both “schema change” and how images function in catalyzing dialogue. Their findings noted changes in participants’ descriptions of “shifts in awareness, perspective-taking, attitude change, and more complex thinking about Latino/Latina immigrants” (the subject of most of the images used in this case). Many of these attitudinal findings reflect participants’ reconciliation of their own visual experiences with the experiences of others, suggesting the persuasive influence of social interactions as part of the visual literacy learning process, and its potential to alter schemas about the construction of knowledge.

What Do Shifts into Visual Literacy Look Like? While the research findings synthesized above speak to the impact of VTS on elementary school and medical students, this section offers descriptions of the behaviors that mark shifts into visual literacy and provides specific examples. Understanding of these behaviors has evolved over time, through tracking both VTS discussions and writing samples. Here is what these authors have come to look for: • Participants make more observations than when they started, and their observations become more complex and include more detail. Things seen singly come to be seen in a context. • As participants begin to make meaning from their observations, they draw more and more complex inferences. They develop the habit of providing visual evidence to back up their inferences, interpretations, and opinions. • They increase their use of conditional language to indicate awareness that what they suggest might be open to other interpretations. • While at first they might be content with a single interpretation of what they see, they come to speculate among possible meanings, often holding several as equally plausible, including those offered by peers. • After some time, they counter their own first thoughts and knowingly revise earlier impressions, often stimulated by the ideas put forth by others. • They begin to cycle back to earlier ideas to elaborate by adding detail or clarifying. • They develop a desire to know more about the makers of images and their intentions; the motivation for seeking additional information from other sources to fold into their analysis.

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Fig. 1   Winslow Homer, Snap the Whip, 1872, oil on canvas. (Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH, USA/Museum Purchase 1918/Bridgeman)

• They apply all of these thinking and language skills to a range of visual vocabularies across many media and images from diverse times and cultures. This capacity eventually transfers from art to material objects, historical documents, medical imagery, and scientific imagery including scientific imaging systems (maps, charts, diagrams). It can even extend to their understanding of other people, such as fellow students, medical patients, or colleagues. Two examples of changes in student writing illustrate some of these points on a granular level: one from a third grader, the other from a third-year medical student. The third grader’s samples show the developmental nature of visual literacy as it is facilitated by VTS experiences. They make visible how language reflects thinking about what is seen, and how thinking patterns change in response to effectively stewarded, open-ended discussions about art—in other words, how visual literacy grows (Fig. 1). On November 14, 2003, a third grader in a Miami, FL, school (Adams et al. 2007; Curva et al. 2005) wrote for a pretest, which sampled his thinking as it appeared in writing before beginning the VTS curriculum. He and his classmates were asked to look at Winslow Homer’s painting, Snap the Whip, and to write an answer to the question, “What do you think is going on in this picture?” They were also asked to include as much detail as possible and to provide evidence of their ideas. He wrote: I think that the boys are playing in a field outside a school and that there are no girls in the picture.

The student summarizes what he sees in the picture, noting “boys playing” ­(observation and inference) as well as other observations—“a field” and “outside a school”—providing no evidence. He also observes the absence of girls. He begins with “I think” perhaps responding to the phrasing of the assignment but possibly

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indicating awareness that this might be a subjective opinion. Overall, he puts forth a reasonable description of the scene depicted, albeit minimal and lacking in details. In a follow-up posttest given the same instructions and image in early May 2004 after the first year of ten VTS lessons, he wrote: I think that the boys just got out of school because I see that there is a building that looks like an old fashion school house. I also think that the boys are having recess. I think that they are playing ring around the rosies. I also think that they are at the country side because I see mountains.

Again introducing each comment by “I think,” the boy’s opening compound sentence contains a description of the central figures (“the boys”) as “out of school” argued with a detailed observation as evidence: “an old fashion school house.” He infers that the boys might be at recess, a conclusion likely based in the same logic, and he further infers that they are playing a specific game (“ring around the rosies”) though he provides no evidence to back this up. He concludes with a comment that takes in the context (“the country side”) providing evidence (“I see mountains”). This child’s dramatic shift from two basic, unsupported, observations to several inferences (three out of four backed up with evidence) documents his growing ability to infer meaning from observation and the provision of visual evidence, as well as his persistence in looking and finding more. To convey his deeper looking, he wrote a good deal more and included descriptive detail (Fig. 2). Fig. 2   Paul Mathey, Woman and Child in a Room, 1890s, oil on canvas. Musée d’Orsay, Paris. (By permission of Art Resource, NY/ Photo Eric Lessing Images)

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Another sample of his writing, written shortly before this posttest but after a discussion of the image included here with his classmates, also reveals burgeoning visual literacy, especially behaviors borne in group meaning-making experiences. I think the boy is punished because his face looks sad. I also think he got into a fight because his knees look dirty. I also think that the man at the top left of the picture is a ( maid?) and the lady is the boy’s mom because it looks like she is using a sewing machine. I also think that the boy just came in from outside because in the old days people used to play with those types of hula hoops. I think that the time of the day is afternoon because the light is very bright. I also think the wallpaper design is a tree because I see leaves.

This writing sample reflects a dramatic difference in terms of inferences made (nine), all but one argued in evidence (the “maid.”) He provides significant details including reference to the boy’s expression, time (both historical time “the old days” and time of day “afternoon”), and several aspects showing his attention to space (“at the top left,” “in from outside,” and “wallpaper design”). While the posttest shows what sticks with the student when working on his own, the postdiscussion sample shows the rich impact of peer interaction on the growth of individuals (Yenawine 2013). Can we see similar shifts in visual literacy as a result of discussions among adults? A second example, below, shows a shift in observation skills and language from pre- and post-VTS writing samples from a medical-school student highlighted in the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School study. Written in response to clinical imagery, this sample is cited by the study authors as an example of shifting away from “subjective terminology”: Pretest: “His right arm and leg are positioned normally…” Posttest: “Her right arm and leg are straight and lay flat. Her left arm is flexed at the shoulder and elbow with the hand clenched in a fist with the thumbs extended away from the fingers. The left leg is flexed at the hip and knee.

This pairing shows the students’ initial impulse to use an assumptive word (“normal”), which she then changed in favor of describing the observations that triggered associations with the word normal. These changes rendered the description lengthier (from 8 words to 45) and based specifically upon what was actually observed rather than inferred. These changes in vocabulary suggest the student gained the insight to separate observation from inference at a metacognitive level. This pattern, reflected broadly among VTS students, involves the conscientious mental work of suspending judgment. “Overcoming the inertia that inclines one to accept suggestions at their face value,” writes Dewey in How We Think (1910/1997, p. 13), “involves willingness to endure a condition of mental unrest and disturbance.” Such work is not easy (Dewey later calls it “painful,” p. 13), yet such careful management of our impulses to arrive at conclusions is not only the basis of thoughtful decision making but also essential to avoiding errors in judgment. In medicine, for example, “search satisfaction error” and “premature closure” are two types of error undergirding a significant proportion of medical misdiagnosis (Croskerry 2003); at the root of both lies the cognitive tendency to close searches too early.

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What Does Research on VTS Indicate About Visual Literacy? The same careful looking, thinking, and precise description demonstrated by expert diagnosticians are at the heart of visual literacy—and cultivated by VTS. Visually literate people have the disposition to sustain the act of observation, recognizing that taking time to look is an essential part of the inquiry process and remaining confident that such looking will reveal new information and possibilities. The studies cited above begin to describe how group experiences discussing art through VTS, in which participants engage with one another as well as the work of art, nurture the linked skills of observation, inference, speculation, elaboration, and seeking and providing specific evidence, while concomitantly developing language. The findings underscore the longitudinal nature of developing visual literacy and indicate how it is entwined with attitudes and beliefs about knowledge. As students develop visual literacy, they learn how knowledge is created, their role in creating it, the time it takes to acquire it, the role of biases in shaping it, and the sense that it is rarely fixed but instead constantly evolving. Related, they may also become comfortable with ambiguity, a capacity essential to discovery in any discipline from the arts to history and science—indeed, to grappling with the real world in general. While most schooling prepares students to expect problems to be resolved fully and speedily, the process of becoming visually literate fosters the disposition to accept ambiguity as fundamental and the capacity to address it as a basic element of inquiry—one that requires time, a commitment to questioning any material confronted, and the awareness that understanding is enriched by the perspectives of others. These capacities are markers of visual literacy as described by Debes (1968), the pioneering thinker in the visual literacy field whose definition grounds this chapter’s considerations. They fall into place as students move into Housen’s stage 2, a long stage that involves the development of multiple frameworks for figuring out why an image looks as it does, as well as probing its possible meanings. Over the course of VTS interventions, spread over time to allow for gestation, the pattern of thinking that emerges by the end of stage 2 aligns neatly with the basic capacities included in Debes’s definition of visual literacy to “discriminate and interpret” as well as “comprehend and enjoy” what one encounters in the visual environment. In addition, the process of VTS—a teaching strategy of carefully facilitated group discussions—nurtures the ability to “communicate with others.” The findings reviewed above suggest that key aspects of the VTS protocol were essential to the results: open-ended, rigorous facilitation, provocative works of art, ample gestation time, and a context of peers. Moreover, an environment in which students feel safe to cross boundaries into the experiences and perspectives of others is particularly important to attitudinal shifts. Visual literacy requires the propensity to integrate new information from different and perhaps unexpected or atypical sources, suggesting change across the thinking and sensory spectrum. As Moorman’s dissertation indicates, effective experiences in visual meaning making depend on a learning context of psychological safety and mutual respect—one that must be cultivated with deliberate pedagogical actions.

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Need for Further Study More research is needed on the impact of longitudinal VTS interventions in the development of visual literacy, on the relationships between aesthetic thinking and visual literacy, and how Housen’s research and theory on aesthetic development might be expanded and built upon, in particular, in concert with flourishing discoveries in neuroscience. One significant potential area of research concerns how VTS impacts teachers. Because facilitating VTS discussions about works of art is quite different from most pedagogical methods, and because the process of learning the facilitation method takes time, practice, and both personal and analytical reflection, its effect on transforming teacher practice may be significant. While changes in teachers as they come to understand VTS have been observed and discussed anecdotally for years by Housen, Yenawine (2013), and colleagues at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Grohe and Egan 2014), as well as some practitioners in the medical field (Hershman et al. 2016; Fleischer et al. 2014), this potential impact deserves far more systematic study. Informal reports indicate that VTS facilitation strengthens abilities to teach using authentic, open-ended problems across subject areas, enhances teachers’ abilities to listen to and understand students, provides teachers with awareness of their own communication habits, and offers them an opportunity to examine the alignment between their philosophies and practices as educators. In addition to testing these anecdotal findings, research questions might include: How does the aesthetic stage of the teacher impact the ability to teach visual literacy? How does implementing the VTS curriculum shift the attitudes and practices of teachers across subjects, and, by extension, their performance and job satisfaction? Beyond the question of teaching, proposed future research topics comprise, but are not limited to, the following: • How does the development of visual literacy affect attention and metacognition? What parts of the brain are activated during VTS discussions, and what does this tell us about cognition and the impact of discussions of art on the development of visual literacy? • What is the impact of VTS on critical thinking, communication, and language at various ages, and with challenged students (from English language learners to those with impairments and on the autism spectrum)? • How does aesthetic stage influence the ability to construct visual communication, from drawings to graphs to films to digital media? • What is the impact of increased visual literacy on standardized test performance in K–12 education? • What gaps might be filled by using VTS to advance visual literacy within undergraduate studies? How might the methodology be implemented within intra- as well as cross-disciplinary studies with a variety of visual materials? What might be the outcomes for both faculty and students? • What impact does increased visual literacy have on diagnostic accuracy and patient satisfaction?

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• How does VTS and enhanced visual literacy impact collaboration, leadership and team roles, and problem solving within a range of settings, from schools to hospitals to professional organizations and business environments? To pursue these and other avenues of research, scholars and scientists will need to apply many additional verified measures of achievement in education, quality in health care, collaboration between individuals, and job satisfaction in the workplace. Advances in neuroscience and brain imaging open a world of opportunity to understand the mechanics of aesthetic development and visual literacy that could be used to create additional pedagogical models that nurture both. Researchers may also interrogate aesthetic development and cognition according to protocols other than those of developmental psychology or Housen. All of this research should lead to deeper understanding of VTS, as well as additional approaches to the teaching of visual literacy.

Conclusion In all of the contexts in which it is regularly practiced, VTS discussions of art play several important roles essential to understanding, developing, and valuing visual literacy. First, by enhancing participants’ aesthetic thought, and thereby deepening the range and complexity of frameworks through which they analyze what they see, VTS enables students and teachers to experience artworks as generators of ideas, not mere illustrations of concepts normally confronted through texts or other nonvisual means. Effective integration of discussions about art into traditional teaching contexts supplements, and can potentially transform, traditional knowledge bases and problem-solving techniques. Second, the VTS discussion is a rare space in which students’ personal knowledge and experience (including their memories and beliefs) are authentically activated and applied to useful advantage. They may experience, safely, some cognitive dissonance as they come into friction with other ways of knowing and being—ways posited by the work of art itself as well as the opinions and ideas of their peers. Over time, students become empowered to discover themselves and interrogate their and others’ constructions of identity and society—and propose new alternatives—through the practice of active looking. Third, VTS models what might be called participatory visual literacy, or visual experiences that are essentially social exchanges. It is important to understand ­visual literacy as interactive and in flux—as an ongoing, developing way of functioning critically within and responding to the full sensory environment with a questioning, curious mind (Crouch 2008; Dallow 2008). Humanities and digital media scholar Peter Dallow (2008) describes the visual “as being like an interface or cultural zone of social exchange…a social sphere or arena where contemporary views of reality are displayed;” he adds that “a notion of visual literacy could be the capacity to negotiate or ‘navigate’ this visual cultural zone” (p. 98). The simple yet rigorous

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structure of VTS can become a powerful compass for this zone, as students together traverse spaces of wonder, inquiry, and uncertainty—art. Fourth, VTS cultivates an inquiring, attentive mind. In How We Think, John Dewey (1910/1997) wrote, “the most important factor in the training of good mental habits consists in acquiring the attitude of suspended conclusions, and in mastering the various methods of searching for new materials to corroborate or to refute the first suggestions that occur” (p. 13). During VTS discussions, students listen and talk with equal attention, reflect on their own and others’ thinking, shift perspectives based on what others notice, gain comfort with ambiguity, learn the impact of providing visual evidence, hold multiple perspectives simultaneously, fail and recover through persistence, and realize there can be more than one plausible answer. To put it another way, the work of art changes before their very eyes and in their minds as they discuss it. The attentiveness fostered by VTS deepens and extends the meaning-making experience, as they find more and more, constructing and deconstructing an array of viewpoints as the visual is persistently mined. Barbara Stafford (2007, 2008), whose work focuses in part on “conscious vision in the construction of experience” (2007, p. 98), calls for pedagogy that can enliven the brain’s attentive functions. She argues that the 10 % of the brain’s neuroprocessing that is not automatic (or autopoietic) has the potential for what she calls “willed perception” (2007, p. 202) and should be nurtured. She describes the creation of art as an example of this kind of conscious visual activity. Of developing a similar, full sensory attentiveness through education, she writes, Seeing, not seeing as, enables knowledge to grow. Educating the remaining ten percent, then, is about showing students the deep effects of volition and effort…. By changing the way they think about their thoughts, they can change their brains as well as the world. (2008, p. 46)

VTS structures experience to cultivate tolerance of such “volition and effort,” or in Dewey’s words again, the “willingness to endure a condition of mental unrest and disturbance.” Students eventually come alive to their own thinking and become aware of their role in understanding what they encounter—indeed, potentially, of how they construct their knowledge of the world and, by extension, their construction of the world itself. By experiencing how meaning can be plumbed through extended looking, students gain comfort with, and more willingly explore, ambiguity; better understand and empathize with each other; and exist in a more attentive, present state of awareness. They learn that interactions with the world and our fellow beings require multisensory engagement and thinking across domains. Just as medical professionals who slow their process become better care providers, most of us across the working spectrum could benefit from the heightened awareness of and empathy toward other people that visual literacy affords. These qualities could become part of the values of those who govern and create social policy. Intentional teaching of visual literacy is, in these authors’ view, core to addressing the issues we face globally. Who knows how many problems such skills might help us solve?

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Appendix Abigail Housen’s stages of aesthetic development with details about stages I and II added. All quotes appearing here are taken from Aesthetic Development Interviews Housen and associates conducted over 18 years. Aesthetic Development Interviews are nondirective, stream-of-consciousness-type interviews (Housen 1983). Stage I

Accountive viewers are list makers and storytellers. Using their senses, memories, and personal associations, they make concrete observations about the work of art and weave them into a narrative. Here, judgments are based on what is known and what is liked. Emotions color their comments, as viewers seem to enter the work of art and become part of the unfolding narrative. Sampling of thoughts At stage I, accountive viewers viewers make simple, concrete observations: lines, ovals, squares…. At times, the stage I viewer makes observations and associations that appear idiosyncratic and imaginative: A giraffe’s back…a dog’s face. Likewise, the stage I viewer may incorporate people and objects into an idiosyncratic narrative: I see two ladies, holding each other. It seems to me he is going home now, and he cannot find his clothes. Judgments are based on what the viewer knows and likes: The wallpaper is beautiful. Emotions color the comments, as the stage I viewer animates the image with words and becomes part of an unfolding drama: Like he is hurt [his arms] when he was swimming or like he was mad or something the way he was holding his arms. The stage I viewer (the “storyteller”) and the image (the “story”) are one. The viewer engages in an imaginatively resourceful, autonomous aesthetic response.

Stage II

Constructive viewers set about building a framework for looking at works of art, using the most logical and accessible tools: their own perceptions, their knowledge of the natural world, and the values of their social, moral, and conventional world. If the work does not look the way it is “supposed to”—if craft, skill, technique, hard work, utility, and function are not evident, or if the subjects seem inappropriate—then this viewer judges the work to be “weird,” lacking, and of no value. The viewer’s sense of what is realistic is a standard often applied to determine value. As emotions begin to go underground, this viewer begins to distance him or herself from the work of art. Sampling of thoughts At stage II, constructive, viewers’ observations have a concrete, known reference point: And they have five fingers, just like us. Aspects of images that do not conform to expectations can be seen as “weird”: The hair on the first person is blond, and it is true, but there is no such thing as a purple face. As this viewer strives to map what she sees onto what she knows from her own conventions, values, and beliefs, her observations and associations become more linked and detailed. The viewer looks carefully and puzzles. An interest in the artist’s intentions develops: The person has chosen; instead of using circles for the background, he used lots of diamonds.

Stage III

Classifying viewers adopt the analytical and critical stance of the art historian. They want to identify the work as to place, school, style, time, and provenance. They decode the work using their library of facts and figures that they are ready and eager to expand. This viewer believes that properly categorized, the work of art’s meaning and message can be explained and rationalized.

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Stage IV

Interpretive viewers seek a personal encounter with a work of art. Exploring the canvas, letting the meaning of the work slowly unfold, they appreciate the subtleties of line and shape and color. Now, critical skills are put in the service of feelings and intuitions as these viewers let underlying meanings of the work—what it symbolizes—emerge. Each new encounter with a work of art presents a chance for new comparisons, insights, and experiences. Knowing that the work of art’s identity and value are subject to reinterpretation, these viewers see their own processes subject to chance and change.

Stage V

Re-creative viewers, having established a long history of viewing and reflecting about works of art, now “willingly suspend disbelief.” A familiar painting is like an old friend who is known intimately, yet full of surprise, deserving attention on a daily level but also existing on an elevated plane. As in all important friendships, time is a key ingredient, allowing stage V viewers to know the ecology of a work—its time, its history, its questions, its travels, and its intricacies. Drawing on their own history with one work in particular, and with viewing in general, this viewer combines personal contemplation with views that broadly encompass universal concerns. Here, memory infuses the landscape of the painting, intricately combining the personal and the universal

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Dabney Hailey  Dabney is founding principal of a consultancy dedicated to improving leadership and team and communication dynamics through art experiences. She works with commercial enterprises and nonprofit organizations, exploring the ways visual literacy, and its improvement, can realize more innovative, effective working processes. Hailey is also an independent curator, educator, and writer specializing in modern and contemporary art. She has over 15 years of experience in university art museums and has been a facilitator and trainer in the art pedagogy, visual thinking strategies (VTS), since 2001. Most recently, she was director of academic programs at the Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, where she integrated art discussions into undergraduate and graduate courses across more than 15 disciplines. Previously, Hailey was the Gruber ’66 Curator of painting, sculpture, and photographs at Wellesley College’s Davis Museum, where she reinstalled the permanent-collection galleries to better serve student audiences and curated exhibitions. Hailey has taught art history and museum studies courses at Brandeis University, Boston University’s Metropolitan College, and Northwestern University. She received her MA and reached PhD candidacy in art history at Northwestern University; her BA was earned at Hendrix College.

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Alexa Miller  Alexa is founder of Arts Practica, LLC, a medical education consultancy helping health-care providers practice art viewing to be more mindful observers. A cocreator of Harvard Medical School’s Training the Eye: Improving the Art of Physical Diagnosis, Miller is an educator, consultant, and nationally recognized expert in aligning medical training with visual art. Formerly curator of education at the Davis Museum, she has applied the VTS methodology in health care, higher education, and art museum settings for over a decade. A frequent presenter to medical and general audiences, Miller has written and contributed to research in peer-reviewed publications, and has taught undergraduate courses in education at both Brandeis University and at Wellesley College. She received her BA from Swarthmore College, her MA in studio painting from the Wimbledon School of Art, and has completed extensive training in both the teaching and training methods of VTS. Philip Yenawine  Philip is cofounder of Visual Understanding in Education (VUE), a research organization that studies ways of teaching visual literacy, thinking, and communication skills. VUE’s curriculum, VTS is in use in schools across the USA and abroad. Director of education at The Museum of Modern Art from 1983 to 1993, he also directed education programs at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art. He was founding director of the Aspen Art Museum and consulting curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) in Boston. He taught art education at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago and Massachusetts College of Art. He was the Miller visiting scholar at the University of Illinois in 1996 and awarded an honorary doctorate from the Kansas City Art Institute in 2003. He received his master’s in art education from Goddard College in 1979. He received the National Art Education Associations Award for Distinguished Service in 1993, among other honors. He is author of How to Look at Modern Art, Key Art Terms for Beginners, six children’s books about art, and most recently, Visual Thinking Strategies: Using Art to Deepen Thinking Across School Disciplines.

Visual Communication and Culture: Design Education for a Globalized World Brooke N. Scherer

Abstract  In an age of readily available technologies and rapidly expanding communication, opportunities for cross-cultural relationships and business practices have extended from the primarily wealthy and powerful to those on a more global scale. As a result of these advancements, a need for specialized knowledge in visual and media literacy has arisen; one that requires not only an understanding of why but how we communicate to societies different than our own. One major area significantly affected by this transformation is the field of graphic design, where practitioners now find themselves in the position to work with international clientele and design for global audiences. As a result, rebuilding and modernizing this practice to fit the needs of a specialized—yet pivotal—industry has become a necessity; a transformation that must begin in the classroom. This chapter aims to explain how a variety of cultural variances affect the major components of visual literacy and communication, while also providing examples of curricular content, pedagogical methods, and student projects which may be used as a basis for integrating cultural studies into graphic design education.

Introduction The late twentieth century was a time of great change. The advent of Internet connectivity and the World Wide Web drastically redefined the way humans live and communicate. A generation driven by invention and innovation, we now possess the ability to make global video calls by simply powering up our computers or smartphones. This advanced technology has also revolutionized consumerism and business practices, allowing advertising, selling, and purchasing to be done from anywhere, to anywhere, and at any time. As a result, modes of visual communication no longer focus merely on local audiences, but have advanced to those situated around an infinite global spectrum. One major area affected by this transformation is the field of graphic design, where industry professionals are now afforded opportunities to work and design for international audiences—all of whom define key B. N. Scherer () Department of Art, The University of Tampa, Tampa, FL, USA e-mail: [email protected] © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 D. M. Baylen, A. D’Alba (eds.), Essentials of Teaching and Integrating Visual and Media Literacy, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-05837-5_4

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components of visual messaging in different ways. But how do we ensure these professionals are properly equipped to meet the demands of a globally expanding industry? Throughout my tenure as a graphic design educator, I have worked diligently to create a level of cultural awareness in hopes of changing the way students communicate both personally and visually with audiences of varying backgrounds. I was first introduced to this topic in graduate school. While there, I participated in a semesterlong seminar where we discussed the differences in design aesthetics within varying global contexts. A classmate, who is originally from India, brought up the topic of white space use within visual communication: something Western designers regard as fundamental, but a practice rarely utilized within my classmate’s native country. Having previously worked for a global outdoor advertising agency (that, regardless of office location, employed mostly American designers), my interest in this subject piqued and encouraged me to inquire further. I was perplexed by the notion that Western-based designers were potentially misrepresenting their clients by thinking locally but acting globally; in other words, assuming their own design aesthetics were similarly regarded within other cultural audiences. If this was the case, how then were the actual messages being perceived? Our classmate would go on to explain that in her village, billboards posted with copious amounts of white space are quickly filled with flyers and advertisements of local business owners—not as to deface the design, but simply because they saw this as unused space free for the taking. To think, clients spend large amounts of money to advertise through this medium only to have their messages ultimately squandered due to misunderstandings of cultural design aesthetics. Our conversation was an eye-opening experience. Current design pedagogy teaches us how to visually communicate for our own societal needs, but what about culturally diverse audiences who do not share in the same backgrounds and beliefs? A tremendous gap exists in educational and professional training when it comes to cultural sensitivity and accessibility. The following sections aim to present ways in which this content can be both addressed and implemented.

Cross-Cultural Advertising: Case Studies Three specific examples support this need for education in cross-cultural visual communication. The first involves the American-based company Hertz Rent-A-Car, who made a detrimental advertising mistake due to a misunderstanding in color association within their Asian market. Upon the launch of their #1 Gold Club membership in the late 1990s, Hertz, whose corporate colors are black and gold, mailed announcements to their global customers enclosed in black envelopes displaying only addressee information on the front. While the campaign was successful in the USA, where receiving this type of piece has no immediate symbolic association, the outcomes were disastrous when presented to Japanese customers. Clearly, unbeknownst to those responsible, when a person in Japan receives a black envelope

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in the mail, it signifies a family member’s death announcement (McCarron 2003). As quoted by Ashmita Goswami, senior strategist for Razorfish, “Japanese citizens were extremely upset thinking they were receiving horrible news and instead they found a membership for Hertz’s Gold Club” (McCarron 2003, p. 21). Other global chains to come under fire in recent years include McDonald’s and Burger King. In 2005, McDonald’s ran a television campaign within the Chinese market presenting a man kneeling before a retail vendor, pleading that his expired coupon for services be honored. McDonald’s continues by explaining that customers will never have to beg for discounts at the restaurant because coupons remain valid for an entire year. Although meant only in generosity, McDonald’s quickly pulled the commercial from the air after receiving extreme backlash (China Daily 2005). As quoted by an angry consumer, “What a shame that the commercial portrayed Chinese consumers as willing to bend to such a petty interest” (China Daily 2005, para. 5). With intentions of illustrating a “mixture of influences from the southwestern United States and Mexico” (Rosenberg 2009a, para. 4), Burger King’s 2009 European “Tex-Mex” burger campaign also led to outrage. To emphasize the sandwich’s “South of the Border” taste, the advertisement illustrates a rugged, Westernized cowboy perched against a fence alongside a midget Mexican wrestler draped in his country’s flag (Rosenberg 2009b). After spotting the advertisement in Spain, Mexican Ambassador Jorge Zermeno requested the campaign be immediately pulled. Not only is the Mexican’s portrayal discriminatory and disrespectful, but the flag also carries strong symbolic importance to the country and was inappropriately displayed. As quoted by Zermeno, “This advertisement denigrates [belittles] the image of our country and uses improperly Mexico’s national flag…. Mexico has strict laws prohibiting the defamation of the flag” (Rosenberg 2009b, para. 3). There are instances, however, where cross-cultural design not only has the potential to be successful but also exemplary. In 2008, PepsiCo Inc. drastically refashioned their iconic Pepsi can within the Chinese market by changing the colors from blue to red in honor of the country’s Olympic Games participation. Although appearing to some as imitating their Coca-Cola counterpart, the new design was a major success (Chao and McKay 2007). In this specific case, PepsiCo Inc. clearly understood that, to the Chinese, the color red strongly symbolizes luck, good fortune, and celebration (Peterson and Cullen 2000). As supported by BevMark’s Mr. Pirko, “If you’re going to a party you wear the right clothes, and the right clothes in China are red” (Chao and McKay 2007, para. 23). Altering the can’s standard blue exterior in support of China’s Olympic Team was not the first time Pepsi had transformed its appearance. In 2006, they ran a similar campaign in Brazil by which the can’s color was changed to yellow and blue in support of the country’s World Cup participation (Chao and McKay 2007). As the above case studies prove, designers walk a fine line when visually communicating across cultural boundaries. The emergence of technology and ease of forming multicultural relationships have largely expanded opportunities for professionals to work on a global scale. As a result, a significant need to reevaluate methods of learning, interacting, and educating has developed; one that integrates the

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visually communicative needs of a rapidly expanding globalized world into higher education curriculum. Understanding such a pivotal demand exists, however, where does one begin when rebuilding and modernizing this practice? Ultimately, our answer lies within the classroom. What content do we teach? What questions do we encourage students to ask? What specific educational tools can be utilized when helping guide students toward appropriate assessments of both preexisting and future cross-cultural visual communication? The first part of this answer begins with the concept of cultural imperialism. Why did the Hertz, McDonald’s, and Burger King campaigns fail? The answer: A lack of educational awareness regarding audience background, and the assumption that one’s own common views and traditions are the same across all cultural lines. Cultural imperialism, therefore, defines a group or groups of people who attempt to force their practices and beliefs onto societies unlike their own (Snow 2002). In fact, according to Doctor of Communications Marieke de Mooij (2004): Many international marketing managers are convinced that their own ideas or practices represent universal wisdom and try to impose them on everybody. Most global advertising agencies and many multinational companies have Anglo-American management. Their universalism makes them focus on the similarities and ignore the differences (p. 12).

But why are these differences so easily ignored? What specific barriers commonly interfere with the transmission of proper messaging? Simply put: a lack of foundational and educational awareness. Never before have we encountered such a need to incorporate these cultural issues into higher education curriculum. For that reason, the time to regroup, refocus, and revolutionize this practice is now. The area of graphic design is a continuously evolving discipline that both adapts to and advances through modern-day visually communicative needs. The rapid increase of globalization, combined with conveniences of day-to-day cross-cultural interactions, has created an immediacy for practitioners to understand the makeup of various demographics; not only for the purpose of personal relationships but also in order to deliver intended messages in an appropriate manner. To do this—and further eliminate culturally imperialistic thinking within visual communication—we must first introduce to students the following set of questions: 1. What is your real message? What is the exact message the client is trying to communicate? Be as detailed and specific as possible. 2. Who are you talking to? Who is your audience? What is their demographic? What are their beliefs, traditions, and social attitudes? What specific audience characteristics are important? 3. What will make them look? What design components are most important within the given visual communication? Are there certain colors or symbolic elements that are important to the audience? Does imagery play a specific role? 4. Have I used their prejudices? Properly understanding the audience’s attitudes, needs, and beliefs is essential to proper visual communication. 5. Is the balance right between words and images? Does a prescribed balance already exist for the audiences to which you are communicating the message? Are the images composed correctly?

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6. Does my presentation mean what I think it does? Has the designer properly created a visual message that represents the intended audience (Morgan and Welton 1992)? Imagine what the outcomes could have been if Hertz, McDonald’s, and Burger King fully understood the implications of their visual messaging. Even an acknowledgment of the above questions prior to the release of these campaigns could have potentially prevented upset and disrespect, not to mention a loss of money. Combining these with an awareness of cultural imperialism and the pedagogical content listed in the following section, we now have the tools to begin modernizing our curriculum.

Foundational Components: An Overview I began testing these methods after arriving at The University of Tampa in 2010. Through experimentation, I have found it important that students are knowledgeable of certain foundational components—alongside the questions listed above— when creating appropriately designed visual communication. These include cultural dimensions created and defined by psychologist Dr. Geert Hofstede; environmental context and its relationship to image construction, as explored by Dr. Richard Nisbett; symbolic importance in both color and iconography; and primary differences in consumer behavior, defined by Marieke de Mooij. In conjunction with required readings, I also provide in-depth class lectures to help clarify the information studied by the students. A breakdown of these components is as follows: Cultural Component One: Dimensions  Cultural dimensions are the very first topic I cover in class when teaching a project that includes cultural sensitivity. These, I believe, are essential in laying groundwork for the remaining content. According to Hofstede (2004), culture has distinguishable characteristics—such as peer relationships, personal aspirations, and values—that make one society unique in comparison to others. He breaks these into the five major categories: 1. Power Distance—the way in which a society deals with equality and inequality. 2. Individualistic Versus Collectivistic—the role of the individual in a society versus the role of the group. 3. Femininity Versus Masculinity—whether males within a specific culture are expected to display masculine traits only, or if society allows them to display both feminine and masculine traits. 4. Uncertainty Avoidance—the way a society adapts and behaves to uncertainties of the future. 5. Long-term Versus Short-Term Orientation—the importance of an individual’s or group’s actions based on immediate versus future results (pp. 46–214). Based on research by Michael Minkov, a sixth dimension—Indulgence versus ­Restraint—was added in 2010. An indulgent society is one where individuals are free to participate in activities that provide enjoyment and happiness within their

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daily lives. A culture practicing restraint, on the other hand, restricts this freedom for the sake of adhering to rigid societal norms (The Hofstede Center n.d.a). Hofstede provides a wonderful Country Comparison Chart on his website, which assigns rankings of each dimension for various countries around the world. In addition, a breakdown of standards, beliefs, and common activities for those listed are explained in detail, helping support the country’s dimensional rankings. For those looking to create a comparison analysis, the chart also allows a selection of up to three countries at a time for cross-reference (The Hofstede Center n.d.b). Cultural Component Two: Environmental Context  With data on cultural dimensions delivered, I then transition into the research of Dr. Richard Nisbett. Dr. Nisbett’s work has shown that environmental factors greatly affect how people perceive their social context. For example, Eastern (collectivistic) cultures believe a person—or individual object if humans are not involved—is defined by their immediate surroundings; without it, this particular being could not exist. Comparatively, Western (individualistic) cultures believe that an object’s meaning is completely disconnected from its surrounding environment; the focus is the object, not the context by which it is placed (Norenzayan and Nisbett 2000). In support of this research, a study by Masuda, Mequita, Tanida, Ellsworth, Len, and Van de Veerdonk (2008) published in the article, Placing the Face in Context: Cultural Differences in the Perception of Facial Emotion, explores differences in interpreted meaning of an individual’s facial expression in relationship to the subject’s given social context. Here, American students from the University of Michigan and Japanese students from Kyoto University were shown two cartoon videos, each illustrating a centralized individual in the foreground with supporting characters expressing distinct, constantly changing emotions in the background. Results revealed that 72 % of the Japanese participants felt emotions of the centralized person were influenced by those of the supporting background characters, while 72 % of the American students reported the emotions of the centralized figures were not indicative of the emotions expressed by the background figures. In other words, “Westerners see emotions as individual feelings, whereas Japanese see them as inseparable from the feelings of the group” (Masuda et al 2008). These findings play an essential role when creating a visually communicative message. In a Western (individualistic) culture, the focal point of an image would not be directly related to its environment, where the focal point in an Eastern (collectivistic) culture could not exist or be defined without its surroundings. Cultural Component Three: Symbolism.  Providing background information regarding various symbolic connotations created through color and iconography are also important. For example, where the color red signifies warning, death, and passion in America, it represents fertility in India and good luck, celebration, and good fortune in China. Blue, in Turkey and Africa, symbolizes fertility and healing, whereas it means truth and justice in Egypt (Peterson and Cullen 2000). Understanding color associations is essential when communicating to an audience, as we saw with the failed Hertz Rent-A-Car campaign and PepsiCo’s success during the 2008 Olympics.

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Iconographic symbolism offers the same notion: We cannot expect those with specific meanings to carry across all cultural lines. For example, where most Americans perceive the anaconda to be a terrifying, deathly reptile, Africans worship these creatures, believing they are a sign of Earth and rain. For the Chinese, the anaconda symbolizes wealth (Miller et al. 2000). Cultural Component Four: Consumer Behavior.  Lastly, I find it essential to inform students the effect cultural dimensions have on purchasing behavior. For instance, where individualistic cultures focus more on purchasing items that highlight one’s status, wealth, image, or success (houses, cars, technology), collectivistic cultures are prone to make purchases focused more on the quality of life and the overall group. (Remember that in these societies, the individual does not exist outside the whole). Examples of long-term oriented purchases might be investing in real estate for future gain, as well as the extensive education of a child in order to care and provide for elderly family members. Uncertainty avoidance is another interesting dimension where behaviors in consumption emerge. Where fear of the unknown cause high uncertainty avoidance cultures to purchase whole foods and products that provide cleanliness and safety, low uncertainty avoidance cultures are actually more attracted to convenience, such as fast-food (de Mooij 2004).

The Cultural Design Components Matrix Providing information of such a detailed, extensive, and oftentimes complicated ­nature—and expecting students to make appropriately informed connections between all areas—can be a difficult task. It is with this in mind that I designed a tool to assist in both breaking down cultural elements used in preexisting visual communication, as well as for a cross-reference when creating these designs. This Cultural Design Components Matrix (Fig. 1) works by grouping Hofstede’s dimensions—located on the x-axis—with the remaining foundational components previously discussed on the y-axis. In order to understand how this matrix works, I reference a multicultural design campaign for Verizon, designed by the New York/Los Angeles-based firm ­AdAsia (Figs. 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6). The following advertisements ran in the USA between the years 2003 and 2005, but were each geared to five distinct cultural audiences: Americans, Korean-Americans (in both New York City and Los Angeles), ­Japanese-Americans (Hawaii), Filipino-Americans (Hawaii), and Chinese-Americans (Chinatown, New York City). The cultural components of each design are then charted on to the matrix in order to flush out compositional elements (Figs. 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11). Immediately apparent is the distinguishable difference of the matrix for the American advertisement, where all plotted points exist to the left of the y-axis. The design’s message reveals a single, confident, centralized businessman announcing his achieved success through the use of Verizon Wireless’s Iobi products. Placing focus on the “i” (“I”), Verizon primarily supports Hofstede’s individualistic (“I”),

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Fig. 1   Cultural design components matrix. (cultural design components matrix Legend: ( x-axis) IND individualistic, COL collectivistic, MAS   masculine, FEM  feminine, LPD low power distance, HPD high power distance, WUA weak uncertainty avoidance, SUA   strong uncertainty avoidance, STO short-term orientation, LTO long-term orientation, SYM symbolism, x SYM no symbolism; ( y-axis) DIM dimension, EC environmental context, IC image construction (cultural dimension), CB consumer behavior, CLR color, SYM symbol)

masculine (male success), short-term orientation (immediate gain) dimensions, which also affect other components such as image construction and consumer behavior. The other four examples, however, generate plotted points that cross over to the right side of the matrix, integrating the collectivistic and long-term orientation components in all. The Korean-American example also represents the femininity dimension by illustrating both male and female working together in an educational role. Importantly, where the four Eastern audience-based advertisements show similarities in cultural background, it should not be assumed that each would own identical values just because of their native country’s proximity to the next. Nevertheless, what makes the Eastern advertisements substantially different is the idea of collectivism and environmental context, which is a striking contrast in comparison to the American advertisement.

Cultural Integration Project: Piecing Together Components After the bulk of this information has been delivered through readings, lectures, and discussions, students are then required to put knowledge into practice. To date, I have constructed the design portion of this project through two specific methods: 1. Poster Design and Full-Class Presentation (Individual or Group): Students are responsible for creating a set of posters that illustrate important traditions and

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Fig. 2   AdAsia Verizon Wireless advertisement: American demographic

characteristics—including cultural components—of an assigned culture. Students then present their findings to the class. No two students or groups may choose the same demographic. In theory, this should allow students a broader range of cultural knowledge. 2. Local Company Goes Global: Students are placed in groups and required to create global campaigns for American companies who have yet to venture their business overseas. Students are not only required to research the culture in which the company would be advertising but also companies of similar retail or

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Fig. 3   AdAsia Verizon Wireless advertisement: KoreanAmerican demographic

o­ perations within the foreign market to help assess components used in preexisting design communication. As in the poster project, students present their findings in a formal presentation. I have found each method to produce its own challenges and successes. Regardless of which technique I use, however, background research and design processes are identical. In the first stage of the project, students are placed in groups and provided an audience list from which to choose. So that I do not overwhelm them too greatly, I generally include major countries such as China, Korea, Japan, India, and Mexico. Having said that, groups in the past have also decided to work with Irish, Italian, and Russian audiences. After demographics have been chosen, students are then given time to compile research, gathering and presenting their findings in one large document that includes: a. In-depth background studies on the chosen country’s culture in accordance to the primary foundational background learned in lectures, readings, and discussion.

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Fig. 4   AdAsia Verizon Wireless advertisement: FilipinoAmerican demographic

b. Interviews with cultural natives that help the student further understand the makeup of their intended audience (these interviewees are also asked to critique student designs once in digital rough draft form). c. A selection of preexisting visually communicative examples from the chosen country, which include corresponding matrices that break down dimension, image construction, color usage, and symbolic content. This design document acts as the primary framework for all visual elements students intend to use within their visual messaging. I have found without it—or when students do not put adequate time and effort into this step—end results can be both disastrous and embarrassing. In order to encourage full engagement in the research of cultural material, I designate a substantial portion of the project grade to this specific component. From here, students transition to the design portion of the project. An essential step in this stage, however, is requiring students to continually cross-check their work with completed cultural design components matrices to ensure they are using appropriate cultural foundations within their visual messaging. During the design process, I spend each class period meeting with all groups, talking with them

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Fig. 5   AdAsia Verizon Wireless advertisement: JapaneseAmerican demographic

about both their compositions and current matrices to ensure they keep on track. Interestingly, I have found that students have a tendency to overuse the matrix—an occurrence that I believe is a result of both unfamiliarity and simply being unsure of the appropriate answers—which can lead to confusion and misrepresentation of cultural elements within their designs. Helping guide students to more refined solutions provides for better accuracy and end results. At project end, each group is required to explain their findings and reveal the corresponding designs through a detailed, professional presentation. When possible, I bring in outside guests to critique work on the basis of information the students provide. If someone unbiased to the content is unable to understand the message put forth, I use this opportunity as a learning tool: How will one break clients of cultural imperialism if they are not able to successfully present this topic, its importance, and strong corresponding visual design work within a class setting? Pedagogically speaking, my ultimate goal for this project is that students gain the following tools through this experience:

Visual Communication and Culture: Design Education for a Globalized World Fig. 6   AdAsia Verizon Wireless advertisement: ChineseAmerican demographic. Note: Design consists of a red and gold color palette

Fig. 7   Verizon Wireless corresponding matrix: American demographic

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Fig. 8   Verizon Wireless corresponding matrix: Korean-American demographic

Fig. 9   Verizon Wireless corresponding matrix: Filipino-American demographic

a. An awareness of multiple cultures and the components that specifically make up their societal traditions, beliefs, and common actions. b. The effect a demographics’ social makeup has on the creation of visual communication. c. The idea that their own individual ways of thinking does not represent those of the rest of the world. d. The ability to present this information in a clear, convincing, and informative manner.

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Fig. 10   Verizon Wireless corresponding matrix: Japanese-American demographic

Fig. 11   Verizon Wireless corresponding matrix: Chinese-American demographic

Outcomes One of the most successful outcomes to result from this project was created by Muriel Lizárraga and Stephanie Cwalina. Lizárraga and Cwalina selected Mexico as their base demographic and chose to design posters that celebrated three of the country’s traditional festivals: Día De Muertos (Day of the Dead), Carnaval, and Equinoccio de Primavera (the spring equinox). Aside from the fact that these two students worked exceptionally well as a team, their research and process was extensively detailed. The only group in the class to have less than three people, Lizárraga and Cwalina spent a copious amount of time researching their audience in order to understand

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as much as possible about the demographic’s traditions, beliefs, and defining symbolism. Their process documents show in-depth annotation within each piece of research presented, which was important in understanding the culture’s most essential foundational elements. Lizárraga and Cwalina also spent a great deal of time working with matrices in both preexisting visual communication and their own work. Through identifying specific cultural dimensions, such as collectivism, low power distance, and weak uncertainty avoidance; acquiring an understanding of significant symbolic and color associations; recognizing Mexico’s affinity for an expressive illustrative style, including typeface design; and discovering their importance in cultural history and heritage, Lizárraga and Cwalina successfully presented a set of posters which thoroughly illustrate specific elements that define their intended audience (Figs. 12, 13 and 14). To further explain the methodology behind these designs, Lizárraga and Cwalina (2012) wrote that: Symbolism exists in the color here [Carnaval poster]. The predominance of red and orange are to symbolize the festivity. Consumer behavior is short-term oriented, because the poster is advertising an event that takes place at a specific time. There is a weak uncertainty avoidance, because the event creates a care-free, anything goes environment and is celebrated collectively, making the collectivism of the poster very important…. [Día De Muertos poster] Symbolism is used in the skull, which represents death. The festive, fearless portrayal of death gives the poster a weak uncertainty avoidance. The subject of death makes the poster more long-term oriented…. [Equinoccio de Primavera poster] This poster contains a lot of color symbolism. The colors in the sky represent a rainbow, and the white of the hands represent bringing energy to the pyramids…. This festivity is considered spiritual and sacred; it is something that people celebrate together, making it collectivistic, and also giving it a low power-distance. Which is why we added in multiple hands (pp. 126–131).

I would have preferred the students explore the usage of imagery within at least one of their posters, but the usage of illustration helped bring the set together as a whole. Additionally, while their final matrices (Figs. 15, 16 and 17) are fairly intensive, they each take into account many prime cultural components that largely contribute to appropriate visual communication for a Mexican audience. Although the time frame for this project was limited to a third of a semester, I believe Lizárraga and Cwalina’s final outcome was extremely successful. The attention to detail in their research component, along with the corresponding class presentation, was exemplary. Whenever I teach this project, I always reference their material. It is clear that these students excelled beyond my expectations, especially considering it was the first time they had created a project of such a complicated nature.

Conclusion It goes without saying that teaching this particular subject is not an easy task to accomplish, especially in the format of a one-project per-semester basis like minimal time has allowed me to do. It took me 2 years to write a thesis covering the content of which I now try to fit within one short student project. In recognizing the immediate demand of developing cultural awareness within students, however, it

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Fig. 12   Lizárraga and Cwalina, cultural integration poster: Día De Muertos

is my belief that a small amount of education on the topic is absolutely better than none. In the future, I would like to explore these types of projects on a larger scale. Ideas include working on long-distance collaborations where students can gain a more hands-on approach by working side by side with peers from another culture, as well as requiring students to redesign preexisting campaigns for stronger message relay (for example, explore the unsuccessful advertisements of Burger King or McDonald’s and work to create more appropriate visual messaging). Additionally, I would like to integrate a full semester seminar class that focuses primarily on the foundations of cultural studies. This course would then act as a prerequisite to all foundational and upper-level graphic design classes so that I may include culturally related projects on a more frequent basis.

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Fig. 13   Lizárraga and Cwalina, cultural integration poster: Carnaval

Fig. 14   Lizárraga and Cwalina, cultural integration poster: Equinoccio de Primavera

Fig. 15   Lizárraga and Cwalina, cultural integration posters corresponding matrix: Día De Muertos

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Fig. 16   Lizárraga and Cwalina, cultural integration posters corresponding matrix: Carnaval

Fig. 17   Lizárraga and Cwalina, cultural integration posters corresponding matrix: Equinoccio de Primavera

The design of visual communication for worldwide audiences centralizes around the concept that culture largely influences the way a message is received and understood. It cannot be assumed that factors which define one society are the same—or even relatable—to others. In a vast technological age where media and visual literacy are essential tools in communication, understanding how to both deconstruct and adequately understand image content must become an integral component of discourse, pedagogy, and practice—not just in graphic design but for many disciplines across the educational spectrum. It now lies upon us to embrace these changes and work together in order to deliver more comprehensive-minded visual communicators in this rapidly expanding, globalized world.

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References Chao, L., & McKay, B. (2007, September 12). Pepsi steps into Coke realm: Red, China. The Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB118953841749624079. Accessed 4 Dec 2009 China Daily. (2005, June 23). McDonald’s ad banned due to insulting plot. China Daily. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-06/23/content_453733.htm. Accessed 4 Dec 2009 De Mooij, M. (2004). Consumer behavior and culture: Consequences for global marketing and advertising. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc. Hofstede, G., & Hofstede, G. J. (2004). Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind. Columbus, OH: MacGraw-Hill. Lizárraga, M. & Cwalina, S. (2012). Design and Process Notebook. Cultural Integration Posters Project: Mexico. Art 306: Graphic Design II. Tampa: The University of Tampa. Masuda, T., Ellsworth, P. C., Mesquita, B., Leu, J., Tanida, S., & Van de Veerdonk, E. (2008). Placing the face in context: Cultural differences in the perception of facial emotion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94(3), 365–381. McCarron, C. (2003). Expanding our field of vision: Globalization and the changing landscape of visual communications. Communication Arts, 45(1), 16–23. Miller, A. R., Brown, J. M., & Cullen, C. D. (2000). Global graphics: Symbols: Designing with symbols for an international market. Gloucester: Rockport Publishers. Morgan, J. & Welton, P. (1992). See what I mean: An introduction to visual communication (2nd ed)? New York: Bloomsbury USA. Norenzayan, A., & Nisbett, R. E. (2000). Culture and causal cognition. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 9(4), 132–135. Peterson, L. K., & Cullen, C. D. (2000). Global graphics: Color: Designing with color for an international market. Gloucester: Rockport Publishers. Rosenberg, M. (2009a, April 14). Burger King ad angers ambassador. Reuters. http://www.reuters. com/article/2009/04/14/us-burgerking-idUSTRE53D48A20090414. Accessed 2 Apr 2013 Rosenberg, M. (2009b, April 14). Burger King to scrap ad after complaint by Mexico. Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/04/14/mexico-burgerking-idUSN1444925920090414. Accessed 10 May 2014 Snow, N. (2002). Propaganda, Inc.: Selling America’s culture to the world (2nd ed.). New York: Seven Stories Press. The Hofstede Center. (n.d.a). Indulgence versus Restraint. http://geert-ofstede.com/dimensions. html. Accessed 10 May 2014 The Hofstede Center. (n.d.b). Country comparison chart. http://geert-hofstede.com/countries. html. Accessed 10 May 2014

Brooke N. Scherer  received her Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in graphic design from Iowa State University in 2010. As assistant professor of graphic design at the University of Tampa, Brooke teaches courses in graphic design foundations and application, typography, the history of graphic design, and sustainable design. Her most current academic achievement includes the complete redesign of the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design program for The University of Tampa. Brooke’s research background primarily focuses on culture and visual communication, sustainable design, and technology/social media integration in the design classroom. She has presented papers and conducted workshops at notable industry venues such as American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), University and College Designers Association (UCDA), and Southeastern College Arts Conference (SECAC). Brooke’s professional and student work can be found on her website at www.brookescherer.com.

Part II

Integrating

Cameras in Classrooms: Photography’s Pedagogical Potential Jeff Share

Abstract  This chapter looks at the unique qualities of photography that makes it an ideal tool to use in classrooms for teaching all different subject matter as well as an important device to teach about. Having years of experience as a photojournalist and as an educator, the author explores theoretical underpinnings of photography as well as practical applications for teaching. Today, the camera has become a powerful pedagogical tool because of its ubiquity in society, low price, ease of use, and democratic potential. What had for years been too expensive or difficult to utilize in the classroom, is now an invaluable teaching aid that educators should integrate throughout their curricula and encourage students to analyze and use. Photographs have become so common these days that neither adults nor children are accustomed to questioning the construction or bias of the pictures that surround them. When using a critical media literacy framework, teachers and students can support democratic pedagogy by using photography to co-construct knowledge and create alternative representations of their world.

Introduction: The Power of Photography Working as a professional photojournalist years ago, I had many opportunities to experience the power and limitations of photography. On occasion, my photographs contributed to positive change, educated some people about problems, and caused others to feel joy, pain, compassion, and outrage. There is a power that the photographic image conveys that no other medium can do in the same way. French photographer Gisele Freund (1980) asserts, “The importance of photography does not rest primarily in its art form, but rather in its ability to shape our ideas, to influence our behavior, and to define our society” (p. 5). Since Joseph Nicéphore Niépce’s first photographic image taken in 1826, the medium of photography has been influencing society. In her renowned book On Photography, Susan Sontag (1990) states, “To photograph is to confer importance” (p. 28). J. Share () Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA e-mail: [email protected] © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 D. M. Baylen, A. D’Alba (eds.), Essentials of Teaching and Integrating Visual and Media Literacy, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-05837-5_5

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In comparison with other forms of representation, such as hieroglyphics, paintings, and even printed text, photography is relatively new. However, the photographic image has been a major influence on the world in ways few previous representations were able to do (Goldberg 1991; Lacayo & Russell 1990; Monk 1989). Photographs by Lewis Hines of children toiling in factories contributed to the first child labor laws in the USA. Pictures of US soldiers abusing detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq led to congressional hearings, military court-martials, and outrage around the world. Even my own photos of peace marchers walking across the USA for global nuclear disarmament were helpful to convince media outfits to report on the 9-month-long protest—something several editors had previously told me they were not interested in covering (Elliman 1986). Photographs have contributed to the starting and ending of wars, to sending people to jail, inspiring political dissent, and even like Cupid’s arrows, rousing people to fall in love. The photograph is said to be worth a thousand words because it transports us vicariously to experience a frozen moment in time; it permits us to see and feel the world beyond our touch and allows us to express our innermost feelings without speaking a single word. “Photographs have a swifter and more succinct impact than words, an impact that is instantaneous, visceral, and intense. They share the power of images in general, which have always played havoc with the human mind and heart, and they have the added force of evident accuracy,” writes Goldberg (1991, p. 7). This assumption of accuracy combines with positivist notions about a single objective reality that leads many to consider photographs to be indisputable proof; they are permitted as evidence in a court of law and used by scientists to record data. Barthes (1981) states, “From a phenomenological viewpoint, in the Photograph, the power of authentication exceeds the power of representation” (p. 89). For people around the world, the photograph is a document that conveys truth and preserves history. While photography can be an important instrument to record reality and document our present and past, it is also a device that can mislead and be misused. By as early as the 1850s, Louis Agassiz and other eugenicists were using photography to justify their theories about the racial inferiority of non-Europeans. Banta and Hinsley (1986) report that in the 1930s, similar racist ideas were promoted by Harvard University anthropologist Earnest A. Hooton, who claimed that his photographs of human skulls “furnished the ultimate proof of the validity of our morphological types” (p. 65). These days, the vast number of photographs in mainstream media that glamorize whiteness and marginalize people of color continue the legacy of racial misrepresentation. The rampant use of Photoshop and digital manipulation on practically all advertising and magazine covers contributes to the popular ideals of beauty as Eurocentric, artificially skinny, and unattainable (Jhally 2010). Sontag (1990) asserts, “Although there is a sense in which the camera does indeed capture reality, not just interpret it, photographs are as much an interpretation of the world as paintings and drawings are” (pp. 6–7). Photographs, no matter how realistic they look, are always a subjective representation, shaped by the photographer’s choices of who and what to photograph, as well as the context of how, when, where, and why to take the picture (Cappello & Hollingsworth 2008; Share 2003).

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The content that ends up inside the frame of any photograph is never neutral because it has been chosen and constructed by a subjective human being. While photography often seems to be objective and is given great storytelling authority, it is still just a human tool subject to all the limitations and frailties of any other gizmo. It is this power of credibility that is given to photography that makes the camera an especially important tool to use and critique.

Everyone Today Is a Photographer For many years, this amazing tool has been primarily in the hands of photojournalists, visual artists, and photobuffs; yet now, with the popularity of tiny cameras embedded in computers, tablets, and cell phones, it seems that everyone is a photographer. New web 2.0 applications and smaller–faster hardware are making photography so common that millions of people are creating, sharing, and viewing photographs daily. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Imgur, Flickr, and Pinterest are popular social media that capitalize on photography’s powers and the technological ease of sharing images globally. According to a survey of adult Internet users by the Pew Research Center’s Internet Project, “Photos and videos have become an integral part of the online social experience…more than half of internet users post or share photos or videos online” (Duggan 2013). A Pew survey of teenagers, 12–17, found 78 % of teens have cell phones, and about half of those are smartphones (Madden et al. 2013). One survey of youth in Massachusetts reports the percentages of students with cell phones as: 18–20 % of third graders, 25–26 % of fourth graders, 39 % of fifth graders, and 83–84 % of middle schoolers (Englander 2011, p. 3). The popularity of taking and sharing photographs has also spawned new words, such as snaparazzi, snapaholic, screenshot, photoshop, webcam, livecam, photobombing, and selfie. The handheld self-portrait known as a “selfie” has become so popular that even the Pope has a selfie posted online (Alexander 2013) and comedian Ellen DeGeneres broke records for the most retweeted selfie at the 2014 Oscars (Gerick 2014). Today, almost everyone and every place has a camera, so we are all being photographed numerous times throughout the day by security cams, traffic enforcement cameras, satellites, and people we never suspect. Photography is no longer just an expensive hobby or profession requiring costly cameras, lenses, film, developing, and printing. The camera is not just the instrument of experts; it is now one of the most popular tools and toys of millions. Today’s educators can benefit from digital cameras that cost less than a trip to the movies or cell phones with cameras that most students walk into the classroom with and are often forbidden to use. Once you have a digital camera, everything else is basically free; you can take as many pictures as you want. For educators, this makes photography an option for the classroom that even most financially strapped schools can afford. The costs are no longer prohibitive and the level of complexity has been simplified, making most cameras very user-friendly. In the not-so-distant past, photographers needed specialized skills to read a light meter, factor the sensitivity of the film, change aperture settings, adjust shutter speeds, and maintain

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reciprocity. They also needed to understand depth of field and be able to focus the lens with the speed and accuracy to assure that their images would look clear while also framing and composing the foreground and background. And once they did all this, they then had to choose the decisive moment (Cartier-Bresson 1952) for when to push the button and take the picture that they would not be able to see until after the film was developed and the negatives or slides were printed. What a change— now even our cell phones can adjust for the lighting, focus for clarity, capture the image, and show us the results in seconds. However, since the technical skills for taking a picture are no longer needed, that does not mean that people do not need to understand the visual literacy skills for critically reading and creating images. Part of the requirement for being literate in the twenty-first century is being able to read and write images, sounds, multimedia, and numerous other “multiliteracies” (New London Group 1996). It is the unique power of photography and the new ease of use, low cost, and accessibility that has made the camera a practical tool for education to teach with and about. Wendy Ewald has been working for years with children and cameras, and argues about the potential of connecting art with education through photography. Ewald (2012) explains that “certain formal elements of photography such as framing, point of view, timing, the use of symbols, and observation of details… have parallels in writing” (p. 2). Since the 1960s, Eliot Wigginton and the folks at Foxfire have been taking cameras outside the classroom to document their Appalachian community and create their own publications that became New York Times best sellers (Wigginton 1991). Cameras in journalism or photography classes are not new, but cameras in elementary schools and secondary school science, math, history, English as a second language (ESL), and English classrooms are far more rare. As the technology changes and more students enter the classroom with cell phones that can record still and moving images, schools have new opportunities to integrate photography into instruction as never before (Kolb 2008; Schiller & Tillett 2004; Cappello 2011). These new opportunities also require educators to embrace different ways of teaching, making learning more student-centered, project-based, collaborative, multimodal, and critical. Cappello and Hollingsworth (2008) state, “photography is best used where there is an understanding that reality is perceived or constructed” (p. 444). When educators integrate media education with photography, they gain a framework to help their students think critically about the camera.

Critical Media Literacy Media education has evolved from cultural studies and is defined less as a specific body of knowledge or set of skills, and more as a framework of conceptual understandings (Buckingham 2003). While many media literacy organizations have their own list of essential ideas (Canada’s Ontario Ministry of Education’s (2009) Eight Key Concepts, British Film Institute’s Signpost Questions, Center for Media Literacy’s Five Core Concepts and Key Questions, National Association for Media Literacy Education’s (2014) Six Core Principles, and the Action Coalition for

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Media Education’s (2015) Seven Basic Principles/Questions), most share a handful of basic commonalities: 1. Recognition of the construction of media and communication as a social process as opposed to accepting texts as isolated neutral or transparent conveyors of information. 2. Some type of textual analysis that explores the languages, genres, codes, and conventions of the text. 3. An exploration of the role audiences play in negotiating meanings. 4. Problematizing the process of representation to uncover and engage issues of ideology, power, and pleasure. 5. Examination of the production and institutions that motivate and structure the media industries as corporate profit-seeking businesses (Kellner and Share 2007). These elements of media education can provide a useful theoretical framework to support teachers as they guide their students to analyze and create media. In the Teacher Education Program at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), we use a critical media literacy pedagogy that includes these five conceptual understandings along with feminist theory and critical pedagogy in order to critically analyze relationships between media and audiences, information and power (Garcia et al. 2013). We use the list of five core concepts and key questions assembled by the Center for Media Literacy because they simplify these abstract ideas into accessible language for teachers to use in the classroom. While it is important for teachers to understand the concepts, most students only need to learn the questions because the questions, with teacher guidance, should lead students on a path of inquiry where they will experience the concept: 1. All media messages are “constructed.” Who created this message? 2. Media messages are constructed using a creative language with its own rules. What creative techniques are used to attract my attention? 3. Different people experience the same media message differently. How might different people understand this message differently from me? 4. Media have embedded values and points of view. What lifestyles, values, and points of view are represented in, or omitted from, this message? 5. Most media are organized to gain profit and/or power. Why is this message being sent? (Center for Media Literacy 2015). These concepts should guide educators and the questions support students as they critically engage with media, technology, and popular culture. This is a theoretical frame that teachers at Leo Politi Elementary School in Los Angeles used for Project SMARTArt, a 3-year federal grant integrating arts education with media literacy (Quesada 2005; Share 2009). When this framework is combined with photography, much potential for learning can emerge, even with the very young. Schiller and Tillett (2004) report on their experience using cameras with kindergartners: Digital photography provided young children with the opportunity to present their views “about things that matter” in a medium taken seriously by adults and older children, as demonstrated by positive responses from older students at the school and the enthusiastic comments from the Kindergarten parents about the “professional” look of the children’s photographs. (p. 413)

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Elementary School For 7 years, I taught in an elementary school classroom and used digital cameras with my students to document, investigate, and express their ideas. The camera was a magical instrument that motivated and educated in ways I had not seen before. My fourth graders and kindergartners were transformed from passive recipients of information into active photographers and/or subjects of their own pictures, coconstructing knowledge and representing their ideas. My English language learners (ELLs) created their own flash cards by photographing each other in action to learn adjectives (synonyms and antonyms), irregular verbs, and prepositions. These students can be challenged by the many aspects of English that they need to learn explicitly, aspects that native speakers acquire from hearing and using English repeatedly all around them (Krashen 1992). Not continually surrounded by English, ELLs face considerable difficulty learning irregular verbs, nominalizations, prepositions, and the vast number of new adjectives and adverbs (Gibbons 2009). It can be overwhelming to learn a second language while simultaneously trying to learn the content of different subject matter. Writing from over 30 years of experience teaching elementary school, Pat Barrett Dragan (2008) explains that for ELLs, photography “gives them a feeling of power and control over a piece of equipment, and that helps compensate for the lack of control they may feel over not yet speaking English. Photography gives my ELLs an additional language—another way for them to convey who they are and show what they know” (p. 41). Britsch (2010) reports that while there is little research available on using photography with young ELLs, it is important to recognize that “Language does not develop as an isolated mode of communication. Its relationship with visual imagery is primal” (p. 171). It was with my ELLs that I began to recognize the pedagogical power of photography. My students used cameras to document their learning and record our fieldtrips. However, it was not until they started to use the camera to construct meanings of the words and ideas they were learning, that I saw the incredible potential that photography offered for so many other academic goals. In my fourth-grade classroom in Pico Union, a largely Central American community in downtown Los Angeles, we began by illustrating our vocabulary words. First, I had students take pictures that showed words they encountered in their textbooks. The activity began with a class discussion about the meaning of the word and the different ways we could show it in a single image. The student photographer had to tell her/his classmates where and how to pose in order for the picture to communicate the intended meaning of the word. We analyzed photographs from newspapers and magazines and brainstormed a list of techniques that photographers use to convey feelings and ideas, such as camera angles, composition, and lighting. After a couple weeks, the students were so enthusiastic about taking pictures that they began bringing their own words into the classroom. This sparked an activity in which whoever brought in a new word would get to choose to take the picture illustrating that word or be in the picture. Because of the enthusiasm, we spent 5–10 min every morning illustrating vocabulary words and generating a massive collection of new

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Fig. 1   This pocket-sized booklet of adjectives and synonyms is illustrated with photographs of and by fourthgrade students acting out their vocabulary words

words. I imported the digital images into a PowerPoint file that became a synonym/ antonym flash card game. Students wrote sentences or stories to accompany their photographs and then printed PowerPoint handouts that we folded into pocket-sized books for each student. Some of the PowerPoint handouts were printed on colored paper, laminated, and cut up into popular trading cards. These personalized vocabulary cards and booklets were a huge hit with students and their families, as well as powerful student-made teaching materials to increase their vocabulary and literacy skills (Fig. 1). My kindergarten ELLs were struggling with English prepositions, so as a whole class, we collaboratively took pictures to illustrate words such as: in, on, under, over, next to, etc. For each picture, we discussed how to best show the meaning of the word. One student would use the camera and all the other students would help her/him compose the picture to best communicate the word they were learning. Once we had the image, we would gather around a computer and through a guided writing activity, the whole class contributed to writing sentences about the word and photograph. As the students saw themselves in the pictures and wrestled with how to frame and show the word visually, the learning was meaningful and intrinsic. Even the students who were struggling with phonics were able to read these words because they had been actively involved in co-constructing the meanings of each word. The learning was amazing, test scores increased, students were using much more vocabulary words than previously, and they were becoming not only print literate but also media literate (Share 2009). Jennifer Pineda (2014), a first year teacher working in an inner-city classroom documented the benefits she encountered using photography to improve her first graders’ writing. Before introducing photography to her class, her students were struggling with writing, finding it difficult and boring. When she told them that they would be taking pictures, Pineda states, “Cheers filled the room!” Pineda let her students use an iPad to take pictures of anything they wanted. She explains that

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the students did not need any help taking pictures and they loved the process. Their photographs became the motivation for their writing and each student wrote stories based on the photographs they took or brought in from home. Pineda encouraged her students to work together to take pictures, discuss their photos, and then write about them. By orienting students to each other, the children were able to help each other take the pictures and talk through their writing. Pineda reports, “My students were gaining a clearer understanding of how to show a story with their writing versus simply telling.” An unexpected outcome was the discovery that the photography process was also building community. Pineda writes, “Students would explain to one another why they needed to take pictures with each other and this always connected to how great their friendships were.” The best writing emerging from Pineda’s students came from those who were writing about family photographs they brought from home. Pineda explains, “It was these students who were writing the most detailed stories. It seemed as though these students had strong connections with the pictures they were using because they had a vivid memory of the experiences they had in the moment the picture was taken.” This was a powerful way to motivate the writing process and also validate students’ funds of knowledge as they took pride in sharing about their lives beyond the classroom (Moll 1998). Taking pictures involved more than just making writing fun and motivating. Pineda states, “The process of using pictures that they took on their own made the story behind every picture important. They were truly engaged in their writing because every picture they took and used for their writing held a different experience in it.” In other elementary classrooms in which teachers gave cameras to students to use as part of the writing process, Cappello and Hollingsworth (2008) found “the photographs were both process and product. Photographs and the photo-graphic process provided the stimulus for writing, extended the meaning of the original texts (drafts), and encouraged complex thinking” (p. 448). These authors suggest that “[t]ransmediation, the process of interpreting meaning from one sign system to another is central to understanding the possibilities of photography in classrooms” (p. 444). When students move between different communication systems, be they oral language, print literacy, or visual imagery, they must invent connections between the different sign systems, something that enlarges and expands the meaning. The photographs did not replace print literacy—they enhanced the multiple literacy processes. Pineda asserts, “The most beneficial part of this process was seeing how students’ confidence grew and how their interest in a subject changed in such a short period of time.” Similar conclusions were reached by researchers who gave kindergarten and first-grade students access to a camera to create photo journals. In a ­student-centered approach to technology integration, Ching, Wang, Shih, and Kedem (2006) had students take turns using a digital camera in their classroom to photograph anything they wanted. The researchers noted that while technology in classrooms is mostly used by teachers, when the students are given a camera, this can change the classroom dynamics and increase student access and empowerment. Ching et al. (2006) report that when students became photographers, “they had more

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leeway to deviate from their normal activities to roam around the learning environment and document various aspects of it” (p. 359). They explain: The students were able to appropriate digital photography and use it as a means to shift from their usual roles as restricted participants in worlds where others make the rules (Carere 1987), and engage in sophisticated negotiations with their fellow students as photographic subjects and within the norms of classroom behavior. (p. 366)

Teacher Education Now, as I teach the critical media literacy class in the teacher education program at the University of California, Los Angeles, I help student teachers recognize the pedagogical power of photography for them to use with their K–12 students in urban schools. Our preservice teachers use cameras to explore their communities, to find mathematics and science in the real world around them, to reflect on their personal identities, to express their feelings and thoughts, to create visual representations of vocabulary words, to tell stories, to convince others about issues, to challenge dominant ideologies, to play games, and to make art. We explore different ways they can use digital cameras with their K–12 students and many of them implement the ideas right away. In the critical media literacy class, the first activity students do with photography is to create a visual poster about a peer. For this assignment, students have to visually represent their partner without ever showing the person’s face or name. They interview their colleague for just 5 min and then create a poster about her/him using any visual imagery they choose, photographs (of anything but the person’s face), drawings, logos, etc. This is our first opportunity to begin the conversation about visual communication and what it feels like to be represented visually as well as how it feels to represent somebody else only with images. For some, this is challenging, as they try to visually generalize qualities of their subject while also trying to avoid stereotypes. This leads to discussions about media literacy core concept #4 ( media have embedded values and points of view) and the ways images in media often stereotype groups of people. While we explore many aspects of visual literacy, we concentrate significantly on photography and its unique qualities. We discuss ideas about why the camera has the power to send a person to jail, something that drawings or other visual representations rarely can do since they are seldom allowed into a court of law as evidence. Why do people give photographs such power and believe almost anything they see? Is it the fact that photographs are created using machinery and science? Is it simply that a photograph looks so real that common sense convinces us to believe what we see? Whatever the reason, photographs have taken an authoritative, seldom questioned, role in society. We explore how this power has been used for positive and negative purposes this past century as photographs have influenced laws, changed public discourse, and even contributed to saving lives (Goldberg 1991). Understanding this theoretical base helps educators and students recognize the potential photographs have to influence us and affect others. As students become more

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c­ ritical readers of images and better creators of photographs, the potential increases for them to use the camera as a tool to read and write their world (Freire & Macedo 1987).

Techniques of Photography Students can address media literacy core concept #2 ( media messages are ­constructed using a creative language with its own rules) as they build a list of techniques of photography through comparing different photographs of the same person. They analyze two cover photographs of Arnold Schwarzenegger and name the adjectives they feel when they look at the pictures (Fig. 2). This lesson can be found in a booklet of 25 lesson plans that was written for the Center for Media Literacy, lessons 2A and 2B on basic visual language (Share et al. 2005). After the students list their various adjectives for each picture, we discuss why they chose different words to describe how they feel about the same person. This leads us to talk about how the photographs were constructed differently, connecting with the first core concept of media literacy ( all media messages are constructed). The students then generate a list of “techniques of photography” that derives from their prior knowledge, with minor guidance from the instructor. The students co-construct their knowledge through working together to solve a problem. Their task is to name all the things they see that are different between the two covers and explain what the photographer did to create such different photographs of the same person.

Fig. 2   These two magazine covers of Arnold Schwarzenegger are shown to students for them to compare and contrast the similarities and differences of the photographs and visual design

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This visual literacy activity meets many of the Common Core State Standards as students compare and contrast what they see in the photographs and explain their understandings about how the photographers took the pictures. At this point, we try to avoid discussing what they think or feel (connotations) about the pictures and subject matter so we can focus just on what the photographers did to create the photographs. Some of the common visual literacy techniques that students mention are use of background color, body language, facial expression, wardrobe, camera angle, lighting, and composition. When we analyze the effects that these techniques have on positioning the viewer, we discuss the ways images and symbols connote different ideas. There are many aspects of visual literacy that we acquire through growing up in a visual culture, but seldom are these elements made explicit. Messaris (1994) asserts that learning about visual conventions is important because “it gives the viewer a foundation for a heightened conscious appreciation of artistry” and “it is a prerequisite for the ability to see through the manipulative uses and ideological implications of visual images” (p. 165). It is often not until the techniques of visual literacy are taught explicitly and given names and examples that we gain the power to use them and see through their effects upon us as visual spectators. As students provide ideas for the list of photographic techniques, we chart their responses on a paper that can be kept posted in the classroom and often added to throughout the course. This is constructivist pedagogy (Vygotsky 1978) in which their ideas become resources for them to use as they are constructing their own photographs. The university students, just like the elementary school children, use these techniques to create their own Good Photo/Bad Photo posters in which they take different pictures of one student. They apply the techniques of photography that they just listed in order to make that same person look fabulous in one picture and awful in the other. The elementary school students display those images side by side to demonstrate their understanding of visual literacy and provide the impetus for writing activities about metamorphosis or character development. One class also used these techniques to create two issues of the school newspaper. They created one serious issue with the standard portraits of the principal and cafeteria manager, then a second April Fools edition with scary pictures of the principal and cafeteria manager (Fig.  3). This activity helped the students understand that the “typical” school pictures with even lighting and eyelevel camera angles are just as much a subjective construction as the scary pictures in which they used extreme lighting and low camera angles. Soon after the police killing of Michael Brown, an unarmed African American teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, hundreds of African Americans used Twitter to pose the question: If they gunned me down, which picture would the media choose? Using the hashtag #IfTheyGunnedMeDown, they tweeted pairs of pictures of themselves, usually one in which they looked more “socially acceptable” by mainstream media standards and another in which they looked less “respectable” to the dominant media gaze (Vega 2014). This is a powerful example of how the new generation is combining photography and social media to protest and challenge hegemony.

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Fig. 3   Third-grade students at an elementary school in downtown Los Angeles engaged in a similar activity as the Good Photo/Bad Photo Assignment, when they created very different photographs of their cafeteria manager and principal

While photos are an intricate part of popular culture, analyzing and creating photographs are seldom part of traditional public education. However, there are countless ways photography can be brought into the classroom to make teaching and learning more engaging and meaningful. A first step all teachers should do is send home two letters for the parents or guardians to sign, one requesting permission to photograph and use images of their children and the second to allow students to use the Internet by signing the school’s acceptable use policy. These two letters give teachers the legal rights to use photography in the classroom and allow their students to look at images online. An example of these letters can be found at the website for the Los Angeles Unified School District (http://notebook.lausd.net/ portal/page?_pageid=33,136640&_dad=ptl&_ schema = PTL_EP). Additional free online resources to support teachers include: the International Center of Photography’s comprehensive Focus on Photography: A Curriculum Guide (Way 2006), the Exchange’s Out of the Box Early Childhood training kit, Empowering Images: Using Photography as a Medium to Develop Visual Literacy (Duncan 2007), and Powerful Voices for Kids’ Interpreting and Creating Photos (n.d.). Another use of visual images is for students to create wanted posters, visual representations of subject matter they are learning. This assignment is an opportunity to demonstrate content matter understandings, to use images to teach various

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subjects as well as learn basic computer skills for combining images with words and exploring visual designs. In the critical media literacy class, the wanted posters become class projects, and like any good project-based learning, the process of creating the product is where most of the learning occurs. It is important that teachers recognize the value of the process, so they do not fall into the common trap of overvaluing the final product at the expense of the creation process. The task also serves as an introduction to basic technology skills such as: inserting an image into a Word document, using Word Art for a title, including a border, and adding text boxes—a description and a warning. The assignment requires teachers and students to think about visual literacy and consider typography (type of font, color, size), photography, illustration, composition, and design (core concept #2: media messages are constructed using a creative language with its own rules). In order for students to transmediate (Cappello & Hollingsworth 2008) the information they are learning into visual language, they need to synthesize the ideas into a single image, title, and brief text that will describe it and warn the reader about it. The assignment also provides an opportunity for student teachers to create posters to use as examples for their own students to see visual alternatives for demonstrating learning and reframing the discourse about whose story is seen and heard in the classroom. A social studies student teacher created a wanted poster of Gabriela Silang, an indigenous woman in the Philippines who led her people in armed resistance against colonial domination. When teachers and students have the opportunity to produce their own representations, they enact the power to determine whose stories are told and how. This wanted poster assignment is one of the most common assignments from the teacher education course that is taken directly into the student teaching classroom where elementary and secondary students create their own posters. One eighth-grade English teacher changes this assignment into the “wanted/ hero poster” so her students can decide if their poster should reflect something negative that a character is wanted for or something positive and heroic to celebrate. By taking selfies, students can create wanted/hero posters about themselves. As teachers and students recognize the power of visual representations, we problematize the process to reflect on negative media portrayals they find of themselves. Students use Voicethread.com, an online social media site, to create their Through Others’ Eyes assignment that involves posting an image representing a visual portrayal of an aspect of their identity that they have seen maligned in the media. They post the image and comment about how this representation negatively presents an aspect of their identity. Voicethread provides the opportunity for students to see and hear each other’s reflection as well as add their comments to their peer’s posting. In addition to providing experience with more sophisticated technology than the simple manipulation of images and text in the wanted poster, this assignment requires students to critically analyze media representations and push back at the messages that saturate the world around them. In doing so, students have critiqued the portrayal of body image, immigration, domestic violence, alcoholism, and religion, as well as the intersections of racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia. These critiques help students explore the influence of visual images and the deep connection that media can have with power and identity, especially when representations are negative.

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Analyzing photographs and visual images is important and seldom part of traditional public education. There are countless ways photographs and visual images can be brought into the classroom to make teaching and learning far more engaging and meaningful. While observing Becky Padilla, a new student teacher, I was impressed to see her taking a strategy she learned in a mathematics methods course (Serra 2003) and applying it to teaching language arts to her third graders. Although most teachers introduce new vocabulary by giving the words and definitions for students to memorize, Padilla turned this common activity into a more constructive and engaging lesson. She projected four photographs on the wall and put a vocabulary word above them. Padilla instructed the students to find the one picture that is not like the others. She explained that three of the photographs are related to the word and one is not. Students were told to think on their own first, then pair up with a partner to talk about their ideas, and finally to share their views with the whole class. She projected four numbered boxes and placed a picture into each box, which allowed the students to simply refer to the number of the picture they wanted to mention. Padilla had the students explain how they interpreted the pictures and why they were or were not related to the word at the top. By describing their similar and different interpretations, students were also learning media literacy core concept #3 ( different people experience the same media message differently). The students were fully engaged in the activity and demonstrated enthusiasm seldom seen when teachers introduce new vocabulary. This problem-posing use of images for students to collaboratively construct the meanings of new vocabulary words scaffolded the activity in a way that supported students to work at their zone of proximal development (Vygotsky 1978). Mercer (2007) refers to this use of language for thinking together as “interthinking,” something that enables people working collaboratively “to achieve something greater than any of them ever could alone” (p. 3). This activity was a wonderful way of using images for students to construct knowledge. A next step could involve students taking their own pictures to illustrate the vocabulary words.

Shooting Back One of the best ways to teach students to critically analyze any media is through having them make media. When students are actively creating their own photographs, the learning process becomes more academic and empowering. ­Mohammed ­Choudhury was a middle school teacher in downtown Los Angeles who had his students use cameras to learn media literacy, social studies, and ESL. His students began by analyzing the way mainstream media portrayed their neighborhood, something that also led to discussion about media literacy core concept #5 ( media are organized to gain profit and/or power). As they noticed the patterns of negative images and articles about the inner city, they decided to do their own exploration and went in search of the assets of their community. Students took walking fieldtrips to explore their neighborhood and documented their findings with photographs and interviews of the people and places they encountered. The interviews and photographs became primary source documents for their original research about their

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community; something they were able to share with others to provide alternative perspectives about life in the inner city (Choudhury & Share 2012). We did similar activities with my fourth graders, exploring the neighborhood around our school and photographing the people and things that sparked the students’ interest. In the classroom, we used the pictures to map the community, write expository essays, and publish student-made books. Photography became a regular part of our classroom, with a different student working each week as the photography monitor, responsible for documenting classroom activities. The idea of using the camera as a tool to talk back and respond to dominant media portrayals is something that has been utilized more often in nonprofit organizations and after-school programs than inside K–12 public schools. In the 1980s and 1990s, photojournalist Jim Hubbard (1991) did powerful work putting cameras into the hands of children who were homeless. He and other photographers taught the inner-city youth and children living in homeless shelters, how to use cameras to document their lives. Currently, in East Los Angeles, an after-school program called Las Fotos Project teaches teenage girls to use cameras as phototherapy to build self-confidence, as education to learn creative writing, and as advocacy for social change. In southern Mexico, cameras have been finding their ways into the hands of indigenous people as tools in their struggle for human rights. Carlota Duarte (1998) led The Chiapas Photography Project in the 1990s, where they provided the photographic tools and resources for indigenous people to tell their own stories through pictures. This is a significant change from history, in which Anglos used photography to record indigenous people as objects of science, art, and entertainment. Several organizations have been working internationally to do similar work. Kids With Cameras (2014) is a nonprofit organization that was started in 2002 by photographer Zana Briski based on her experiences teaching children to use cameras in brothels in Calcutta, India. PhotoVoice is another nonprofit organization based in the United Kingdom with projects around the globe. Their mission statement emphasizes the idea of empowering people to use cameras to shoot back: “PhotoVoice’s mission is to build skills within disadvantaged and marginalised communities using innovative participatory photography and digital storytelling methods so that they have the opportunity to represent themselves and create tools for advocacy and communications to achieve positive social change” (PhotoVoice 2014). The Indymedia movement is another example in which cameras are being used by the people who for too long have been merely objects of photographs. The power of photography to objectify people can be challenged when the camera is used to tell different stories by the people who have traditionally been disempowered by technology. When the people who are often marginalized are the photographers, they move from being objects to becoming subjects empowered to name and frame their ways of seeing. Freire (2010) writes that science and technology have been long used “to reduce men to the status of ‘things’” (p. 133). This objectification of people through art and photography has been especially pernicious for people of color, women, and the poor who have traditionally been represented as less than, othered, exotic, or sexual objects to be looked upon (Berger 1977). Through Independent Media Centers, videos and still photographs are being taken and shared around the world by people with little economic or political power to bring ­awareness to

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issues that are rarely covered in mainstream commercial and government media. Photography can be a powerful tool for democratizing media representations, so this power to move from being objects to becoming subjects is something teachers and students should be learning how to use in their classrooms.

Connecting Academics to the World Beyond the Classroom While photography may seem like a natural fit for teaching social studies or language arts, it can also be an excellent tool for teaching mathematics and science. Students can become mathematicians and scientists, armed with cameras to explore their school and community for places where they can find mathematics and science concepts in the real world (Neumann-Hinds 2007). This is an activity that can be used with any age for almost any concept. I have had kindergartners search their school with cameras to photograph and name the different shapes they could find in the objects on the playground. A similar project was done with ELLs to photograph real-world examples of shapes that they had been learning in the classroom (Thompson & Williams 2009). Older elementary school students can use photographs of shapes to figure perimeter and area. Secondary school mathematics students can hunt for slopes, parabolas, ratios, circle sectors, and functions. Motivation increases and academics become more meaningful when students make connections between the world around them and the academic content they are learning inside the classroom. The camera can be an ideal tool to bridge this gap between students’ lives and academic concepts. Orellana and Hernández (1999) report on a project in which they took first-grade students on literacy walks around their neighborhood to explore and photograph the environmental print. They write, “The print that surrounds children in urban communities can provide an excellent source of literacy conversation and learning. By taking literacy walks with children in their community, teachers can learn much about children’s everyday literacy and their worlds” (p. 612). Orellana and Hernández found the photographs the children took on their walks helped connect their home lives with school and also “prompted children to reveal rich experiential knowledge” (p. 617). In a language acquisition course for preservice elementary school teachers, students took a similar literacy walk around the university in teams, using their cell phones to photograph anything that interested them. After exploring for 30 min, the students returned to the classroom and created products that combined their photos with words. One team made homophone flash cards with photographs of a statue of a bear and the bare ground, of stairs in a building, and two students as they stare at each other. On another team, each person took numerous pictures, returned to the class and selected one each, then displayed them on their cell phones and wrote haikus to accompany the images (Fig. 4). A third team made a collage in PowerPoint with their photos and wrote a poem to accompany them. While debriefing about the activity, they commented about the power of having students become the creators of their texts and how well the camera functions as fresh eyes to make the familiar new.

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Fig. 4   This is the final product of a literacy walk in which preservice teachers used their cell phones to explore the campus, photograph what they noticed, and then create a haiku poem

In the critical media literacy class, preservice mathematics and science teachers use cameras to create mathematics trails and science trails. They work collaboratively to find and photograph concrete examples that demonstrate a mathematics or science concept. They photograph it and then create questions for their students to solve based on the photographs. One group of science teachers turned this into the popular cell phone game 4 Pics 1 Word. They chose the word “photosynthesis” and then took four pictures that represented key components necessary for photosynthesis (Fig. 5). The lesson was engaging and academic, requiring students to demonstrate their learning through the creation of a project using their surroundings and photography. Another option could be for one group of students to create a treasure hunt for other students to find the science or mathematics concepts that the students photographed. Britsch (2010) describes how creating photo trails can provide an opportunity for ELLs to learn key vocabulary and syntactic patterns necessary for providing directions and describing locations. She explains that English language development occurs best when teachers plan strategic verbal interactions with the photography assignment. “Verbal interactions will necessarily highlight the role of key locational and temporal vocabulary in syntactic constructions such as PREPOSITION + NOUN PHRASE (e.g., ‘toward the principal’s office’) or IMPERATIVE VERB + ADVERBIAL (e.g., ‘Turn right.’)” (p. 175). One photo trail my preservice teachers created included a photograph of a candy vending machine, with the question: “Functions—for every x value, there is one and only one y value. How is a vending machine like a function?” Another group took a picture of bicycle tires and asked, “How many circle sectors exist on the bicycle? Find the area of each.”

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Fig. 5   Preservice science teachers created this game from their photo trail as they walked around the campus photographing images to represent the scientific concept of photosynthesis

A photograph of cracks in the sidewalk generated the question, “How do cracks in concrete form?” The picture of a streetlight elicited the following questions: “How does this lamp work? How does electricity produce light in an incandescent bulb?

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What happens when electricity passes through the filament? Is the filament undergoing a chemical reaction?” In all these examples, the camera was just one aspect of an overall pedagogy that aims to make learning more inquiry based, interactive, and student centered. Applying these ideas during his student teaching, Alexander Dinh turned his ninth-grade biology class into a critical media literacy inquiry. While studying DNA and genetics, he asked his students, “Where do racial categorizations come from?” To answer this question, his students split into inquiry teams to research and create public service announcement (PSA) videos to explain their findings. Using their cell phones to photograph and film, students unpacked the science about transcription and DNA translation as well as discussed the way science has been misused to promote racism. In one PSA, the students report: The idea of genetics causing racism has constantly been twisted and turned in all sorts of directions. Ninety-nine percent of our genes are similar to all around us. That one percent is what makes us unique and apart from everyone else. Yet, society creates racism. Looks and appearances, judging of one another, [telling] racial jokes, are what racism is and it needs to be stopped. All must be informed about what genetics are to fully understand the concept of racism. (Stop Racism 2013)

Photography can become a tool to democratize the classroom by empowering students to question and explore their surroundings.

Challenges to Bringing Cameras into the Classroom Any new endeavor has its challenges and the current atmosphere of scripted curricula, pacing plans, and high-stakes testing is not helping promote creative educational innovations. Schiller and Tillett (2004) report on a project in Australia involving seven and 8-year-old students using digital cameras with a teacher who had very little knowledge or experience with photography. For them, this project highlighted “…the need for additional time to be spent on activities, the need for ‘just in time’ assistance, the importance of team input and the crucial need for additional support for the teacher” (Schiller & Tillett 2004, p. 411). The teacher was successful because she reached out to other adults for support and even involved the students as co-learners and co-teachers. Schiller and Tillett write, “…the children themselves contributed to this ‘just in time’ assistance as they excelled in different areas…. Collaboration between adults and between the children in assisting each other was an important feature of this project” (p. 412). As with much of the new media and technology, the rate of change is so fast that nobody is an expert in everything and we are all learners in something. As more students are gaining access to cell phones, tablets, computers, video games, and other information communication technologies, they are acquiring skills that can be significant assets in the classroom. Using photography in the classroom can become an opportunity for teachers to facilitate learning with students in a process that can shift the power dynamics of the classroom to become more democratic; from sage on the stage to guide on the side (King 1993).

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Conclusion In the twenty-first century, the way we educate our youth must keep pace with the realities they are experiencing in their home lives and in the world around them. Photography and media are their tools of choice for engaging with others and expressing themselves. These are also the platforms that most commercial media are using to sell products and disseminate messages. As educators, we have the responsibility to prepare students to be able to critically analyze visual images as well as printed texts. Visual literacy and critical media literacy skills are necessary today for responsible citizens to be able to participate in a democracy. It is also one of the expectations of the Common Core State Standards, which state that students need to present information and demonstrate their learning with digital media and visual displays. Students need to know how to use these tools to create their own alternative messages that can challenge injustices they find in the dominant discourse. The type of literacy needed in the twenty-first century is far more visual, multimodal, and complex than the print-based requirements for reading and writing in the last century. The good news is that now the tools are cheaper and more user friendly than ever. A powerful pedagogical tool has come of age and educators need to embrace photography for all its potential.

References Action Coalition for Media Education. (2015). Understanding seven basic principles/questions to ask of media. Retrieved February 20, 2015 from https://smartmediaeducation.files.wordpress. com/2014/01/7principals_questions.pdf. Alexander, H. (2013, August 31). Pope Francis and the first ‘Papal selfie’. The Telegraph . Retrieved February 20, 2015 from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/the-pope/10277934/ Pope-Francis-and-the-first-Papal-selfie.html. Banta, M., & Hinsley, C.M. (1986). From site to sight: Anthropology, photography, and the power of imagery. Cambridge: Peabody Museum Press. Barthes, R. (1981). Camera lucida: Reflections on photography. New York, Noonday Press Berger, J. (1977). Ways of seeing. London: Penguin Books. Britsch, S. (2010). Photo-booklets for English language learning: Incorporating visual communication into early childhood teacher preparation. Early Childhood Education Journal, 38(3), 171–177. Buckingham, D. (2003). Media education: Literacy, learning and contemporary culture . Cambridge: Polity Press. Cappello, M. (2011). Photography for teacher preparation in literacy: Innovations in instruction. Issues in Teacher Education, 20(1), 95–108. Cappello, M., & Hollingsworth, S. (2008). Literacy inquiry and pedagogy through a photographic lens. Language Arts, 85(6), 442–449. Cartier-Bresson, H. (1952). The decisive moment. New York: Simon & Schuster. Center for Media Literacy. (2015). CML’s five key questions and core concepts. Retrieved February 20, 2015 from http://www.medialit.org/reading-room/five-key-questions-form-foundationmedia-inquiry. Ching, C. C., Wang, X. C., Shih, M. L., & Kedem, Y. (2006). Digital photography and journals in a kindergarten-first-grade classroom: Toward meaningful technology integration in early childhood education. Early Education and Development, 17(3), 347–371.

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Choudhury, M., & Share, J. (2012). Critical media literacy: A pedagogy for new literacies and urban youth. Voices From the Middle, 19(4), 39–44. Dragan, P. B. (2008). Kids, cameras, and the curriculum: Focusing on learning in the primary grades. Portsmouth: Heinemann. Duarte, C. (1998). Camaristas: Fotógrafos Mayas de Chiapas. Mexico: CIESAS. Duggan, M. (2013). Photo and video sharing grow online. Pew Research Center. http://www. pewinternet.org/2013/10/28/photo-and-video-sharing-grow-online/. Duncan, S. (2007). Empowering images: Using photography as a medium to develop visual literacy. Out of the Box Training. Redmond: Exchange Press. http://www.childcareexchange. com/library_oob/4400218.pdf. Elliman, D. M. (1986, October 27). Publisher’s letter. People Magazine 26 (7). http://www.people. com/people/archive/article/0,,20094824,00.html. Englander, E. K. (2011). Research findings: MARC 2011 survey grades 3–12. Bridgewater State University, Massachusetts Aggression Ruction Center. http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/mt/assets/science/Research%20Findings_%20MARC%202011%20Survey%20Grades%203-12.pdf. Ewald, W. (2012). Introduction. In Ewald, W., Hyde, K., & Lord, L. (Eds.), Literacy & justice through photography: A classroom guide. New York: Teachers College Press. Freire, P. (2010). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Continuum. Freire, P., & Macedo, D. (1987). Literacy: Reading the word and the world. Westport: Bergin & Garvey. Freund, G. (1980). Photography and society. Boston: David R. Godine. (Originally publish in French in 1974). Garcia, A., Seglem, R., & Share, J. (2013). Transforming teaching and learning through critical media literacy pedagogy. LEARNing Landscapes, 6(2), 109–124. Gerick, B. (2014, March 2). Oscars 2014: Ellen DeGeneres’ all-star selfie sets Twitter record for most retweets. New York Daily News. http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/oscars/degeneres-all-star-oscar-selfie-sets-twitter-record-article-1.1708566 Gibbons, P. (2009). English learners, academic literacy, and thinking: Learning in the challenge zone. Portsmouth: Heinemann. Goldberg, V. (1991). The power of photography: How photographs changed our lives. New York: Abbeville Press. Hubbard, J. (1991). Shooting back: A photographic view of life by homeless children. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. Jhally, S., In Kilbourne, J., Rabinovitz, D., & Media Education Foundation. (2010). Killing us softly 4: Advertising’s image of women. Northampton: Media Education Foundation. Kellner, D., & Share, J. (2007). Critical media literacy, democracy, and the reconstruction of education . In D. Macedo & S. R. Steinberg (Eds.), Media literacy: A reader (pp. 3–23). New York: Peter Lang. Kids With Cameras (2014) Retrieved February 20, 2015 from http://www.kids-with-cameras.org/ home/ King, A. (1993). From sage on the stage to guide on the side. College Teaching, 41(1), 30–35. Kolb, L. (2008). Toys to tools: Connecting student cell phones to education. Eugene: ISTE. Krashen, S. (1992). The input hypothesis: Issues and implications. Laredo: Laredo Publications. Lacayo, R., & Russell, G. (1990). Eyewitness: 150 years of photojournalism. New York: Oxmoor House, Inc. Madden, M., Lenhart, A., Duggan, M., Cortesi, S., & Gasser, U. (2013). Teens and technology 2013. Pew Research Center. http://www.pewinternet.org/files/old-media/Files/Reports/2013/ PIP_TeensandTechnology2013.pdf. Mercer, N. (2007). Words and minds: How we use language to think together. London: Routledge. Messaris, P. (1994). Visual “literacy”: Image, mind, & reality. Boulder: Westview Press. Ministry of Education. (1989). Media literacy: Intermediate and senior divisions, 1989. Ontario: Ministry of Education. Moll, L. C. (1998). Proceedings from twenty-first annual statewide conference for teachers of linguistically and culturally diverse students: Funds of knowledge: A new approach to culture in education. Illinois State: Board of Education.

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Monk, L. (1989). Photographs that changed the world . New York: Doubleday. National Association for Media Literacy Education. (2014). Six core principles. http://namle.net/ publications/core-principles/. Neumann-Hinds, C. (2007). Picture science: Using digital photography to teach young children. St. Paul: Redleaf Press. New London Group. (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review, 66(1), 60–92. Orellana, M. F. & Hernández, A. (1999). Talking the walk: Children reading urban environment print. The Reading Teacher, 52(6), 612–614. PhotoVoice. (2014). Mission statement. http://www.photovoice.org/about. Pineda, J. (2014). The story behind the picture. (Unpublished Master’s Inquiry Project). Teacher Education Program, University of California, Los Angeles. Powerful Voices for Kids: Digital and Media Literacy Education. (n. d.). Interpreting and creating photos. http://powerfulvoicesforkids.com/ideas/interpreting-creating-photos. Quesada, A. (2005). Project SMARTArt: A case study in elementary school media literacy and arts education. http://www.medialit.org/sites/default/files/SmartArt_casestudy.pdf. Schiller, J., & Tillett, B. (2004). Using digital images with young children: Challenges of integration. Early Child Development and Care, 174(4), 401–414. Serra, M. (2003). What’s wrong with this picture? Critical thinking exercises in geometry. Emeryville: Key Curriculum Press. Share, J. (2003). The camera always lies. The Center for Media Literacy. http://www.medialit.org/ reading-room/camera-always-lies. Share, J. (2009). Media literacy is elementary: Teaching youth to critically read and create media. New York: Peter Lang Publishers. Share, J., Jolls, T., & Thoman, E. (2005). Five key questions that can change the world: Classroom activities for media literacy. Los Angeles: Center for Media Literacy. Sontag, S. (1990). On photography. New York: Doubleday. Stop Racism. (2013). Student made video in Alexander Dinh’s ninth grade biology class at the Downtown Magnet High School, Los Angeles, CA. Thompson, S.C., & Williams, K. (2009). Telling stories with photo essays: A guide for PreK-5 teachers. Thousand Oaks: Corwin. Vega, T. (2014, August 12). Shooting spurs hashtag effort on stereotypes. The New York Times . http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/13/us/if-they-gunned-me-down-protest-on-twitter.html. Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Way, C. (2006). Focus on photography: A curriculum guide. New York: International Center of Photography. http://www.icp.org/museum/education/teacher-resources. Wigginton, E. (1991). Foxfire: 25 years: A celebration of our first quarter century. New York: Anchor Books. Jeff Share  worked for 10 years as a freelance photojournalist documenting situations of poverty and social issues on three continents. After a decade of photojournalism, Jeff changed careers and moved into education. He taught bilingual primary school in the Los Angeles Unified School District for 6 years. During this time he earned his master’s degree researching the potential for teaching students to think critically about media. Through combining his experiences in photojournalism with his passion for teaching, Jeff ventured deeper into the area of media literacy. For a couple of years, he worked at the Center for Media Literacy as their regional coordinator for training and later earned his PhD in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Jeff currently works as a faculty advisor for UCLA’s Teacher Education Program and continues his research and practice focusing on the teaching of critical media literacy in K–12 education. He has created a course in critical media literacy that has become mandatory for all new teacher candidates at UCLA. In 2015, Peter Lang published the second edition of his book, Media Literacy is Elementary: Teaching Students to Critically Read and Create Media.

Presenting My Selfie to the Digital World: Visual Composition for Better Representation Mary T. Christel

Abstract  The intention that motivates an online image’s creation might be ignored by overwhelmed media consumers as images wash over them as they scroll through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Snapchat. Consumers of commercially and personally produced images tend to focus on how those images make them feel as opposed to the narrative or reportorial information embedded in images. Since both “experts” and “novices” create online images, discerning an imagemaker’s level of expertise is difficult, if not impossible, to grasp due to lack of attribution, the availability of sophisticated online photo editing tools, and a steep learning curve among many novice creators. To discourage merely skimming images and to develop greater visual literacy, five principles of visual composition can be applied to access and analyze the intended and unintended denotative and connotative messages embedded in personal or commercial images posted on various social media platforms. Once those are understood, both novice and experienced image curators and creators can expand their acumen analyzing existing images for their emotional and narrative content. They could then produce effective images that include selfies, photograph-based narrative storyboards, and Vine videos to strengthen their ability to share images that require more than a cursory skim and demonstrate an understanding of digital citizenship in knowing not only what is worth posting but also where it should be posted.

Introduction Students live in an environment that increasingly privileges the image as the preferred medium of communication. The handwritten diary once kept under lock and key has given way to the Facebook post combining words and images shared with online “friends.” That in turn has been replaced by selfies and other candid photos followed on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, or Snapchat. Students also appropriate ­images to create comic and ironic memes or to post an image macro anonymously on Whisper. The good news is that most students do not just act as curators of M. T. Christel () Adlai E. Stevenson H.S. (emeritus), Wheeling, IL, USA e-mail: [email protected] © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 D. M. Baylen, A. D’Alba (eds.), Essentials of Teaching and Integrating Visual and Media Literacy, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-05837-5_6

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e­ xisting images that they appropriate and repost, they have become the creators of images, which have the potential to reach audiences, large and small. According to the Pew Research Center, “32 % of [I]nternet users both create and curate online content” (Brenner 2013). An earlier Pew study reported 64 % of teens surveyed shared pictures with others through social media and other platforms (Lenhart et al. 2010). The bad news is those images can reach large audiences—sometimes intentionally, other times not. Content posted on Facebook can typically reach 156–569 friends, and then fan out to 170 friends of friends as well as to the public at large (Brenner 2013). Often novice image creators and social media posters are not fully aware of the impact messages their images possess. Students have the technology and access to online tools, but they may lack advanced levels of digital, media, visual literacies in order to access, analyze, interpret, evaluate, use, and create visual messages with the acumen of expert creators. With K–12 curricula increasingly rooted in acquisition of the twenty-first century literacy skills and a commitment to foster digital citizenship, students could be equipped to create more effective images as well as understand how to share those images appropriately online. This chapter presents a series of activities beginning with the analysis of fairly traditional print media, the photograph, as a means to focus attention on the elements of effective visual composition, the heart of any image. Students explore how emphasis and meaning changes based on how much a viewer is allowed to see by assuming the role of a photo editor and cropping existing photographs they access online. Since images have strong narrative properties, students also access images at the PicLit website, where they create short prose narratives or poems to tease out the meaning of a “found image.” Once students can identify the effective, communicative properties of a single image created by an expert or novice photographer, those skills can be transferred to students producing their own images captured on their smartphones and digital cameras to document a single moment in time (the selfie), a sequence of still images (a digital narrative storyboard), and a 6-s moving image (a Vine). In addition to leading students through a series of experiences that access, analyze, interpret, evaluate, use, and create images (National Association of Media Literacy Education, NAMLE 2014), a secondary focus promoting “digital citizenship” is warranted. Just because one has the tools and a message to share in cyberspace does not mean it belongs everywhere and should be accessible to everyone. The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) addresses the importance of digital citizenship in its standards for both teachers and their students. Teachers “promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility” and as a result their students come to “understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior” (ISTE 2014). In order to meet those standards, issues of digital citizenship must be melded with any analytical or production-based activities. That focus is clearly embedded in the “evaluate” rung of the scaffold, though linking the need to “evaluate” to a digital citizenship agenda could be easily overlooked. “Evaluate” might simply imply the weighing the merits of the communicative power and aesthetic appeal of any image, not its appropriate or responsible placement in a social media platform. A comprehensive approach to

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fostering digital, media, and visual literacies requires careful attention also to fostering social responsibility online.

Considering Deeper “Ways of Seeing” John Berger begins his seminal work Ways of Seeing (1977) with the observation: “Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak” (p.  7). John Medina (2014), a molecular biologist, agrees with Berger: “Babies come with a variety of preloaded software devoted to visual processing” (p. 193). A baby’s eye naturally follows movement as well as bright colors. Children’s ability to understand the world around them begins with their ability to react to visual stimuli on an emotional level of liking or disliking what is directly observed. A baby is not taught to react to what is seen. Because the process of learning to see and understanding what is seen happens so automatically, there is no systematic training of an infant to “see” unless a child has some cognitive or visual impairment. It is a skill generally taken for granted and not considered one that requires much refinement, especially in comparison to how children are trained to read. According to Medina’s research (2014), “brain sees words as lots of tiny pictures…, [so] reading [text] creates a bottleneck in comprehension” (p. 192). That insight creates the strongest argument to include visual literacy as part of a suite of literacies to form a comprehensive curriculum in the digital age. Even though one may seem naturally literate in a visual sense, visual literacy training is a powerful tool enabling an individual to develop and refine certain “competencies… fundamental to normal human learning” (John Debes 1969, as cited by International Visual Literacy Association (IVLA) 2012).

Setting the Stage for Developing Twenty-First Century Literacies Integrating media and visual literacies initiatives into the K–12 English/Language Arts curricula reaches back to the 1950s through the efforts of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE 1996) and the National Telemedia Council (NTC). In the 1980s, the advent of computer and video production technology entering the classroom spurred these professional organizations to identify skills that moved beyond the traditional notions of reading and writing. NCTE and International Reading Association (IRA) jointly published English/Language Arts standards in 1996, and the very first standard privileged both media and visual literacy in a simple statement: “Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts.” Half of the 12 NCTE/IRA standards set the stage for integrating learning experiences that develop and refine visual and media literacy skills (VML) along with traditional reading and writing competencies. The National Association for Media Literacy Education

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(NAMLE) developed another set of standards to further articulate media literacy competencies through a spectrum of skills that cultivate the ability to “access, analyze, evaluate and communicate information in a variety of forms, including print and non-print messages” (NAMLE 2014). Clearly complementing the aims of media literacy, visual literacy calls for the development of “a set of abilities that enables an individual to effectively find, interpret, evaluate, use, and create images and visual media,” as defined by the Association of College and Research Libraries (Hattwig et al. 2011). In 2005, NCTE adopted a “Position Statement on Multimodal Literacies” to address expanded notions of critical emerging literacies in the composition process. The policy stated in part: The use of multimodal literacies has expanded the ways we acquire information and understand concepts. Ever since the days of illustrated books and maps texts have included visual elements for the purpose of imparting information. The contemporary difference is the ease with which we can combine words, images, sound, color, animation, video, and styles of print in projects so that they are part of our everyday lives and, at least by our youngest generation, often taken for granted.

By 2011, Common Core Standards were being developed in the USA by a consortium of educators, administrators, and policy makers to create a more uniform approach to curriculum development and measurable learning outcomes across the nation. These standards recognize the importance of developing student VML competencies in English/Language Arts curricula: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-8.7 “Integrate visual information (e.g., in charts, graphs, photographs, videos or maps) with other information in print and digital texts” and CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.7 “Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words” (Finley, Feb. 19, 2014). Song and Turner (2010) remind educators when adapting curricula to these new standards and policies that “[i]nstead of a single concept of literacy as the ability to read and write (i.e., verbal literacy), we are now focusing on multiple literacies…” (p. 188). All of these definitions and standards call for “digitally native” students to express themselves using available technology in a manner that demonstrates their ability to understand and select the appropriate tools to communicate their ideas as well as analyze and evaluate existing media messages. Though students easily have access to technology at home and in the classroom, Susan E. Metros (2008) noted when assessing her college students’ image production skills that “[t]hey do not have the skills to understand how to decipher an image” as well as “lack a vocabulary of vision to communicate nonverbally” in an effective manner. Ongoing development of VML focused standards and their implementation laid the foundation for students producing and sharing messages on a variety of digital platforms as part of a standard curriculum across academic disciplines. As a result of these curricular shifts, students gradually would move from novice consumers, curators, and creators to experts adept at using existing tools while anticipating rapidly emerging tools and technology. To fully integrate visual, media, and digital literacy education, educators need to recognize that “[t]exts from mass media and popular culture may challenge and disrupt the routines of the classroom, shifting authority and power relationships

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between students and teachers” (Hobbs 2011, p. 21). That shift occurs as a result of students’ greater knowledge and expertise in the realm of technology and online culture than many of their teachers. For those teachers who feel like “digital dinosaurs,” the task of focusing and implementing VML standards can be daunting. Establishing a scaffold to select and connect classroom experiences certainly is crucial to help teachers wrestle with the role of VML in existing and emerging curricula, and the definitions of media and visual literacies provided by NAMLE and ACRL provide a useful framework. That framework involves students accessing/finding, analyzing/interpreting, evaluating, using, and creating images in order to communicate a variety of messages embedded in a range of media products published in both academic and personal contexts. The activities that follow can be integrated into existing English/Language and Social Studies curricula and easily adapted to grade and ability levels, so that students systematically acquire skills aimed at a multimodal composition process that draw on multiple literacies.

Accessing, Analyzing, Using Images: Slowing Down the Image-Skimming Process Since images are so ubiquitous, human beings tend to skim visual information and only linger for a closer reading of images that either provoke strong emotions or cannot be understood easily. John Debes (1969), a VML pioneer, characterized a visually literate person as able “to discriminate and interpret the visible actions, objects, symbols, natural or man-made, that he encounters in his environment” (as cited by IVLA 2014). “Discriminating” should be central to the “accessing” stage of skimming and discovering images. Most images deliver messages on three levels: to convey and provoke emotion, to deliver information, or to develop a narrative. The undeniable, and perhaps primary, power of an image is how it makes the viewer feel. The savvy viewer should be able to discriminate how an image plays on the viewer’s emotions to stand out and stand apart from other images; therefore, considering the emotional value of an image is crucial place to start analysis. Activities that discourage merely skimming images promote A.W. Pailliotet’s (1997) method of deep viewing, a “systematic process for analyzing, understanding, and interacting with visual information” (p. 35). Pailliotet requires students to analyze images on “three levels: literal observation [describe what is seen], interpretation [including summarizing, hypothesizing, and connecting with personal experiences], and evaluation/application [assigning importance and applying to new situations]” (Flaum n. d., p. 4). To model the image-skimming process, a facilitator can create a slide show of photographs culled from one of many online collections of photographs including The Newseum’s online gallery of Pulitzer Prize photographs, The Lightbox feature from Time Magazine online, or other online apps and websites. Reuters offers a wide range of slide shows ideal for this activity at http://www.reuters.com/news/pictures, notably a set of photographs posted daily and culled from the past 24 hours of news and cultural events featuring images of people, places, and objects.

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Once a set of images has been selected and organized as a slide show, students should not be given any type of context for the images no matter if they document a single event or various ones. The activity begins by scrolling through a dozen or so images holding each for 10–15 s on the screen to create an “image skimming” experience and to model the literal observation level of deep viewing. After viewing all the images in the set, students then describe the one image that stands out from the rest and explain why that image makes a particularly strong impact on them, which anticipates the interpretive level. On a second viewing, clearly moving into deep viewing’s interpretive level, students then would consider each image individually and respond to the following questions in writing: • What is your immediate response to the image? • How does it make you feel (focusing on connotative or emotive value)? • What does it make you think of (focusing on denotative—informational or reportorial value)? • What association or connection does this image have with images that you have seen before? • What association or connection does this image have with any of your own personal experiences? For this type of image scrutiny, Frank Baker (2014) suggests using the Photo Analysis Worksheet that can be found at the National Archives website (http://www. archives.gov/education/lessons/worksheets/photo_analysis_worksheet.pdf) which also encourages close reading and consideration rather than skimming of images (p. 24). Once students carefully have scrutinized a set of images and reflected on their reaction to each, then they would discuss those reflections and compare their reactions with classmates’ responses in order to determine if certain images have a similar resonance for different viewers, based on shared experiences or backgrounds. This deep viewing activity could be extended to examining a set of iconic images that have stood the test of time like raising the flag on Iwo Jima, JFK, Jr. saluting his father’s casket, or the firemen raising the American flag at Ground Zero on 9/11. The discussion of those images would center on what gives them their enduring appeal: the emotions they produce, the historical event they document, and the explicit or implicit narrative they reveal. Students can move on to the application level of deep viewing by “applying what was discovered to new situations” (Pailloitet 1997, p. 36) and experiment with selecting an image to represent a breaking news event before any iconic photographs are promoted and popularized by the mainstream media. Skimming daily or weekly online photography digests like The Lightbox offers students the opportunity to select an image that both captures the viewer’s attention through its emotional appeals and how it reveals something specific about the “who,” “what,” “where,” “when,” or “why” of that breaking news event. By engaging in a photo-editing activity, students experience how a complicated event can be represented to a single image that may not reveal all the circumstances of that moment in time, even if that photograph is worthy of a Pulitzer Prize.

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Accessing, Analyzing, Using Images: Considering What an Image’s Frame Contains In “Capturing the Pulitzer Prize Photo: An Exercise in Photo Manipulation” (2007), Belinha S. De Abreu challenged her middle school students to avoid skimming images that they encounter by merely “scrolling” through a gallery display of Pulitzer Prize-winning photographs set up in her classroom (p. 7). She wanted her students not only to consider the communicative power of an iconic image but also to take into account how an image can be manipulated to increase its connotative or denotative value. Her lesson plan acquaints students with non-digital means of manipulating photographs including air brushing and manual cropping that predate Photoshop and other computer-based photo-retouching tools. The lesson begins with an examination of the magazine covers of O.J. Simpson’s mug shot that famously ran in Time and Newsweek in both June 17, 1994 issues to demonstrate how the same picture creates either neutral or incendiary impact depending on how that image has been manipulated. Both news magazines used the same mug shot, but the cover photo editors at Time chose to manipulate the image by darkening Simpson’s face, which resulted in many readers thinking that Simpson looking far more menacing and sinister in comparison to the original photo or the Newsweek cover (Carmody 1994). Students then screen the video Is Seeing Believing? How Can You Tell What’s Real? from the Media Matters series. That program examines other examples of photo manipulation which have appeared in newspapers and magazines across the country with journalists and media ethicists providing commentary on the capacity of an image to tell “the truth” about any given individual or event. A 6-min excerpt from this video and related lesson ideas is available at the Media Clearinghouse website: http://www.frankwbaker.com/isbcurriculum.htm. The balance of the activity is devoted to students working with a news photograph that they manually crop in order to change the emphasis and meaning of the original image. Once students crop their photographs and display them in a classroom gallery, De Abreu poses the following questions to the image “manipulators”: • How does the image’s message change when the photo is cropped? What is now emphasized in the image? • Does image convey a positive or negative message based on the visual information present? • What makes this image important or significant in its original form? How does cropping the image change its importance or significance once some information is eliminated? • Why would any photographer or editor choose to crop or eliminate information from a particular photo? (2007, p. 11–12) Selecting photos for this activity from Capture the Moment: The Pulitzer Prize Photographs edited by Cyma Rubin and Eric Newton (Newseum 2000) and having copies of the book in the classroom enable students to read the copy accompanying each photo that places the image in its historical and cultural contexts as well

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as reveals the photographer’s purpose in capturing that moment. That information would enhance the students’ understanding of how their decisions in cropping and manipulating an image change its meaning and impact. The manipulation of Pulitzer Prize-winning photographs can be easily linked to previous activities involving skimming photographs where students selected a single image to represent a breaking news story. That image could undergo the cropping process to determine how that image’s meaning and impact changes when visual elements are excluded from the original frame. Students can revisit that breaking news event by accessing further coverage online, paying attention to the latest photographs and video selected to accompany news articles providing further context of “who,” “what,” “when,” “where,” and “why.” De Abreu’s activity has been used routinely with high school students and can easily be implemented in its original form or adapted using other more sophisticated manipulation photo tools like Photoshop to increase the activity’s level of rigor for both high school and college students to promote the consideration of the veracity of the photograph in the digital age as well as to examine the levels of meaning embedded in an image based on the choices a photographer and a photo editor make. This activity helps students consider how the eye and the brain can be trained to “discriminate and interpret” images in a more meaningful way (IVLA 2012). In order to refine a viewer’s ability to examine images with greater virtuosity, a simple system of analyzing visual composition can be developed using five basic principles of visual composition.

Analyzing, Interpreting, Evaluating Images by Developing a “Practiced Eye”: Five Principles of Visual Composition Lacking a comprehensive dictionary of symbols used in visual communication, Anne Bamford (2003) advocates familiarizing students with the “syntax of an image,” which should include “graphic composition… (e.g., shapes, lines, [colors], etc.)” as well as “camera placement, editing [for video images] and juxtaposition and point of view (e.g., low angle will make someone appear more imposing)” (p.  3). In their textbook Exploring the Film, Robert Stanley and William Kuhns (1968) offer a basic system to examine still images that serves as a springboard for analyzing motion pictures. They define five visual composition elements present to some degree in every image: arrangement, placement, framing, lighting, and color (p. 49). Individual images may emphasize one or several of those elements depending on their intended message or effect. Despite the seeming ease of collecting information through visual stimuli, what we see “is not 100 percent trustworthy” and the “process is extremely complex, seldom provid[ing] a completely accurate representation of our world” (Medina 2014, p. 184). Bearing those points in mind, training the eye, and therefore the brain, to more closely access, analyze, and interpret the visual cues embedded deliberately or haphazardly in an image will lead to better understanding and recall of the emotions provoked or the information provided by that image.

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Fig. 1   Orchids at window photo by David Fisk

Every image presents a subject for the viewer’s consideration. Arrangement is then the first visual-composition strategy a viewer should consider. An image presents a central person, object, or environment as its subject, and that image emphasizes the central subject’s importance in relationship to other elements in the frame. Some images exploit a depth of field to incorporate subject elements in the foreground, middle ground, and background providing a good deal of situational context, while other images exclude much of that context in order to train the viewer’s eyes on a concentrated and isolated amount of information. For example, in Fig. 1 the viewer is able to see an orchid plant positioned in the window of a garden apartment. The orchids are obviously the featured “subject” of the shot since they reside in the foreground. Despite the emphasis on the flowers, the viewer’s eyes travel to the middle ground where the windowpane offers some visual interest due to the horizontal lines created by the safety frame placed in front of the glass. Then, the viewer’s eyes move to the background that reveals a hazy street scene beyond the window. Now the cumulative effect of considering the content of the foreground, middle ground, and background would invite speculation of the photographer’s intention in capturing the orchids that way. Is it the casual documentation of a houseplant? Is the image attempting to make a statement about a fragile aspect of nature that is confined (the presence of safety frame in the window) by some human desire to preserve or control it? The deliberateness of the arrangement invites some level of speculation or interpretation of the image’s meaning. The photographer, David Fisk, actually posted that image (as well as Fig. 2) on his Facebook Timeline (April Fig. 2   Orchid in close-up photo by David Fisk

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21, 2014) to simply document a second blooming of these flowers and indirectly boast a bit about his orchid cultivation skills. Once the viewer considers how the subject is arranged, the placement of the camera then becomes a significant factor in examining how much context is included or excluded in a shot. Placement takes into consideration the distance of the camera from the subject. The photographer places the camera in a particular position to capture anything from a long shot that provides context to an extreme close-up that excludes most, or all, of that context. The angle of the camera can add to connotative value to an image. Obviously, a viewer is most comfortable with images captured at eye level, which puts the viewer on par with what is being viewed. That eye-level relationship with the subject is certainly established in Fig. 1 which feels “natural,” as if the viewer were standing in the room casually observing the plant. In Fig. 2, an extreme close-up of one of the orchids, the flower takes on a far more sinister or even abstract quality based on the intimate relationship between the camera/viewer and its subject. If the photographer places the camera below its subject, that position can make an image loom over the viewer. Conversely, when the camera is positioned at a high angle above the subject, there is a diminishment of what is being viewed. Based on the tilt of the camera, a benign subject can assume an air of menace depending upon the subtle or extreme nature of the angle. In Fig. 3 when the orchids are shot from a lower angle, they seem to overpower the viewer. The image is less about the flowers’ captivity in comparison to Fig. 1 since the safety frame is no longer a very pronounced element in the shot. The placement of the camera in Fig. 3 yields new details not visible in Fig. 1. In the upper left corner, two paper cranes are arranged near the ceiling and behind the orchids. The viewer probably does not notice the cranes on an initial skim of the image. The purposeful arrange-

Fig. 3   Orchids from lowangle photo by David Fisk

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Fig. 4   Orchids from exterior photo by David Fisk

Fig. 5   Orchids and daffodils from exterior photo by David Fisk

ment of the cranes captured by a shift in the angle and distance of the camera invites an interpretation of the photographer’s intention by revealing that detail in a particularly subtle manner, or if the cranes unintentionally became part of a casually photographed image. Color and lighting help create a mood as well as provide emphasis to complement or contradict the meaning of the image established through subject arrangement and camera placement. In Fig. 4, the camera reveals an exterior view of the orchids, and those flowers are now arranged in the background of the shot rather than in the foreground. Their vibrant lavender color contrasts the gray and cream colors of the window frame and concrete sill as well as the green of the barely budded daffodils and other plants flanking the orchids inside the window. The orchids’ vibrancy makes those flowers the center of attention even though the orchids are not arranged strictly in the center of the shot. Figure 5 reveals the daffodils in full bloom in the foreground. The brilliant yellow flowers in the foreground bathed in strong sunlight compete with the lavender orchids in the background muted by the more diffused light from the interior. Since the orchids seem to be arching toward the sun outside the window, their arrangement underscores emphasis the brighter color and lighting provide to make the daffodils the central focus in that shot.

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Fig. 6   Snow fence photo by David Fisk

The orchid photographs do not yield dramatic examples of how lighting can shape the content of an image. The strong sunlight in Fig. 6 casts a dramatic shadow of a snow fence which undulates over the snow bank creating an engaging sense of rhythm and visual interest in a mundane feature of a Chicago winter. The fence is arranged in the upper edge of the image’s frame, so the shadow receives greater attention based on its larger proportion in comparison to the actual fence as well as its foreground arrangement. Size or proportion is one of the features of image composition that particularly captivates viewer attention (Medina 2014, p. 195). Figure 7 provides an example of how the backlighting from the waning winter sun makes the enormous tree more imposing by casting in darker color against the various greys and whites of the sky and clouds. The sunlight sinking down toward the platform draws the viewer’s eyes to the commuters seated on the bench and etches them into sharper focus at the bottom of the frame inviting consideration of something so small in comparison to the visually dominant tree. All shots exist in a frame. A camera lens can only captures so much information in one snap. The nature of that frame provides the boundary which contains the primary subject of image and excludes what exists beyond the camera’s field of vision. Highly evocative images will invite the viewer not only to consider what the frame contains but also to speculate on what exists outside of that frame. For example, the paper cranes lurking in the upper left hand corner of Fig. 3 seem superfluous to the composition of shot unless the viewer considers what might be beyond what the camera can capture at that distance and angle. Might there be more paper cranes surrounding the orchids? What might be the connection between the flowers and the birds being displayed so close together in front of that window? In Fig. 6, what did the snow fence protect from the drifting snow? Many images also rely on interior framing to emphasize certain subject elements through the use of vertical and horizontal lines created by shadows, doorways, windows, and other geometric elements in the subject’s environment. With the exception of Fig. 2, all the photos of the orchids rely on the presence of the window frame and the safety bars to create an interior frame to suggest a sense of containment or captivity whether the orchids are viewed from the interior or the exterior. Doorways, archways, other architectural features, and strong shadows can provide interior framing to guide the eye. The ac-

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Fig. 7   Elevated train platform and tree photo by David Fisk

tual structure of the elevated train platform in Fig. 7 provides a compressed interior frame that draws the viewer’s attention to the figures on that platform despite the visual power of the tree and the sky behind it. Careful orchestration of interior framing can create additional points of focus and ways for the viewer to enter an image. This system for basic visual-composition analysis establishes the foundation for discussing and producing images in a media class at Adlai E. Stevenson High School, Lincolnshire, Illinois. The focus on visual composition provides the skills to deconstruct print advertising, photojournalism, and website content. This training is part of a film study course’s introductory lesson on shot composition to provide the foundation for students’ analysis of classic films as wells their own original, short videos. In both courses, additional vocabulary is gradually layered into the discussion of image composition to increase the sophistication of analysis. But these five principles provide an efficient method for students to articulate how an image constructs its meaning. In both classes, once students are introduced to the five principles of visual composition, they are given the task of finding images (news photographs, print ads, personal photographs) that illustrate each technique and write an analysis of how that technique draws the viewer into the image to create the image’s emotional impact, convey a specific piece of information or develop a narrative that the image captures.

Interpreting, Using, Creating Images: Tapping into Stories They Tell To foster deeper student engagement with images and their analysis, students easily can use the PicLit website (http://www.piclits.com/compose_dragdrop.aspx), which provides a treasure trove of preselected images to examine for visual composition, emotional appeal, and narrative potential. What exactly is a PicLit? The PicLit website defines it as “a combination of words placed on a photograph to capture the essence, story, and meaning of the picture.” PicLits essentially embed text onto a photograph. Unlike a meme that can be created with preselected images

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on a site like Meme Generator (http://memegenerator.net/), a PicLit image does not necessarily beg sarcastic commentary or cheap laugh. The PicLit site does not include images of celebrities or popular culture characters, and the site’s images tend to have high-end aesthetic value. The website offers students the opportunity to select an image of a person, place, or object on which students would place text in one of two ways: through a “drag-n-drop” system that offers a range of words to choose or “freestyle,” which allows typing in words or phrases without selecting from suggested list of words and phrases. PicLit images lend themselves to writing captions, haikus, and micro-narratives like six-word stories. They create an opportunity for students to deconstruct the original image’s composition using Pailloitet’s deep viewing protocol and the five principles of visual composition, while moving on to how that image inspires a particular kind of complementary text. The PicLits that students create can be saved to their accounts as well as shared with the basic features of the site. The website also offers fee-based “premium features” that include teacher accounts, photo uploading, editing tools, and classroom grouping capability. Acquiring the upgraded version of this tool makes a good investment if the website would be used in an ongoing, sustained fashion (Fig. 8 and 9). After students have examined the emotional content and narrative potential of the images found, they can proceed to creating new images to document their experiences. In Lesson Plans for Developing Digital Literacies (2010), Louis Mazza contributed a lesson to that collection entitled, “Stop. Shoot. Send: Using Phone Cameras to Find Meaning and to Engage Students.” His approach begins with his high school students accessing the SMITHTeens website to examine how six-word stories work. Since Mazza published his lesson, the SMITHTeens site is now rebranded as “SIXTeens” (sixwordmemoirs.com) to create a space dedicated to students’ six-word memoirs and moving it off the Smith Magazine website which is dedicated to a wider range of online storytelling forms. If students have experimented with creating image macros at the PicLit website, going to the SIXTeens site will provide them with an opportunity to reflect on and assess their PicLit micronarratives and haikus.

Fig. 8   PicLit sample. (Samples courtesy of PicLit Gallery)

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Fig. 9   PicLit sample. (Samples courtesy of PicLit Gallery)

To begin the lesson, Mazza’s students examine snapshots that he culls from the Smithsonian Institution’s click! photography changes everything which is accessible at http://click.si.edu/. Mazza (2010) asks his students to consider the assumptions viewers make about images, and he challenges the notion “that a photograph is evidence of a factual event” (p. 35). Mazza (2010) wants to dispel the age-old notion that seeing is believing in order “[t]o help students distinguish between ‘truth’ and ‘speculation’” that an image inspires in the viewer (p. 36). The heart of Mazza’s lesson begins with students receiving a text message from their teacher when students are at home, extracurricular activities, or work. That text message instructs them to shoot a picture of what they are doing at that moment. Those images are sent to a flickr.com account, a photograph storage and sharing site. They will later become the subject of classmates’ six-word stories. Once students receive or select a photograph placed at flickr.com, they will develop at least a six-word story inspired by a moment captured in a jpg file (cannot say “on film” any longer). This lesson is designed to test the notion of how effectively a single image can capture the essence, the true nature of a single moment in time. Like using the PicLit website to combine language with image, here students explore how fully a single image captures a specific moment in their life and be understood accurately by viewers.

Analyzing and Creating Images: Before We Snapped Selfies, We Posed for Family Photos Most, if not all, families have a pictorial history documented in photographs and video footage, and those images certainly have powerful and intriguing stories to tell. Though many times the stories conveyed by those images have a shared history but the retelling of those stories can be as varied as the participants in those events.

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Louis Mazza (2007) developed another lesson, which tests the veracity and narrative limits of a single image called “Snapshot Stories.” Students bring prints of family photos or uploading digital copies into a photo sharing account like flickr.com. As a warm-up activity, students examine some teacher-culled sample snapshots to help them in their own family snapshot selection so each photograph contains sufficient narrative content. Once the class has brought in some of their family snapshots, each student selects or receives another classmate’s photo and develops a short narrative fleshing out what is “happening” in that single image. Students are provided with the probing questions to flesh out details regarding the characters, setting, and social context depicted in the snapshot: • • • • •

What are your characters’ names? Where are they? What just happened or is about to happen? What are they thinking? What is their relationship to the other character in the pictures? (Mazza 2007, p. 20)

When the stories are created, they are shared with the class as a whole with attention to evaluating how the story connects with the content of the image and the verisimilitude the imagined story creates in comparison to what “actually” happened when the snapshot was taken. The students who originally contributed their family snapshots can share the “real” story as they recall or as they have been told, which can lead to a memoir writing assignment, a staple of English/Language Arts curricula, now augmented by visual content. No longer are traditional snapshots of family and friends glutting Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat. The selfie has arrived—a phone camera and an arm’s length away! The explosive popularity of selfies now garners a good deal of examination in popular culture of what those extreme close-up self-portraits capture and reveal about their creators. Some adults, adolescents, and children embrace whole-heartedly the ability to share themselves in close-up and document moments important and superfluous to share with their followers on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. In “Why Selfies Matter,” Alexandra Sifferlin (2013) points out that “[d]evelopmentally, selfies make sense for children and teens. And for the most part, they are simply reflections of their self-exploration and nothing more.” Even though selfie production and sharing may be viewed as normal or typical behavior, what constitutes appropriate selfie images and occasions to share them yield teachable moments in the classroom. Appropriate for older students, Tim Stock (2014) has created a comprehensive 52-slide analysis of selfie culture aptly titled “Analyzing Selfies: culture mapping the meaning and evolution of selfie shots” that deconstructs types of selfies, examines contexts for sharing, and explores personal and cultural implications of these messages. “Don’t Hate the Selfies” from iPad ArtRoom provides other examples of selfies that could be shared with middle and high school students along with probing questions that address why individuals create these self-portraits. A sample of those questions to stimulate discussion and inquiry include:

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• What is the difference between taking a selfie to convey meaning, versus using text and talking? • When are selfies interesting, intriguing? What makes you look at or share someone else’s selfie? • How could a selfie be used to create change? • Is a selfie about you, the viewer, both…? • Are selfies an attempt to change how others see you? • Is the proliferation of selfies online affecting the way we interact with each other and/or our relationships? • What affect does the “public” nature of selfies and sharing have on the image and our perception of it? (iPad ArtRoom 2013) The iPad Art Room page “Don’t Hate the Selfies” links to the article and slide show cited here as well as other provocative pieces on the nature and impact of this social media phenomenon. If selfies are certainly easy to shoot and post to a variety of social media, is there an artistic potential for the selfie? In the fall of 2013, the Moving Image Contemporary Art Fair featured an installation called “The National #Selfie Portrait Gallery.” Those selfies actually take the form of micro-videos, similar to a Vine video. Examples from that installation have been archived by Time’s Lightbox feature at http://lightbox.time.com/2013/10/16/off-your-phone-and-on-view-the-nationalselfie-portrait-gallery/#3 (Reznick 2013). To continue an examination of the selfie phenomenon, students first would skim, then scrutinize images culled from that exhibit and archived at Lightbox. As students look more carefully at each image, they would consider which images fall into the category of “typical selfie” and why that image is included in this collection. Then, students might appreciate how selfies could have a visually richer, more artistic approach to capturing its human subject. To stimulate a more personal discussion among students who shoot and share selfies on a regular basis, it is easy to set up a classroom gallery of classmates’ selfies. In preparation for creating the classroom gallery, students would bring a hard copy of several classroom appropriate selfies shot at different times representing different circumstances or contexts. Some students may have to create a set of selfies if they have not yet succumbed to this practice. Prior to displaying the self-portrait in the classroom, each student would write about the occasion surrounding when that image was shot, where it was posted (and possibly not posted), and what kind of response was elicited by the image’s posting. For students who do not have an existing backlog of selfies and created a set for the assignment, they would write about why they consciously resisted or passively ignored creating these self-portraits and comment on the process of creating selfies. After the initial selection process, the selfies would be prepared for display. Students then would create mattes or frames that complement the mood, occasion, or subject documented by the image. Digital copies of the selfies also can be loaded into a slide show, but the gallery approach would be the preferred exhibition method, which puts sharing selfies in a very different viewing context from their usual

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home on a social media platform. Once selfies are displayed on walls throughout the classroom, students would circulate through the gallery paying close attention to the images that gain the viewer’s attention and noting what makes an image demand attention when it is exhibited with so many others. Students would then select three to five selfies to examine in greater detail by responding to the following questions: • How does the selfie “confront” the viewer? (“Confrontation” arises from the subject looking directly at the camera and how authoritative or reticent the subject’s gaze at the viewer appears.) • How does the image invite the viewer to enter the image from a single point or several different points? (Consider how the arrangement of the shot invites the viewer to focus immediately and primarily on a particular element before scrutinizing other aspects of the shot.) • What kind of emotion does the selfie project? (Consider if the emotion is primarily conveyed by the facial expression of the subject, the placement of the camera—low versus high angle, or the surrounding environment.) • How much context does the selfie provide? How much information does that context reveal about the circumstances that continue outside of the frame? • How does the selfie creator use any of the principles of visual composition (arrangement, placement, framing, lighting, or color) to enhance the visual appeal of the shot? After scrutinizing the artistic and communicative potential of the selfie, perhaps students will be “ready for their close-up” and produce ones that might be worthy of including in an exhibit at the Moving Image Contemporary Art Fair.

Creating Images and Expanded Narratives: Storyboards and Video Vines Students who take Film Genres, a cinema history and aesthetics course, at Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois, create “12-shot storyboards” as part of an introductory unit called “the grammar and syntax of film.” The storyboard relies on 12 still photographs to develop a simple story (see Fig. 10). Twelve shots: no more or no less. Those 12 shots must depict the action in a visually logical and coherent fashion. The images must demonstrate attention to placement, arrangement, color, lighting, and framing. The idea for the sequence is first submitted for teacher feedback and approval as a sketched storyboard with a brief description of placement, arrangement, etc., below each thumbnail sketch. The “pre-shooting” preparation helps students concentrate on the composition of each shot. To ensure that sequences demonstrate thoughtful and creative control of the camera, the parameters of the assignment can stipulate that there must be at least three different angles and distances among the 12 shots. Without that clear statement of expectations, less visually savvy students might favor eye-level medium

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Fig. 10   Twelve-shot sample “Rumors” by Rachel Carter

shots throughout their sequence since that is a natural way of viewing an action. And even though students have a planned storyboard for their 12 shots, they should be encouraged to experiment a bit during the actual shoot to capture an element with an angle or distance that was not part of the original plan. Once the 12 images are finalized, students assemble them on a poster or in a slide show format adding captions that include narration and dialogue to replace the descriptive captions they used on the sketched storyboard. This activity helps students understand the potential and limitations of developing a simple narrative through the composition and selection of still images.

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Writing an analysis of the finished “12-shot storyboard,” is the final step in the process. The assignment that the high school film students receive reads as follows: • First explain why you chose the event or scenario you did to complete this assignment. Then go on to explain how you went about selecting the appropriate props, actors, and locations. • Select two to three shots that you feel are the most successful in their execution. Explain how the arrangement of the subject elements, camera placement, lighting, color, and framing, contribute to the success of those shots in developing your narrative and setting the intended mood. Then discuss two to three shots that are not as successful in realizing your plans and why they do not succeed in fulfilling the planned, sketched image. • Finally evaluate the process itself. What were the problems that assignment posed and how did you overcome those difficulties? Overall, how successful is the 12-shot sequence in demonstrating control of the camera and creativity in using a limited number of images to develop a narrative? This written analysis is a crucial component helping students reflect on how their intentions for the planned narrative are realized, the limits of their ability to use a camera to construct effective images, and limitations of sequenced still images to convey a narrative. The written analysis can be easily adapted for students who are older or younger than high school age. The entire process could be planned, executed, and evaluated by a small group of students armed with a phone camera or an iPad who have the limitation of using the classroom and adjacent spaces as their settings. The 12-shot storyboard can be adapted as a live action video as the next logical step in telling stories with images. This activity is certainly good preparation for making 6-s Vine videos. When assessing the range of social media options for sharing text and images, Jenna Wortham (2014) points out, “Instagram is for your pictures and Twitter for your thoughts…Vine is for your personality” (p.  3). Essentially, Vine videos are selfies that move. This would be a natural progression from the appeal of static image selfies, since viewers “pay special attention if [an] object is in motion” (Medina 2014, p. 195). Similar to the content of traditional selfies, novice Vine video creators turn to their own lives for inspiration and subject matter. Acquired by Twitter 2012, Vine burst onto the Internet in 2013 and “the video sharing app saw a 403 % growth” in the first three quarters of that year (Fox 2013). Internet surfers can find 6  seconds of anything from a grandma’s wisdom to a 5-year-old dancing madly around in her princess costume to the tune of Frozen’s “Let It Go.” Some Vine videos create a hypnotic loop of images and sounds as they repeat into infinity. Others are just plain annoying. Vine videos are the visual equivalent of the six-word story that students can develop for still images on the PicLit site. The advertising industry latched on to Vine’s power and potential to remind consumers with dwindling attention spans that a brand, product, or service will satisfy consumers’ desires and make their lives better. Like anything that blows up online, a bit of thought and

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self-training in the discipline of planning and shooting a micro-narrative video can go a long way. Mashable offers a “Beginner’s Guide to Vine” at http://mashable. com/2013/12/11/vine-beginners-guide/, which provides the steps necessary to setting up a Vine account, shooting original footage, incorporating “stock” footage from preexisting sources, adding sound and special effects as well as offering a compilation of the best Vine videos and the best users to follow. Satirist and comedian, John Hodgman has posted a series of Vine videos to create an amusing primer on how to make them, which is hosted at the GalleyCat site: www.mediabistro.com/ galleycat/ (Boog 2013). Vine videos have an enormous potential for recreational self-expression. Refining the planning and execution of Vine videos in the classroom would have an enormous benefit for students who would move from just posting selfies on social media sites to expanding their repertoire with an occasional Vine video. In an academic context, 6-s micro-videos would offer numerous opportunities to create a video précis, which demonstrate a student’s understanding of a topic or concept. Though a précis is, strictly speaking, a summary of a text or speech, in the arena of Vine videos distill a subject, an event, a person, or a character down to its essence and translate those essential elements into images, words, and other sounds. When discussing the power of Vine videos as a marketing tool for universities, James Knight (2013) emphasizes the need to “break your message down to the bare bones.” The critical thinking and composition skills necessary to complete that task have tremendous transfer into other learning and communication contexts. Since some colleges are accepting Vine videos as part of their admission protocols, high school students could make a 6-s piece showcasing an aspect of their talents and interests to “show” something in a powerful way that the standard written application can only “tell” and perhaps not project that quality in a particularly powerful and memorable way. Middle school students could create Vine videos at the end of the school year to introduce themselves to next year’s teachers or to begin the year with a freshened up take on that tired “what I did on my summer vacation” assignment with a Vine video is assigned ahead of the opening of school. Since most students have access to a smartphone or a point-and-shoot digital camera with video capability, it is not an unrealistic expectation that they can at least shoot the “raw footage” during the summer months and have that footage available for editing during those opening days of school. The same assignment can be applied to summer reading, a staple of all grade levels. Students could distill their understanding of a literary text in 6 seconds. Beginning the school year with a digital project helps to set the stage to introduce or review the VML competencies students will acquire or refine during that term as well as open up a discussion of digital citizenship.

Promoting and Fostering Digital Citizenship Each of the activities presented in this chapter encourage students to consider sharing visual and verbal messages using a variety of social media channels; therefore, each classroom activity should focus on students assessing the value of sharing that

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message to a narrowly or broadly articulated audience. Students need to develop a set of digital citizenship competencies to support their emerging digital competencies. Mike Ribble (2012) articulates ISTE’s digital citizenship competencies at the Digital Citizenship: Using Technology Appropriately website, which provides a link to the nine themes related to responsible use of technology. Those themes are best encapsulated in the acronym REP: “respect yourself/others,” “educate yourself/connect with others,” and “protect yourself/others.” ISTE has created separate sets of standards for teachers, administrators, coaches, and students. The set for students includes a Digital Citizenship Standard that enumerates the following responsibilities: a. Advocate and practice safe, legal, responsible use of information and technology b. Exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration, learning, and productivity c. Demonstrate personal responsibility for lifelong learning d. Exhibit leadership for digital citizenship (2014, Student Standard 5) These goals could certainly be emblazoned on a classroom poster, but in a standards-saturated classroom, students might not be motivated to internalize those ideals. In Digital Community, Digital Citizen, James B. Ohler (2010) suggests creating mantras that express succinctly a school district’s or individual classroom’s educational technology philosophy. Ribble’s acronym “REP” would provide an ideal candidate for a classroom mantra. Ohler (2010) offers two possible mantras he favors as models: To use technology the way I use any of the tools I own, with respect and care, as well as with interest and excitement. To honor the power technology brings to my life by using it with the responsibility it requires. (69)

Ohler (2010) admits that both of those statements do not fall easily off the tongue as most effective mantras do, but these statements can be boiled down to “use technology effectively, creatively, and wisely” (70). Though it is not a real catch phrase or t-shirt slogan, that mantra creates an easy tool to measure how and why a digital message is created and then deployed, which can be at the heart of student’s assessment of their academic and personal social media messages. Depending on the age of the students, creating a clever catch phrase to distill a digital citizenship mantra could be an engaging means to begin a discussion of what digital citizenship encompasses. To foster greater ownership, students can condense ISTE’s Student Standard 5 and Teacher Standard 4 into a classroom mantra that would follow their work through the academic year and hopefully for a lifetime. Any and every classroom can provide an ideal environment to explore systematically the aims and demands of digital citizenship. Responsible behavior can be modeled through well-considered pedagogy, fostered through direct student experience, and transferred outside the classroom with a “full range of authentic texts that [students will] use as part of their social and cultural lives” (Hobbs 2011, p. 21).

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Looking Ahead: Impact on Curriculum Development This chapter focused on visual literacy activities integrated into existing English/ Language Arts curricula, but the activities and the concepts informing them stretch across the disciplines. Since English/Language Arts classrooms always have maintained the first lines of defense in cultivating traditional “reading” and “writing” literacies, they seem to be the natural place once again for the twenty-first century literacies to gain a foothold. The instructional tools which lead to developing visual literacy: “(1) foundations, (2) visual cognition and perception, (3) visual design” (Begoray 2001, Felten 2008 as accessed in Song and Turner 2010) combine naturally with the composition, reading, and understanding written texts. When technology and its social media applications enter the classroom, it is the task of any teacher in every discipline to make what is largely invisible to students visible (Ohler 2010, p. 70). Students are like fish that do not question the presence of the water. It is just there, a part of their natural environment. Ohler suggests that students become “de-tech-tives” which requires students to (1) investigate technology and related tools, (2) analyze them to understand the capability of using specific tools, (3) evaluate and recommend which tools should be utilized and which should be discarded (Ohler 2010, p.  72). Susan E. Metros (2008) observed that students in her college freshman seminar “could not express themselves visually” and “could not craft images” but “[t]hey could copy and mash up images from the Web” (p. 103–104). Once students receive the necessary training and experience in developing visual literacy skills, Metros advocates providing assignments that require multimodal expression and are assessed using rubrics that value “a variety of project dimensions, including originality of concept, aesthetics, presentation, professionalism, sources, and accessibility” (p. 107). In 2014, Common Core Standards have been the driving force in curriculum reform efforts across the academic disciplines in K–12 in the USA. Whether these standards remain in place, evolve into the next generation of standard-based learning, or are discarded like the “No Child Left Behind” initiative, they have thrown a powerful light on the purpose of an education in the twenty-first century to cultivate “critical thinking, problem-solving, and analytical skills that students will need to be successful” and to be “prepared for today’s entry level, freshmen-level college courses and workforce training programs” (Common Core State Standards Initiative 2014). Common Core Standards strive to equip students for the world of work in a complex digital environment when literacy must comprise a full complement of skills that go well beyond traditional notions of text-based reading and writing. VML is essential in a digital environment to create and convey information that is more highly designed and graphic than ever before; therefore, as education does not leave the acquisition of reading and writing skills to chance or “catch as catch can” the same thinking needs to apply to VML that may start in the English/Language Arts classroom but they must fan out and across the other disciplines much the same way the reading and writing across the curriculum has taken root.

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Glossary Flickr

https://www.flickr.com This app allows user to store, organize, and share photos.

Instagram  http://instagram.com This app enables user to modify, post, and share photos to Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. Meme  memegenerator.net The Meme Generator makes images available that are altered by the user, then reposted on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media outlets. These image macros (text laid over image to comic effect) tend to “go viral” and spread quickly in a variety of altered versions. Snapchat h ttps://www.snapchat.com This photo-messaging tool allows transmission of photos, videos, or drawings that are only available to the recipient for a limited amount of time before it is deleted from the recipient’s device as well as from Snapchat’s server. Tumblr  https://www.tumblr.com This app allows user to post photos, links, music, videos, and text that can be organized by a particular theme’s HTML. Twitter  https://twitter.com Twitter allows registered users to compose, share, and read 140 character messages or tweets. Unregistered users are limited to reading messages. https://vine.co Vine  Users create and post 6-s videos to this social network site. Whisper  http://whisper.sh/ This free app allows users to send messages anonymously usually in the form of an image macro as well as receive replies to their messages shared anonymously. Responders can choose to post publicly or privately.

Recommended Resources Baker, F. (n.d.). Resources for teaching visual literacy as it applies to news & journalism. Media Clearinghouse. http://www.frankwbaker.com/isbcurriculum.htm. Accessed 11 May 2014. Barrett, T. (2000). Criticizing photographs: An introduction to understanding images (3rd ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill. Barrett, T. (2003). Interpreting art: Reflecting, wondering and responding. Boston: McGraw-Hill.

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Brown, E. B., Gordon, Z., Quinn, K., Staking, K., Stewart, N., & Zabriskie, C. H. (2012). Visual literacy toolbox: learning to read images. http://www.humanities.umd.edu/vislit/. Accessed 22 April 2014. Callow, J. (Ed.). (1999). Image matters: Visual texts in the classroom. Newtown: Primary English Teaching Association. Carr, N. (2010). What the Internet is doing to our brains . New York: W. W. Norton & Co. Faigley, L., George, D., Palchik, A., & Selfe, C. (Eds.). (2004). Picturing texts. New York: W. W. Norton & Co. Holster, A. (2013, June 13). 3 ways to use Vine. Te@chThought. http://www.teachthought.com/ technology/3-ways-to-use-vine-in-the-project-based-learning-classroom/. Accessed 8 May 2014. Kist, W. (2005). New literacies in action: Teaching and learning in multiple media. New York: Teachers College Press. Krueger, E., & Christel, M. T. (2001). Seeing and believing: How to teach media literacy in the English classroom. Portsmouth: Heinemann. Worsnop, C. M. (1999). Screening images: Ideas for media education (Second2nd ed.). Mississaugua: Wright Communications.

References Baker, F. (2014). Infusing media literacy and critical media analysis into the classroom. In H. H. Jacobs (Ed.). Mastering Media Literacy, (4) 28. Bloomington: Solution Tree Press. Bamford, A. (2003). The visual literacy white paper. Stockley Park: Adobe Systems. Begoray, D. (2001). Through a class darkly: Visual literacy in the classroom. Canadian Journal of Education, 26(2), 201–217. doi:10.2307/1602201. Berger, J. (1977). Ways of seeing. New York: Viking Press. Boog, J. (2013). John Hodgman gives Twitter Vine lessons. Galleycat. http://www.mediabistro. com/galleycat/john-hodgman-gives-twitter-vine-lessons_b66023. Accessed 8 May 2014. Brenner, J. (2013). Instagram, Vine and the evolution of social media. Pew Research Center. http:// www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/06/20/instagram-vine-and-the-evolution-of-social-media/. Accessed 8 May 2014. Carmody, D. (1994). Time responds to criticism over Simpson cover. New York Times Archive. http://www.nytimes.com/1994/06/25/us/time-responds-to-criticism-over-simpson-cover.html. Accessed 15 May 2014. Common Core State Standards Initiative. (2014). What every parent should know. http://www. corestandards.org/. De Abreu, B. S. (2007). Capturing the Pulitzer Prize photo: An exercise in photo manipulation. M.T. Christel & S. Sullivan (Eds.), Lesson plans for creating media-rich classrooms (pp. 7–14). Urbana: NCTE. Debes, J. L. (1969). The loom of visual literacy—An overview. Retrieved from ERIC http://eric. ed.gov/?id=EJ010321 on Feb 27 2016 (EJ010321). Felten, P. (2008). Resource review—Visual literacy. Change—The Magazine of Higher Learning, 40(6), 60–64. doi:10.3200/CHNG.40.6.60–64. Finley, T. (2014). Common Core in action: 10 visual literacy strategies. Edutopia. http://www. edutopia.org/blog/ccia-10-visual-literacy-strategies-todd-finley. Accessed 15 May 2014. Flaum, S. (n.d.). Fostering visual literacy in the X-Box generation. STEM White Paper. https:// www.mheonline.com/mhmymath/pdf/visual_literacy.pdf. Accessed 15 May 2014. Fox, Z. (2013, October 21). The ten fastest growing apps this year. Mashable. http://mashable. com/2013/10/21/fastest-growing-apps/. Accessed 8 May 2013.

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Hattwig, D., Burgess, J., Bussert, K., & Medaille, A. (2011). ACRL visual literacy competency standards for higher education. Association of College and Research Libraries. http://www.ala. org/acrl/standards/visualliteracy. Accessed 22 April 2014. Hobbs, R. (2007). Reading the media: Media literacy in high school English. New York: Teachers College Press. Hobbs, R. (2011). Digital and media literacy: Connecting culture and classroom. Thousand Oaks: Corwin. International Society for Technology in Education. (2014). ISTE Standards. http://www.iste.org/ STANDARDS. International Visual Literacy Association. (2012). What is visual literacy? http://www.ivla.org/ drupal2/content/what-visual-literacy-0. Accessed 15 May 2014. iPad ArtRoom. (2014). Don’t hate the selfie. iPad art room: 21st century teaching and learning in visual art. http://www.ipadartroom.com/dont-hate-the-selfie/. Accessed 15 May 2014. Kajder, S. (2010). Adolescents and digital literacies: Learning alongside our students. Urbana: NCTE. Knight, J. (2013). 4 ways higher education institutions can use Vine . In iag.me seriously social. http://iag.me/socialmedia/4-ways-higher-education-institutions-can-use-vine/. Accessed 8 May 2014. Kuhns, W., & Stanley, R. (1968). Exploring the film. Fairfield: Cebco. Lenhart, A., Ling, R., Campbell, S., & Purcell, K. (2010, April 20). Press release: Teens and mobile phones . http://www.pewinternet.org/2010/04/20/teens-and-mobile-phones/. Accessed 12 May 2014. Mazza, L. (2007). Snapshot stories. In M. T. Christel & S. Sullivan (Eds.). Lesson plans for creating media-rich classrooms (pp. 15–29). Urbana: NCTE. Mazza, L. (2010). Stop. Shoot. Send: Using phone cameras to find meaning and to engage students. In M. T. Christel & S. Sullivan (Eds.), Lesson plans for developing digital literacies (pp. 32–37). Urbana: NCTE. Medina, J. (2014). Brain rules: 12 principles for surviving and thriving at work, home and school (2nd ed.). Seattle: Pear Press. Metros, S. E. (2008). The educator’s roles in preparing visually literate learners. Theory into Practice, 47, 102–109. National Association for Media Literacy Education. (2014). Basic definition. http://namle.net/publications/media-literacy-definitions/. Accessed 15 May 2014. National Council of Teachers of English. (1996). NCTE/IRA Standards for the English Language Arts . http://www.ncte.org/standards. Accessed 12 May 2014. National Council of Teachers of English. (2005). NCTE position on multimodal literacies . http:// www.ncte.org/positions/statements/multimodalliteracies. Accessed 15 May 2014. Ohler, J. B. (2010). Digital community, digital citizen. Thousand Oaks: Corwin. Ohler, J. B. (2013). Digital storytelling in the classroom: New media pathways to literacy, learning, and creativity. Thousand Oaks: Corwin. Pailliotet, A. W. (1997). Questing toward cohesion: Connecting advertisements and classroom reading through visual literacy. In VisionQuest: Journeys Toward Visual Literacy Annual Conference of the International Visual Literacy Association. Cheyenne, WY. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED408945). Reznick, E. (2013, October 16). Off your phone and on view: The national #selfie portrait gallery. Time/Lightbox. http://lightbox.time.com/2013/10/16/off-your-phone-and-on-view-the-national-selfie-portrait-gallery/#3. Accessed 20 April 2014. Ribble, M. (2014). Digital citizenship: Using technology appropriately. http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/. Accessed 13 May 2014. Rubin, C., & Newton, E. (Eds.). (2000) Capture the moment: The Pulitzer prize photographs. Arlington: Newseum. Sifferlin, A. (2013, September 6). Why selfies matter. In Time Online. http://healthland.time. com/2013/09/06/why-selfies-matter/#ixzz2jLufeA5S. Accessed 15 May 2014.

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Song, K. H., & G. Y.Turner, G. Y. (2010), Visual literacy and its impact on teaching and learning. In T. Yuzer & G. Kurubacak. (Eds.). T ransformative learning and online education: Aesthetics, dimensions and concepts (pp. 185–200). Hershey: IGI Global. Stock, T. (2014, January 19). Analyzing selfies. In Slide Share. http://www.slideshare.net/ scenariodna/analyzing-selfies. Accessed 15 May 2014. Visual Literacy Standards Task Force (VLTF), Association of College and Research Libraries. (2011). ACRL visual literacy competency standards for higher education. http://www.ala.org/ acrl/standards/visualliteracy. Accessed 15 May 2014. Worsnop, C. M. (1999). Screening images: Ideas for media education (Second2nd ed.). Mississaugua: Wright Communications. Wortham, J. (2014, May 4). Six seconds of loopy creativity, and millions of fans. New York Times, 4.

Google Drive Links to 12 Shot Projects Canter, R. (2014). Rumors. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1dUX4lRxlNnb2pxd0hTMmMwckU/ edit?usp=sharing. Accessed 15 May 2014. Ishaan, S. (2014). The missed called. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1dUX4lRxlNnUTdWcnRFU mpkT1U/edit?usp=sharing. Accessed 15 May 2014. Staten, J. (2014). Travelled Path. https://drive.google.com/a/d125.org/file/d/0B1dUX4lRxlNn Z1NGeHpfV25TTGM/edit?usp=sharing. Accessed 15 May 2014.

Mary T. Christel  taught world literature as well as media and film studies at Adlai E. Stevenson High School from 1979 to 2012. She has published several books examining on media literacy’s role in English/Language Arts curricula, including Seeing and Believing: How to Teach Media Literacy in the English Classroom (Heinemann 2001) with Ellen Krueger as well as coediting Lesson Plans for Creating Media-Rich Classrooms and Lesson Plans for Developing Digital Literacies (NCTE 2007, 2010) with Scott Sullivan. Mary has been recognized by the Midwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences with a special award for promoting media literacy education. She has also served on various committees and boards focusing on the integration of media literacy into English/Language Arts curricula including for the National Council of Teachers of English, the National Telemedia Council, and the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards. Currently, Mary is a regular contributor to the teacher handbooks and the related website for the Chicago Shakespeare Theater focusing on film, television, and other media adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays.

Multimodal Composition in Teacher Education: From Consumers to Producers Jill Ewing Flynn and William Lewis

Abstract  In the twenty-first century, visual texts are vital to learning in English language arts (ELA). As English educators, we know the importance of telling and sharing stories in various formats in order to build community as well as facilitate deep understanding of the concepts we teach. In our methods courses for undergraduates, two of our course projects help students think creatively and reflectively about themselves as ELA teachers, particularly in this time of changing demands, standards, and high-stakes testing. Further, these projects also help to expand students’ understanding of visual and digital ELA content and promote their development as sophisticated consumers of these texts. However, the projects also encourage students to be producers of digital content and to better understand the affordances of multimodal composition. We ask students to use digital tools such as iMovie, Windows Movie Maker, and VoiceThread to achieve our goals. In this chapter, we share the multimodal assignments we use and student project examples. While we teach in a university setting, we discuss adaptations to these projects that make them applicable to learners in other contexts.

Introduction At the University of Delaware, we recently surveyed students from groups underrepresented in teacher education to understand what might prevent them from entering the profession (Flynn et al. 2014). When asked why they were not interested in teaching, 47 % of the responses from non-teacher education majors indicated they had a negative view of the profession, with approximately 4 % of the respondents reporting that they believed teaching to be “boring” or “doing the same thing day after day.” While the reality of most teachers’ experiences is vastly different from this perception, unfortunately teaching, teachers, and texts are often viewed as reJ. E. Flynn () Department of English, University of Delaware, Newark, USA e-mail: [email protected] W. Lewis School of Education, University of Delaware, Newark, USA e-mail: [email protected] © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 D. M. Baylen, A. D’Alba (eds.), Essentials of Teaching and Integrating Visual and Media Literacy, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-05837-5_7

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petitive, unchanging, and out of touch with a dynamic, connected, and technologydriven world. Integrating multimodal texts into the classroom is one way to combat this mistaken belief, by expanding students’ and teachers’ communicative palettes and bridging the divide between literacy practices that are traditionally associated with school and those that are used to communicate our ideas and desires outside of classroom walls. In the twenty-first century, visual texts are vital to learning English language arts (ELA). The National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) cites among its core principles that “the concept of literacy” must be expanded “to include all forms of media” (2007). Literacy experts point out that modern-day literacies are more likely to take place on a computer screen than on a paper page (Ranker 2007) and that in order to be successful, students must come to think of themselves not only as readers of digital texts but also as creators and designers of those texts (Dalton 2012). As the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) (2011) notes: The importance of images and visual media in contemporary culture is changing what it means to be literate in the 21st century. Today’s society is highly visual, and visual imagery is no longer supplemental to other forms of information. New digital technologies have made it possible for almost anyone to create and share visual media. Yet the pervasiveness of images and visual media does not necessarily mean that individuals are able to critically view, use, and produce visual content. Individuals must develop these essential skills in order to engage capably in a visually-oriented society. Visual literacy empowers individuals to participate fully in a visual culture.

It is not surprising, then, that the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for ELA, the academic standards adopted in 43 of the 50 states of the USA at the elementary, middle, and high school levels, include a new focus on visual and digital texts. Using media to create and publish, utilizing technology to foster collaboration, evaluating the effectiveness of different mediums, and integrating sources from diverse formats to enhance understanding are all incorporated into the CCSS (see Writing 4.6, Reading Informational 8.7, Speaking and Listening 11–12.2, and Speaking and Listening 11–12.5; National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State School Officers 2010. These standards—and the demands of our increasingly digital world—must impact teachers’ instructional decision making and our responsibilities as teacher educators. For students to acquire the skills needed to engage in this digital world and share their stories and developing understandings with others, we need to include more explicit instruction in the real-world literacies that are represented by these texts (Lewis et al. 2013). As English educators, we know the importance of telling and sharing stories in various formats in order to build community as well as facilitate deep understanding of the concepts we teach. In our methods’ courses for undergraduates, two of our course projects help students think creatively and reflectively about themselves as ELA teachers, particularly in this time of changing demands, standards, and highstakes testing. Further, these projects also help to expand students’ understanding of visual and digital ELA content and promote their development as sophisticated consumers of these texts. However, the projects also encourage students to be

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producers of digital content and to better understand how “modes carry meaning” (Dalton 2012). We ask students to use digital tools such as iMovie, Windows Movie Maker, and VoiceThread to achieve our goals, building on other studies that have demonstrated their effectiveness in both secondary and university settings. Researchers have discussed how adolescents successfully use digital storytelling and podcasting projects to build community, tell their own stories, and develop multimodal proficiencies (Kadjer 2004; Wilson et al. 2012). Others have shown how both urban students’ and preservice teachers’ creation of digital texts fosters critical media literacy (Morrell et al. 2013; Garcia et al. 2013). Teachers need real-world examples of how they can encourage both the production and the consumption of visual texts, so in this chapter, we share the multimodal assignments we use and student project examples. While we teach in a university setting, we discuss adaptations to these projects that make them applicable to learners in middle and high school classrooms.

The Metaphorical Construct in Young Adult Literature Bill: The Metaphorical Construct as Alternative Assessment I was introduced to the “metaphorical construct” when I was a relatively inexperienced high school English teacher in the early 1990s, well before the technological explosion we are currently experiencing. It was attractive to me as an alternative to the reading quizzes, exams, and five-paragraph essays that I had primarily used to assess student understanding of literary texts, because the strategy pushed students to make creative connections with literature that traditional assessments suppressed. Researchers and educators have complained that instructional practices in schools often limit students’ capacity for making imaginative links, even though “the relentless drive of every human being to make connections is at the heart of the creative process” (Weaver and Prince 1990, p. 379). The metaphorical construct strategy is loosely based on the “synectics” work of Gordon (1961) and Prince (1970), a method for group problem-solving and innovation. Literally translated as “bringing together diverse elements,” synectics encourages participants to make connections between seemingly irrelevant ideas in order to generate new ideas and creatively solve group problems (Weaver and Prince 1990). When applied to literary texts, the strategy itself is quite simple and elegant and represented in Fig. 1 below. After reading a literary text, students identify an element of the text that they believe is important to the overall meaning of the work. This component could be the trajectory of a character’s development, the story’s setting, a repeated symbol, a textual motif, or other important aspect. Next, students “bring together diverse elements” by searching for a physical or cultural object that is metaphorically related to that text. Students deconstruct that item into its constituent parts, demonstrating

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Students read a text and identify an important element or motif

Students search for a cultural or physical object that is metaphorically related to the element or motif

Students deconstruct the object into its constituent parts, relating each of the parts to the element or motif

Students share their metaphors with their peers

Fig. 1   Metaphorical construct process

how they relate to important thematic or structural elements of the work or the author’s development of characters. Students then present their creative extended metaphor to their peers. Take the following example in Table 1. This thoughtful metaphorical construct was created by a high school junior in response to the novel Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut (1994). The student was fascinated with Vonnegut’s time-travel motif in the novel and decided to compare that motif to a fast-food “value meal.” In his sophisticated analogy, the main course became the main character’s tragic experiences as a prisoner of war because of the central and destructive role his war experience played in his life. His uninspired present became the junk food French fries, and the refreshing beverage became the main character’s escape into a future on the planet, Trafalmadore (Table 1). As you can imagine, this student needed to think, search, and experiment before committing to a suitable metaphorical construct that fully represented his understanding of this significant aspect of the novel. This experimentation is an important element of the strategy that encourages a type of critical and creative thinking that Weaver and Prince (1990) call “generative,” a process where critical thinking guides “the mental pursuits of guesses, approximations, absurdities, hunches, feelings and intuitions” (p. 381). At first sight, it is not obvious that a fast-food value meal is a suitable analogue for the central motif of Slaughterhouse-Five. However, through the student’s generative thinking process, he was able to build those creative and critical connections. As he deconstructed each of the elements of the meal into its constituent parts—hamburger, fries, and beverage—he developed a deeper understanding of the time-travel motif and a lasting and sophisticated understanding of how this motif is related to the main theme of the book. Instead of reading the text as merely a screwball dark comedy or a bawdy science fiction book, after engaging in the strategy he was able to understand the book as a more subtle and

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Table 1   Metaphorical construct for Slaughterhouse-Five (Vonnegut 1994) Slaughterhouse-Five’s time-travel motif = fast-food value meal Part of the metaphor

Part of the motif it is like

Connection

The burger

Billy Pilgrim’s experience as a prisoner of war during WWII (that he keeps time traveling to)

…Because this is the “meat” of the book. Kurt Vonnegut is arguing that war is brutal and dehumanizing and permanently impacts the lives of those who are involved. Billy’s safe but quietly desperate present life, and his escapes to Trafalmadore are caused by his “meaty” wartime experiences

French fries

Billy Pilgrim’s present life

…Because Billy Pilgrim’s current life is “junk food” just like fries. He is in a job that he does not like, and in a marriage with a woman whom he does not love

Large beverage Billy Pilgrim’s time travel into the future as a prisoner in Trafalmadore

…Because like a cooling beverage after salty fries, Billy Pilgrim’s imprisonment on a future Trafalmadore is an escape from the pain of war and the meaninglessness of his current life

sophisticated statement about the psychological and emotional impact of war on individuals and society. It is important to understand that students did not produce sophisticated metaphorical constructs such as this when I first utilized this strategy. Students often had difficulty committing to a single symbol, motif, or character that would be suitable for this kind of deep exploration. Other times, students either had difficulty choosing a suitable cultural object related to their novel or were challenged by the task of breaking down that object into its analogically related parts. Therefore, as I continued to develop this project, I needed to make some essential modifications to focus students on important textual elements in the project, to provide practice in analogical/metaphorical thinking, and to more effectively support the planning and writing process. The first modification was to simply introduce the metaphorical construct assignment even before we began reading the novel. This not only provided students with a more explicit purpose for their reading but also allowed me to review authors’ use of symbols, motifs, and character growth, encouraging students to generate multiple examples of each from books they had already read in preparation for their reading. The second modification was to add explicit instruction in constructing extended metaphors. Students generated extended metaphors for abstract concepts such as “love,” “schooling,” “disappointment,” etc., choosing physical objects to which these concepts were related, breaking those objects into its parts, and relating each of the parts to elements of the concept. Applying this practice to the novel, I asked them to identify the most important element of key sections in their reading logs and to generate a metaphor as a “pass out of class” summary strategy for that day’s work. These metaphors would serve as discussion starters for the next day’s

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class. The third important modification was to add a collaborative planning and writing element to the project. My students had a great deal of difficulty generating ideas for their analogy on their own. However, they were much more successful when they worked with peers as they experimented with ideas. Research demonstrates that collaborative approaches to composition lead to higher-quality products (Graham and Perin 2007), and can serve to build relationships within the classroom (Nolen 2007). Through collaboration and explicit practice with analogical thinking, students were much more successful with this project.

The Metaphorical Construct and Digital Tools When I began instructing preservice teachers in the university setting in a young adult literature and multimedia text course, I began to think more seriously about how my preservice teachers could combine digital and visual storytelling with the “creative connecting” that is a part of the metaphorical construct assessment. Digital tools provide an opportunity for students to not only read but also practice composing multimedia texts, and to efficiently share their work with their peers. A digital version of this assessment provides a clear connection to the CCSS Writing Anchors, which require students to use technology to “produce and publish writing and to interact and collaborate with others” and to compose texts that “examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content” (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State School Officers 2010). Additionally, multimodal composition provides a framework for reinforcing the communicative and social function of writing that is so important to student motivation (Boscolo and Gelati 2013). Instead of framing composition as a solitary endeavor that is only seen by the student and teacher (Boscolo and Gelati 2013), digital tools provide an interactive context and literate community of practice where composition can be widely shared and new composing skills developed.

Instructing Modes and Meaning The first step to changing to a digital version of the metaphorical construct was to broaden students’ communicative palettes and to teach them how different modes such as images, video, written and spoken words, and music can be combined for a unified effect. As we said in the introduction, “modes carry meaning,” and a specific attention to these modes was needed to be successful. Karchmer-Klein (2013) asserts that picture books and other early literacy material combine images and words in ways that effectively convey meaning, and young children are encouraged to look for visual cues in images when they do not understand a text’s words. However, she also points out that as students move through their educational careers, focus shifts from looking at both visuals and words to a words-only focus. I wanted

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to broaden our students’ perspective and to bring back these other modes into our students’ composition processes. Although the picture book example above is merely an illustration of the shift toward print as students move through the grades, we would suggest that a good starting point for preparing students for the digital metaphorical construct is by reintroducing them to high-quality picture books, as well as other print and digital media that integrate various compositional modes. We began using these texts as the assignment evolved to help our students analyze and discuss the ways that multimodal composers combine modes to develop a unified effect, after previous students struggled to combine images, text, narration, and sound to effectively convey their meaning. This approach not only targets the Common Core State Reading Anchor 7 related to integrating and evaluating “content presented in diverse formats and media” (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State School Officers 2010) but also serves as additional practice and scaffolding for close reading, where students must evaluate how authorial choices directly support meaning and create effect, the focus of Common Core Reading Anchor 4. We also believe that this is a perfect opportunity to introduce students to ineffective examples of multimodal composition, where the combination of modes fails to effectively communicate a unified message. This addresses NAMLE’s core principle that media literacy education “requires active inquiry and critical thinking about the messages we receive and create” (NAMLE 2007). For this project we downloaded effective viral brand videos (short videos created to sell a product), as well as those that we considered less effective. Students viewed the videos, analyzed them in collaborative groups for their use of images, music, and print text, and evaluated them as to whether they communicated—or failed to communicate—a clear brand message. After viewing and evaluating others’ multimodal compositions, students need to be introduced to the digital tools that they can use to communicate their metaphor and their understanding of the text to others. As discussed in our introduction, we asked students to use iMovie, Windows Movie Maker, and VoiceThread to create these digital products. Some students have previous experience with these tools, and they are fairly simple to use as well as free or low cost (see in Table 3 for more information). We provided students time to practice with these tools and supported them in their use. Further, a small number of tools allowed us to more effectively introduce the tools and to guide and evaluate the final product. However, as Karchmer-Klein (2013) suggests, if digital storytelling is going to be integrated into classroom instruction—particularly if it is to be used with younger children—more structured tools can also be helpful. Storytelling applications are widely available to support digital composition. These apps scaffold students’ use of compositional modes, and provide structure for their compositions using a basic story grammar. In sum, we have come to believe through several iterations of this project and the instruction that scaffolded it that if students are to produce effective digital metaphorical constructs, they must have explicit instruction and practice in three distinct areas that are represented in Fig. 2. First, students need to understand the metaphorical construct assessment and its goals. For students with a more literal bent, this

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Knowledge about how "modes carry meaning" and practice evaluating multi-modal compositions Knowledge about the metaphorical construct and speciic examples.

Knowledge and practice with digital storymaking tools

Effective Digital Metaphorical Construct

Fig. 2   Knowledge needed to build a metaphorical construct

understanding can be challenging! This phase of instruction includes introducing students to the concept and working through several exemplary illustrations of successful constructs. We would also suggest that teachers arrange for collaborative practice with their students by identifying characters or motifs from previously read works and provide opportunities for small groups of students to engage in the creative and generative thinking (Weaver and Prince 1990) needed to build suitable constructs. The second type of knowledge students need is knowledge about the tools of multimodal composition. Therefore, teachers will have to instruct students in how to use audio, video, print, and images to achieve a unified effect and to provide students with practice analyzing and evaluating effective and ineffective examples. The third type of knowledge is that of the digital compositional tools themselves. Although as university instructors we are more comfortable with allowing students a broader palette of tools, we would suggest that teachers of high school, middle school, and elementary students utilize one specific tool, and provide instruction and practice with its features before utilizing it in the context of the metaphorical construct. Focusing on a single tool will help students to master that tool, and provide a single platform for collaboration and sharing of the digital products.

An Example of a Digital Metaphorical Construct In order to illustrate a digital metaphorical construct, we would like to describe a project that was created by one of our secondary ELA teacher candidates. Rachel (all students gave their permission for their first names to be cited in our chapter)

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chose one of our course texts, the award winning young adult novel Looking for Alaska (Green 2005), and decided to focus on the emotional growth of the main character and narrator, Pudge. Besides being one of the most significant aspects of this work of fiction, Rachel’s focus also meets CCSS Reading Anchor 3, which holds students accountable for analyzing “how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text” (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State School Officers 2010). Rachel’s first step after deciding on this textual focus was to think about, search for, and experiment with physical or cultural objects that could become suitable analogues for Pudge’s growth as a character across the course of the novel. Walking into her kitchen one day to grab a snack, Rachel noticed a number of bananas on her counter that had quickly turned overripe in a matter of a few days. Although not obviously connected at first, our student was able to bring together the “diverse elements” (Weaver and Prince 1990) of banana and character growth in a metaphor represented in Table  2. We warn you that this metaphor contains a “spoiler” for those who have not yet read the novel! Although this is a wonderful metaphor that makes creative connections between two seemingly unrelated elements, developing the metaphor is not enough. Rachel then had to take the role of multimedia designer (Dalton 2012) in order to share her sophisticated understanding with others. In the case of this assignment, Rachel took a direct approach, using a narrated PowerPoint, with multiple images of bananas at each stage of ripeness, excerpts from the novel, various typographic elements, and a recorded audio narration in a five-slide framework (introduction slide and four slides dedicated to the stages of development). However, because of students’ overreliance on PowerPoint, in more recent years we have pushed our students to branch out to use more sophisticated and powerful tools. Our student could just as easily have used iMovie with Ken Burns-style graphics of slowly moving bananas, print text, small snippets of video from YouTube, and Harry Belafonte’s “Banana Boat” song playing in the background. Similarly, she could have created a Glogster EDU post that provides a digital framework for combining a multimodal mix of video, pictures, text, audio, attached data files, and hyperlinks in a creative and interactive digital poster (Lewis et al. 2013). One of the challenges that instructors face when assigning students digital projects is that students might seek to overuse some of the features of these tools, experimenting with the “bells and whistles” but failing to achieve a unified effect (Karchmer-Klein 2013). That is why it is imperative for teachers to play a guiding role in this design process. Just as we would suggest using a graphic organizer, like you see in Table 2, for the construction of the metaphors themselves, we would also suggest that teachers push students to create a “storyboard” for their metaphorical construct before moving to the digital tool itself. In this way, students can sketch out the flow of their ideas, decide what multimodal elements they will be using, and where they will be used, while providing the teacher and their peers with a clear understanding of both the direction of the metaphorical construct and the multimodal composition that communicates it.

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Table 2   Metaphorical construct for Looking for Alaska (Green 2005) Pudge’s growth as a character in Looking For Alaska = life cycle of a banana Part of the metaphor Part of character development it is like

Connection

The green, unripe banana in its bunch

Pudge’s naïve life before going to boarding school

…Because Pudge is “green,” part of a bunch of dull, flavorless friends, but full of untapped potential

The bright yellow, ripe banana

Pudge’s life after making friends with Alaska, the Colonel, and Takumi at boarding school

…Because in this section of the novel, Pudge breaks away from the “bunch” of his family and friends at home, ripening to the possibilities of his new life and new friends, experimenting, and rebelling. He is finding his “great perhaps”

The overripe banana

Pudge’s life immediately after the sudden death of his friend, Alaska

…Because like bananas that quickly turn from ripe and delicious to overripe, soft, and sickening, Pudge’s life also quickly goes downhill after the sudden loss of his friend. He is devastated and feels dead inside

The frozen overripe banana

Pudge’s mourning period

Just like overripe bananas can be stored in the freezer, the period after Alaska’s death is like this frozen storage period. Pudge is frozen with guilt over Alaska’s death, and in a self-imposed deep freeze in his friendships. He is also frozen in that he cannot stop searching for the reason for Alaska’s death

The banana bread ingredient

Pudge’s coming to terms with the death

Because like a thawed frozen banana, Pudge has shed his “peel” of guilt, loss, and bitterness that has separated himself from his friends, and transformed himself into something beautiful and complex like banana bread. He also appreciates the complexity of this new state and understands that life is about change and loss, just like the bread changes bananas into a tasty treat

In William Calvin’s The Cerebral Code (1996), he highlights the importance of metaphor to human understanding when he writes: If we are to have meaningful, connected experiences; ones that we can comprehend and reason about; we must be able to discern patterns to our actions, perceptions, and conceptions. Underlying our vast network of interrelated literal meanings (all of those words about objects and actions) are those imaginative structures of understanding such as schema and metaphor, such as the mental imagery that allows us to extrapolate a path, or zoom in on one part of the whole, or zoom out until the trees merge into a forest (1996, p. 159–160).

We agree. By using the imaginative structures of metaphor, we believe that like Calvin (1996), we can teach our students to discern patterns, and to develop the mental flexibility and creativity to “zoom in” on the important elements of a text and their world and then “zoom out” to reflect on the whole and what the text means to their lives. It helps students to extrapolate a path through a text and to develop long lasting connections to its most salient elements.

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Digital Stories About Identity and Teaching Jill: Students Telling Their Own Stories Bill’s metaphorical construct project provides an example of how students can use digital tools to understand stories. In his case, future ELA teachers use the project to analyze a young adult novel, but the assignment could easily be adapted to different ages and texts. In another course required for our future ELA teachers, Literacy and Technology, students utilize digital tools to tell their own stories. In the course, students create a multimodal narrative in which they consider how their backgrounds impact their beliefs about teaching and learning English and how their worldviews influence their future work with adolescents. Students address one or more of the following questions: • How and when did you know you wanted to be a teacher (of English)? • What experiences have you had working with adolescents, and how have those experiences influenced you? • What is your own background (defined in whatever ways you choose: race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, gender, region, etc.) and how do those parts of your identity affect how you see the world? • What and who has influenced your life thus far? • What is your philosophy of teaching? Students begin work on this project by brainstorming about the story they want to tell, using the website bubbl.us, another mind-mapping tool of their choice, or pencil and paper. They start to focus on the question or questions they want to address, taking notes on their responses, and begin to list potentially related audio and visual content. After reading about narrative elements—exposition, flow, scripting, images—and production elements—shots and narration—students then move to developing a storyboard; many excellent digital storytelling resources, including storyboards, are accessible on the web, including those collected on educator Kathy Schrock’s website (Schrock 2014). As they do in Bill’s class, students explore both good and bad examples of the use of visual and audio elements in texts, in this case examining the digital poetry found in the Electronic Literature Collection (2011). In preparation for a class meeting in our campus’ Student Multimedia Design Center, students then write a script outline and bring with them at minimum three to five images, one audio clip or song, one video clip, and a completed storyboard. Throughout this time, students practice using both iMovie and VoiceThread during short assignments in class to activate their knowledge of these tools. On the final product, students are assessed on the story’s focus and substance, pacing, visual elements, and audio content (voice and/or sounds/music). The project addresses the National Council of Teachers of English’s (2012) standard 2.1 for teacher education programs: “Candidates can compose a range of formal and informal texts taking into consideration the interrelationships among form, audience, context, and purpose; candidates understand that writing is a recursive process; can-

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English Language Arts: Students analyze literature through the lens of their own experience Community Building: Students share their backgrounds and history to connect with peers and course content

Social Studies: Students critically examine texts for the inclusion or exclusion of their identity marker

Digital Storytelling in other Contexts

Fig. 3   How digital storytelling can be used in multiple contexts

didates can use contemporary technologies and/or digital media to compose multimodal discourse.” Building on the skills developed in the metaphorical construct assignment, students in the course answer the questions using multiple modes. This past fall, the majority of students used photos (both Creative Commons-licensed pictures and their own photographs), music, voice-over narration, and title/section slides to create an organized final product that merged words, images, and sounds to convey meaning. Since this course was a new offering in 2013, I am looking forward to building up more examples of student work to share with the class as models, as not all of the digital stories did successfully achieve visual media literacy goals. However, the sharing of projects during class time helps students connect with one another to strengthen their cohort of learners. At the end of the semester, many students identified this project and our viewing of each other’s work as one of the things they enjoyed most in the class. While this assignment is focused on future teachers, these questions could easily be adapted to other contexts, which are represented in Fig. 3. For instance, digital storytelling can allow students of any age to share information about their backgrounds in a community-building activity. In order to grapple with challenging intellectual issues, teachers and students must first develop a productive and positive classroom environment. As Christensen (2000) notes: building community begins when students get inside the lives of others in history, literature, or down the hallways, but students also learn by exploring their own lives and coming to terms with the people they are “doing time” with in the classroom (p. 6).

She goes on to say that “the key to reaching my students and building community” is “helping students excavate and reflect on their personal experiences, and connecting

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them to the world of language, literature, and society” (2000, p. 9). Along with using a digital story project to explore identity and connect with their peers, students in an English class might construct a digital story to analyze a text using the reader response lens (Appleman 2009), explaining which aspects of their identities influenced their understanding of a text. In social studies, students might examine how aspects of their culture, race, gender, sexuality, or other identity markers are or are not represented fully in the sources they study. NAMLE (2007) “affirms that people use their individual skills, beliefs and experiences to construct their own meanings from media messages,” and unpacking these meanings is important. Such adaptations would combine the analysis of texts that we have previously discussed and the incorporation of students’ backgrounds to facilitate deeper understanding. In our course Literacy and Technology, students also study popular culture representations of teachers in films and TV shows. In their analysis, they find that many films and television shows paint, at best, an incomplete picture of teaching and learning. In some cases, media representations of teachers are overwhelmingly negative. The digital story project enables future teachers to use their own compositions to “talk back” to such portrayals of teaching and of school. In her story, Michele revealed that many people have discouraged her and her peers from entering the profession, but she was excited to prove them wrong. Sam proudly claimed that “Teachers are influential and their position should be respected,” despite the fact that “our society doesn’t value teachers enough.” Many projects extolled a positive, student-centered approach to education. Alli remarked, “I want to support my ‘family’ of students the way my family has me.” Emily noted, “My students are capable of anything,” and expressed excitement that “there are so many ways to connect with students.” Jill was eager to develop a “diverse and inclusive classroom.” Both Sara and Mark pointed out that they expect to learn from their students just as the students will learn from them. While our students are future English teachers, responding to media representations of any group—whether it be a profession, gender, sexuality, race, generation—and complicating what could be an overly simplified portrayal encourages students to be critical consumers of the media around them (Beach 2007; Flynn 2014). As NAMLE notes in its articulation of core principles, “media are a part of culture and function as agents of socialization” (NAMLE 2007). Through projects such as this, students of any age are empowered to become the “visually literate individual” promoted by the ACRL (2011), who is “both a critical consumer of visual media and a competent contributor to a body of shared knowledge and culture.” While many students naturally took this opportunity to talk back to negative or incomplete portrayals of teachers in the media, in the future I plan to directly invite students to do so, sharing with them the ACRL goals and NAMLE core principles. The digital story project also helps students critically examine their “apprenticeship of observation” (Lortie 1975). Many preservice teachers have had positive experiences in school and therefore ultimately replicate practices that perpetuate the status quo, which can be problematic. In response, teacher educators often “seek to confront the apprenticeship of observation and to stimulate reflection on teaching and learning through the use of autobiography” (Hammerness et al. 2005, p. 434).

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The majority of students in my class did indeed talk about teachers who have positively impacted them and inspired them to teach, but some students also shared more negative school experiences that they or others have had, enabling them to take a more critical stance. Kaitlin discussed how the education system failed her family. Her parents’ success in life, despite their difficulties in school, led Kaitlin to notice “the disconnect” between her enriching educational experience and that of her “disadvantaged peers.” Laura discussed her social struggles in school and noted how her own difficulty motivated her to teach in high-needs areas. Veronica told about her work with homeless youth, which opened her eyes to issues of poverty, addiction, and abuse that she knew she would see play out in her secondary teaching. Hannah explained that though she was a successful student, she became increasingly “unsatisfied with the system.” George inserted text in his story that read, “This slide represents the 18 years I spent in the closet. It’s my goal to make sure no student feels like he/she/ze has to hide like I did.” Finally, Garrett, who identifies outside the gender binary, talked about how ze wants to make sure zir “classroom is a space where students feel safe and included, because I know learning can be difficult when you’re on the fringe” (“ze” and “zir” are pronouns used by those who identify outside of the gender categories of male and female). By thinking critically about schools and classrooms, students therefore use this project to “be both critical thinkers and creative producers of an increasingly wide range of messages using image, language, and sound,” as the NAMLE (2014) advocates.

Digital Tools and Media Literacy Multimodal composition can be a powerful way for students to understand and tell stories. In this chapter, we have described our assignments, provided examples of our students’ work, and discussed how these projects might be adapted to other contexts. Just as our students learn through analyzing and telling stories, in writing this chapter, we developed new links between our courses and learned about ways that will make stronger connections between these projects. For instance, by identifying both the skills and digital tools that students need to be successful with both projects, we began to think more strategically about how and when we teach and reinforce these digital composition skills in our two courses. Furthermore, writing together pushed us to think how multimodal composition can be made a part of other program assessments, and how we can effectively build more of these digital composition skills across the trajectory of their teacher preparation program. Another challenge for us, as it is for all educators, is staying abreast of and competent in new technology tools that can help meet our goals. Teachers sometimes fear using technology because they do not consider themselves experts. However, we cannot allow the ever-emerging field to intimidate us. Jill learned tools like VoiceThread and iMovie along with our students, and together we were able to solve problems that arose. NAMLE’s core principle three articulates that effective media literacy education “builds and reinforces skills for learners of all ages” and explains

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that, as with “print literacy, those skills necessitate integrated, interactive, and repeated practice” (NAMLE 2007). The projects that our students complete do not make them or us, their teachers, experts in multimodal composing, but are nevertheless valuable in building digital composition proficiency and visualizing learning. NAMLE (2014) defines media literacy as: A series of communication competencies, including the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and communicate information in a variety of forms, including print and non-print messages. Media literacy empowers people to be both critical thinkers and creative producers of an increasingly wide range of messages using image, language, and sound. It is the skillful application of literacy skills to media and technology messages. (NAMLE 2007)

We believe that our course projects enable students to skillfully consume, assess, and create both traditional and multimodal texts. However, in order to develop these digital competencies, part of our jobs as teachers and teacher educators is to provide multiple opportunities for digital composition, and to explicitly teach the skills that students need to compose in multiple modes toward a unified effect. Even though substantive interactions with texts and wrestling with developing identities as adult professionals is difficult for students, we believe that digital tools are an effective scaffold and conduit through which students can share their creativity and analysis with others. These projects also serve as an effective catalyst for conversation, debate, and, ultimately, understanding.

Glossary

Table 3   A list of digital tools for multimodal composition Tool

Description/purpose

Cost

Bubbl.us

An online brainstorming tool that allows students and teachers to create colorful mind maps to print or share electronically with others

Free for up to 3 maps variable pricing for multiple licenses

Glogster EDU An online tool for creating multimedia posters that utilize text, audio, video, images, and graphics

Variable pricing for different types of subscription

iMovie

Movie making application that allows users to create HD movies using video, text, graphics, sound, and music

Free to those who have Mac hardware

VoiceThread

Free for limited number of An interactive, multimedia slideshow tool which allows users to create and share presenta- individual subscriptions tions, and allows viewers to add their own audio, text, or video commentary

Windows Movie Maker

A video creation and editing tool that allows students to create movies using video, text, graphics, sound, and music

Free

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National Council of Teachers of English. (2012). NCTE/NCATE standards for initial preparation of teachers of secondary english language arts, Grades 7–12. http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Groups/CEE/NCATE/ApprovedStandards_111212.pdf. Accessed 12 May 2014 National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State School Officers. (2010). Common core state standards (English Language Arts). Washington, DC: National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, Council of Chief State School Officers. http://www.corestandards.org/ ELA-Literacy. Accessed 12 May 2014 Nolen, S. (2007). The role of literate communities in the development of children’s interest in writing. In S. Hidi & P. Boscolo (Eds.), Writing and motivation (pp. 241–255). Oxford: Elsevier. Prince, G. M. (1970). The practice of creativity; a manual for dynamic group problem solving. New York: Harper & Row. Ranker, J. (2007). A new perspective on inquiry: A case study of digital video production. English Journal, 97(1), 77–82. Schrock, K. (2014). Kathy Schrock’s guide to everything: Digital storytelling. http://www.schrock guide.net/digital-storytelling.html. Accessed 15 September 2014 Vonnegut, K. (1994). Slaughterhouse five or the children’s crusade . New York: Delacorte. Weaver, W. T., & Prince, G. M. (1990). Synectics®: Its potential for education. The Phi Delta Kappan, 71(5), 378–388. Wilson, A. A., Chavez, K., & Anders, P. L. (2012). From the Koran and Family Guy: Expressions of identity in English learners’ digital podcasts. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 55(5), 374–384. Jill Ewing Flynn  is associate professor at the University of Delaware, where she teaches undergraduate methods courses and serves as the student teaching coordinator for the English Education Program. After graduating with a B.A. in English and History from Duke University, she taught middle and high school English for 9 years. She earned her Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction from the University of Minnesota and a master’s degree in secondary English education from Pace University (NY). Her research and teaching interests include critical multicultural education and teacher preparation. William Lewis  is associate professor of literacy education in the School of Education at the University of Delaware. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in disciplinary literacy, English language arts (ELA) methods, writing, and young adult literature, and serves as the coordinator for the Middle School ELA Teacher Education Program in the School of Education. He has served as a consultant to both the Delaware and Georgia Departments of Education, and presents a range of professional development seminars on disciplinary literacy, the Common Core State Standards, and text-based writing at the local and state level. Before coming to the University of Delaware, William taught secondary ELA for 20 years in Pennsylvania public schools. His research has been published in The Journal of Educational Psychology, Contemporary Educational Psychology, The Harvard Educational Review, and Reading and Writing Quarterly, and he is the lead author of the recently published Cracking the Common Core: Choosing and Using Texts in Grades 6–12.

Integrating Visual and Media Literacy in YouTube Video Projects Chareen Snelson

Abstract  Advancements in social media technologies have made it easier than ever to locate, produce, and share online video. Much of the rapid expansion of online video can be attributed to YouTube, which has become the largest and most popular video-sharing platform online. The development of visual and media literacy (VML) competencies is valuable when engaging with social media content and technologies like YouTube. This chapter illustrates how VML have been integrated within a set of educational YouTube video projects in an online university course that has been offered regularly since 2008. The projects discussed in this chapter were designed for an audience of adult educators, but have applicability in K–16 classrooms. YouTube was selected as the central video platform for several reasons, which include practical, technological, and societal factors. Competencies described in published definitions of VML frame the discussion. Curation projects involve finding, interpreting, and evaluating video resources, which are grouped into collections for educational purposes. Educational video creation projects include video blogs, remix, PowerPoint movies, and interactive videos.

Introduction The ready availability of social media and video recording technologies has contributed to the rapid growth of online video and an upsurge in video production among adult Internet users (Purcell 2013). A prime destination for user-generated video is YouTube, which consistently remains at or near the top of online traffic rankings (Alexa 2014; comScore 2014). Statistics provided on the YouTube website in 2014 reported that 100 h of video were uploaded per minute and more than six billion unique users visited per month (YouTube, n.d.). These statistics correspond to general trends for online video usage which have been reported as increasing for both video watching and video production (Duggan 2013; Purcell 2013).

C. Snelson () Department of Educational Technology, Boise State University, Boise, ID, USA e-mail: [email protected] © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 D. M. Baylen, A. D’Alba (eds.), Essentials of Teaching and Integrating Visual and Media Literacy, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-05837-5_8

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The growth of online video offers educators and students instant access to seemingly endless quantities of media content. Videos on a wide variety of topics are available and instantly accessible to support formal or informal learning endeavors. However, YouTube and other social media sites contain videos that may contain errors or be inappropriate for classroom use. It is evident that educators who use these materials must carefully review the content first or produce their own when suitable videos are not found. The development of visual and media competencies related to accessing, analyzing, evaluating, using, and producing media are valuable for anyone who draws on social media sites for educational content. This is true of educators as well as their students who may benefit from instruction regarding appropriate and effective use of video drawn from YouTube or other similar videosharing sites. This chapter illustrates how visual and media literacies (VML) have been integrated within a set of YouTube video projects in an online university course designed for adult educators, many of whom are classroom teachers. The information is practitioner oriented, rather than research oriented, and is derived from the author’s experience designing and teaching the online YouTube course for several years. The development of a “YouTube for Educators” course is described, followed by a discussion of VML and how they were naturally infused within the curriculum. Several class projects are discussed to show how media literacy competencies manifested in real-world practice. Although these projects were completed within the context of higher education, they can be adapted to a variety of instructional settings. Students who took the course created projects for instruction in a variety of settings including K–12 schools, colleges, and business settings. Therefore, the information has relevance for instructors in K–16 settings.

Development of a YouTube Course In 2008, the “YouTube for Educators” course was created as an elective in a large fully online graduate-level educational technology program that offers two master’s degrees, three graduate certificate programs, and a doctoral program. Courses at the master’s level include topics in instructional theory, instructional design, evaluation, online teaching, web design, technology coordination, game-based learning, virtual worlds, mobile app design, and emergent technologies. Students are primarily working adults, many of whom work as K–12 educators, instructional designers, trainers, or college instructors. It is within this context that the YouTube for Educators course emerged. YouTube was selected as the centerpiece of the course for several reasons, which included curricular, technological, and societal factors. These factors are described next to further explain the context and rationale behind the decision to create a YouTube for Educators course. Some of the challenges associated with the course are also discussed to provide a balanced overview of the background and history of the course.

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Curricular Factors One of the curricular factors associated with the decision to create the YouTube course was the long-term role of film and video as educational media, with an extensive history spanning back for more than a century (Alexander 2010; Snelson and Perkins 2009). At the time the course was created, YouTube was quickly turning into a huge repository of free video content some of which was valuable for instructional purposes. Enough colleges and universities were creating YouTube channels and uploading videos that YouTube EDU was launched in 2009 to collect and organize the growing body of educational video content (Greenburg 2009). It seemed evident that the advancement of YouTube and online video was inaugurating a new chapter in the history of educational film that should not be ignored in an educational technology program. In addition to the widespread presence of educational videos and channels on YouTube, there exists a growing body of scholarly literature on the topic of YouTube in education. In the years from 2006 through 2009, 30 peer-reviewed journal articles and conference papers from the field of education were published (Snelson 2011). More recent literature reveals continued interest in educational applications of YouTube. For example, Forristal (2012) described how a series of YouTube videos about the life and work of cultural anthropologist Valene Smith were integrated in two undergraduate tourism courses to augment the curriculum and fill an identified gap in the content of available textbooks. YouTube videos were used in engineering education as a source of discussion and problem solving related to the topic of thermodynamics. As part of a “YouTube Fridays” activity, students wrote and solved problems based on the events in the videos (Liberatore et  al. 2012). Alon and Herath (2014) described a class project where students developed a YouTube video in an international marketing course offered to masters in business (MBA) and undergraduate students. Student perceptions of the project, as measured by their responses to a questionnaire, indicated that the experience was positive and helped promote an understanding of the importance of teamwork and the uses of technology.

Technological Factors From the start of the YouTube for Educators course to the present, YouTube has proven to be a robust and intuitive online video platform. When the course began, YouTube was more compatible with the diverse array of student computer systems than anything previously tried for video delivery in the online classroom. Technological problems sometimes surfaced with YouTube, but students could collaboratively problem-solve since they were working with a common technology. Alternative online video sites were slow to load, had fewer features, or contained less content making them less robust and more problematic than YouTube. Furthermore, YouTube had been acquired by Google in 2006, which suggested the likelihood of

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further development over time. So far, this has proven to be the case. Over time, the suite of tools for video recording, editing, captioning, and interactivity have evolved on YouTube and many of the technical problems seen during early years have largely vanished.

Societal Factors The societal role YouTube has played remains interesting and discussion worthy. YouTube has routinely played a role in politics, school policy, news reporting, and other aspects of society, for example, the CNN YouTube presidential debates conducted in 2007 marking a political first (YouTube Official Blog 2007). News stories featuring YouTube videos have become common as journalists scour social media for newsworthy content (Paulussen and Harder 2014). It seemed as though anything could end up on YouTube including scenes from classrooms that are recorded and publicly shared in student video blogs (vlogs; Snelson 2013). Early in the history of the course, students were less familiar with the growing role of YouTube in society, but it has grown more familiar after years of exposure to YouTube and news stories featuring YouTube videos. Another societal factor is the growth in engagement with social media, which has been defined as “…a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0 and that allow the creation and exchange of User Generated Content” (Kaplan and Haenlein 2010, p. 61). The rise of Web 2.0 brought with it dynamic and interactive websites that enable users to create, upload, and distribute content through web browsers. The creation and exchange of user-generated content is a hallmark of YouTube, where users can use its tools to curate video collections and share their video creations. The YouTube for Educators course was designed for adult learners who are becoming increasingly engaged with curation, creation, and sharing of video and other visual content through social media sites. According to results of a survey of adult Internet users, 47 % had curated visual content for reposting and 54 % posted original images and videos online (Duggan 2013). The role of creating original content has gained traction in higher education as the growing ubiquity of social media sites like YouTube has leaders viewing students more as creators than consumers (Johnson et al. 2014). The YouTube for Educators course was designed to help prepare adults in the field of educational technology to become knowledgeable curators and creators of educational video.

Challenges Despite the benefits in preparing educators to use online video and social media technologies, a few challenges can be encountered when designing and implementing a course like YouTube for Educators. First of all, there may be a perception

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that the subject matter is questionable for a serious academic course. This issue was observed to some extent in the Learning from YouTube course offered in 2007 at Pitzer College, which became the source of curious commentary among several news outlets (Pitzer College 2007). The YouTube for Educators course, while not scrutinized by news commentary, has fallen prey to student misperceptions that the course primarily involves spending class time passively watching YouTube videos. While it is true that videos are watched, the course is designed to challenge learners. Great care has been taken to design high-quality curriculum that promotes development of essential competencies adult educators need in a social-media-rich society where video has assumed a prominent role. To promote quality and rigor, the course has been mapped to standards produced by the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT; Earle and Persichitte 2005; AECT 2012), which define knowledge, skills, and dispositions deemed important in the field of educational technology. VML are naturally embedded within projects that will be described later in this chapter. The combination of educational technology, visual literacy, and media literacy competencies provide a guiding framework for instructional design. The YouTube course was designed as a place for educators to explore its benefits, controversial aspects, and educational applications. However, a glaring challenge faced by many K–12 educators and some international educators is that YouTube is blocked and cannot be accessed from school. Access policies vary and students taking the course have reported that some of their schools are completely blocked, some have limited access, and others have full access to YouTube. Furthermore, students taking the online course from outside of the USA may live in a country where service to YouTube is disrupted or blocked (Google 2014). This is one of the reasons that the word “YouTube” was specifically added to the course title. It alerts students that they will need to gain access to the site in order to complete the course. Some creative solutions for using YouTube in the classroom are available. In 2011, YouTube announced a service called “YouTube for Schools” (Truong 2011), which provides a mechanism for opening access to educational content in school while filtering out everything else. Another option that students in the YouTube course have tried is the use of YouTube download tools, which are commonly available online. Videos can be downloaded, copied to a portable drive, and carried to school where they can be played without accessing YouTube directly. However, this practice is in opposition to the YouTube Terms of Service, which states, “You shall not download any Content unless you see a ‘download’ or similar link displayed by YouTube on the Service for that Content” (YouTube 2010, 5B). As another possible option, students in blocked-access schools may have home or mobile access to YouTube where they can view materials their teachers prepare for them. Off-campus access strategies align well with the flipped learning approach where video-based content is reviewed at home followed by homework or laboratory practice at school (Bergman and Sams 2012). This section has provided an overview of the background of the YouTube for Educators course to explain the curricular factors, technological factors, societal factors, and challenges associated with it. The rest of the chapter delves into the

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relationship between course projects and VML. An overview of VML competencies is presented first, followed by a discussion of the course curriculum and how VML competencies are embedded within several video curation and creation activities.

VML Competencies in the YouTube for Educators Course Potter (2013) explained that there are many definitions for media literacy, but they are largely complementary. It is not difficult to identify certain similarities in definitions related to media literacy education. The National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE, n.d.) defines media literacy as “…the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and communicate information in a variety of forms, including print and non-print messages” (The Basic Definition, para. 1, n.d.). Hobbs’ (2011) definition includes five essential dimensions of media literacy: access, analyze, create, reflect, and act. Scheibe and Rogow (2012) present a collection of eight competencies defining media literacy that include access, understanding, awareness, analysis, evaluation, creation, reflection, and participation. Similar attributes are found in the related area of visual literacy. The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) definition of visual literacy states that, “Visual literacy is a set of abilities that enables an individual to effectively find, interpret, evaluate, use, and create images and visual media” (ACRL 2011, para. 2). The definitions for media and visual literacy are clearly complementary with overlapping elements. In addition, they are in alignment to educational technology, which has been defined as “… the study and ethical practice of facilitating learning and improving performance by creating, using, and managing appropriate technological processes and resources” (Januszewski and Molenda 2008, p. 1). Essential processes involved in accessing, analyzing, evaluating, using, and producing media emerge as core elements among this collection of definitions. These overlapping elements offer a good starting point for designing curriculum to develop these competencies. New media literacies also factor into the equation when considering the role of social media sites like YouTube in education. Jenkins et al. (2006) have argued for the importance of new media literacies amid the rise of participatory culture and online communities. Young people and adults are creating and sharing content through social media sites, thus prompting a need to carefully consider how new media literacies should be addressed in contemporary education. YouTube, in particular, is home to extensive video content shared by everyday users who record and upload from their cell phones or home computers to share their opinions, experiences, interests, or expertise with the online public.

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VML and the YouTube Curriculum The curriculum for the YouTube for Educators course includes a series of projects and activities that fall into two broad categories: (1) video curation and (2) video creation. Video curation involves collecting and organizing videos on YouTube while video creation involves production of several types of educational YouTube videos. Curation and creation processes integrate VML competencies whereby learners access, analyze, evaluate, use, and produce media (Hobbs 2011; Mihailidis and Cohen 2013). Table 1 contains a list of several projects together with corresponding VML competencies mapped across the remaining columns. The information in Table 1 provides a global view of how VML aligns to video curation and creation projects. A deeper explanation of the video projects completed in the YouTube for Educators course is provided next. Video curation is described first followed by a section on video creation projects. Within each section, corresponding projects from Table 1 will be discussed in detail to illustrate how VML competencies are naturally embedded within the process of creating the projects.

Video Curation on YouTube Video curation in the context of the current discussion refers to the process of collecting and organizing videos on YouTube. Mihailidis and Cohen (2013) have argued that curation is a core media literacy competency that can be facilitated through online tools and social media platforms. Video curation on YouTube can be conducted through several mechanisms including development of a YouTube channel to collect and organize video content, subscription to other channels, and collection of videos into a playlist. The playlist tool on YouTube can be used to curate instructional videos for a wide variety of instructional purposes.

Playlist Lessons The process of instructional video curation in the YouTube for Educators course is emphasized in a project called the “playlist lesson.” To create a playlist lesson, students collect a group of videos in a YouTube playlist and type a lesson plan inside the playlist description box. The note tool in the YouTube playlist is used to type short comments or questions beside each video in the playlist for reflection, discussion, or written response. Figure 1 illustrates the anatomy of a playlist lesson created in the YouTube playlist tool to curate YouTube videos together with a lesson plan and question prompts for students.

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Table 1   YouTube video projects mapped to VML competenciesa Curate Projects

Access

Create Analyze

Evaluate

Use

Produce Produce written lesson plan, notes, and question prompts in YouTube playlist editor

Playlist lessons (vlog) collect existing YouTube videos into a playlist with lesson plan

Access educational videos on YouTube using basic and advanced search techniques

Analyze content for meaning and suitability for the learning domain and topic

Evaluate content and audiovisual quality for instructional use

Use collection of existing YouTube videos in a classroom lesson playlist

Video blog (vlog) record reflective monologue with text captions

Access examples of video blogs on various topics through basic and advanced search techniques

Analyze content, recording styles, settings, and audience, for various types of vlogs

Evaluate existing vlogs to identify best production techniques for video commentary

Use vlog to reflect on changes of perspective over time or identify speech patterns

Produce reflective commentary as video blog with closed captioning

PowerPoint movie record narrated video from visual PowerPoint presentation

Access appropriate images, diagrams, or other visual elements through search of image archives

Analyze images for meaning as they relate to the topic and audience

Evaluate media source and suitability of images for conveying information in an educational video

Use images or diagrams to visually illustrate instructional video based on PowerPoint or similar presentation technology

Produce narrated screen recording video of visual PowerPoint presentation

Remix reuse existing media assets in an instructional video

Access public domain or Creative Commons media through search or browsing of online archives

Analyze media assets for meaning and content. Review terms of use to identify media that can be legally remixed

Evaluate media assets for content and audiovisual quality prior to use

Use media assets downloaded from public domain or Creative Commons archives

Produce educational video with remixed media assets that help illustrate or communicate the instructional message

Interactive video link several videos together to create a nonlinear educational video

Access examples of interactive YouTube videos through basic and advanced search techniques

Analyze interactive video examples to identify different styles of linking and nonlinear design

Evaluate interactive video designs for best approach to use for a given topic

Use annotations tool on YouTube to experiment with various types of interactive linking

Produce several video segments, upload to YouTube, add annotations links, and test the interactive instructional video

The competencies in this table can be adapted for other types of video projects. Examples of projects are available online https://sites.google.com/site/vmlexamples VML visual and media literacy

a

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Fig. 1   Diagram of the parts of a playlist lesson created on YouTube

While developing playlist lessons, students expand their understanding of how to teach with video while simultaneously developing VML competencies related to accessing, analyzing, evaluating, and using visual media. A closer examination of the sequence of events engaged in during the process of selecting videos, reviewing them, and developing the lesson plan illustrates how VML are naturally embedded within the overall process. The following discussion aligns to Table  1 where the competencies (access, analyze, evaluate, use, produce) were mapped for each of the YouTube video projects. Access, Analyze, and Evaluate  The playlist lesson is populated with YouTube videos that are located and accessed through the YouTube search tool. The search process is critical for accessing topic-specific videos and it integrates the visual literacy standard regarding effective search strategies (ACRL 2011). Basic YouTube search is intuitive and accomplished by simply entering a key phrase. Advanced search techniques are available, but less obvious as advanced filtering options appear only after entering the search phrase. Some filters that may be of more interest to educators are those that sort or limit results by upload date, length, or closed captioning for use with students with disabilities. Knowledge of these tools enhances the ability to locate and access instructional videos on YouTube.

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Video search can also be improved by using some of the same types of operators that work with Internet search tools such as Google. For example, when searching for videos about volcanoes, a basic search with the phrase “volcano” is a logical starting point. However, other videos, which are not currently needed, might appear in the results. A search for volcanoes might yield a variety of results including volcanoes found in Hawaii, Mount St. Helens, or volcanoes crafted in the Minecraft game. If the Minecraft results are unwanted, the search phrase can be rewritten as “volcano−Minecraft” so that the minus sign acts as an operator to exclude those videos. Knowledge of these more advanced search strategies supports development of VML competencies related to locating and accessing media. During the process of searching for videos, students analyze the content for meaning and evaluate it for instructional use. Criteria for evaluating online video can emphasize attributes including, but not limited to, accuracy, credibility, visual quality, sound quality, use of media assets, organization, pace, educational value, and accessibility. An online video rubric, based on assessment rubrics from the YouTube for Educators course, is available for use when evaluating or assessing YouTube videos (see Table 2). Videos designed for specific genres or projects may have additional attributes to evaluate and require additional criteria within the assessment rubric. For example, Morain and Swarts (2012) included zooms and pans (i.e., magnify and move focus) in their rubric developed as part of a study of software tutorials on YouTube. Use and Produce  Playlist lessons have been used in the YouTube for Educators course as a method for lesson planning with video in the cognitive (knowledge, concepts), affective (attitudes, values), and psychomotor (physical skill) learning domains (Anderson and Krathwohl 2001; Snelson 2010). When students access, evaluate, and use videos to meet instructional objectives in different learning domains they discover the diverse representational quality of video as audiovisual media. It has been typical for thinking to be stretched for those who are more accustomed to one domain as opposed to another. For example, math teachers sometimes struggle with psychomotor learning while physical education teachers sometimes struggle with cognitive learning. The playlist lessons offer a method through which they can explore alternative approaches for structuring content-area teaching.

YouTube Video Creation The production of video aligns well to VML creation competencies since visual media must be selected and used for the purpose of conveying instructional information. Educational video can be designed as a form of multimedia instructional message, which has been defined as a presentation involving words and pictures that is intended to foster learning (Mayer 2009). The multimedia message can be composed in a variety of ways depending on the content, purpose, or learners. However, research-based principles of multimedia learning offer guidance for many types of

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Table 2   Online video evaluation rubric Excellent

Average

Poor

Accuracy

The video contains accurate and verifiable information

The video contains information that is generally accurate, but may be hard to verify or a matter of opinion

The information in the video is clearly inaccurate

Credibility

The video comes from a highly credible source that can be easily identified

The video seems to be credible, but the source is a bit unclear

The video is of dubious origin, has a clear or unfair bias, or seems to be selling something

Visual quality

Visual elements are clear, stable (no camera shake), and easy to see throughout

Visual elements are generally clear, stable, and easy to see, although slight problems might be present

Visual elements are fuzzy, have a lot of camera shake, or are generally difficult to see throughout

Sound quality

Audio is clear and at sufficient volume. Voice narration (if present) is easy to hear and understand

Audio may have slight problems with volume or may contain slight noises such as humming, clicking, or sputtering

Audio is muffled and has substantial problems such as noise, low volume, or unclear voice narration

Media assets

Images, audio, and video segments are used effectively to convey information

Images, audio, and video segments are used fairly well to convey information

Images, audio, and video segments are used ineffectively to convey information

Organization

Information in the Information in the video is well organized video is generally well organized, but may be and easy to follow somewhat confusing

Information in the video is poorly organized and difficult to follow

Pace

The video does not seem to rush or dwell for too long on any part of the presentation

The video seems to rush or dwell for too long on a small portion of the presentation

The video seems to rush or dwell for too long on a medium to large portion of the presentation

Educational value

The video has strong educational value. It is an excellent instructional video

The video has adequate educational value. It's an acceptable instructional video

The video has some educational value. It is a marginal instructional video

Credit for media assets used (if applicable)

Credit is given for media assets used (e.g., images, sound, video) along with information about source and permission for use

Credit is given for media assets used (e.g., images, sound, video), but information is vague or incomplete

No credit or attribution provided or it is evident that media are used without permission

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Table 2  (continued) Excellent

Average

Poor

Video info

The title and description on the video site clearly matches the content in the video

The title and description on the video site somewhat matches the content in the video, but is not overtly misleading

The title and description on the video site is missing, misleading, or not descriptive of the content in the video

Accessibility

The video has accurate text captions that are synchronized to the video

The video has text captions, but they have some inaccuracies or are not completely synchronized to the video

There are no captions, so many mistakes that is it hard to understand the text, or too far out of sync with the video to be helpful

instructional video projects. For example, some of the principles suggest that people learn better with a combination of narration and pictures (modality principle) presented in a conversational style (personalization principle). Other principles describe the importance of clustering words and pictures in space (spatial contiguity) and time (temporal contiguity). These principles offer guidance toward effective selection and use of visuals in educational video. Attaining knowledge of best practice for design of a multimedia instructional message is important as a first step, but falls short of being enough to produce an educational video. Technologies must also be mastered with enough proficiency to yield a usable video. A beneficial approach is to progress through a series of video projects ranging from low to high complexity. Projects in the YouTube for Educators course were designed with this in mind. Students begin with a simple vlog and progress to more advanced video projects. Each project introduces a different aspect of composition with visual media.

Vlog Project The vlog is a good starting project due to its low technical complexity. Vlogs are common on YouTube with people sharing a wide variety of interests as monologues or mobile follow-me commentaries recorded on the go. In the vlog project, students create a monologue style of vlog where they sit before a webcam or video camera. The vlog project is one of the simpler forms of video project, but still integrates VML competencies. Access, Analyze, and Evaluate  Students begin this project by searching for (access) and reviewing several types of interest-driven vlogs for content and recording style (analyze, evaluate). The list in Table 3 shows some of the various types of search phrases that can be entered in a YouTube search box to access vlogs on various interest-related topics. Each phrase combines a topic keyword (e.g., student,

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Table 3   Examples of YouTube search phrases for interest-driven vlogs Artist vlog

Fashion vlog

Journalism vlog

Student vlog

Author vlog

Filmmaking vlog

Parenting vlog

Teaching vlog

College vlog

Gadget vlog

Pet vlog

Technology vlog

Cooking vlog

Gaming vlog

Photography vlog

Travel vlog

Exercise vlog

Gardening vlog

Riding vlog

Yoga vlog

teaching, technology) with the word “vlog.” These examples show some of the wide range of commentary found on YouTube as well as some of the variance in vlog recording styles and contexts (Table 3). Use and Produce  The vlog offers opportunities to develop VML use and produce competencies in an interrelated manner. In the first vlog produced near the beginning of the course, students discuss their thoughts on the topic of “pros and cons of YouTube in education.” The second vlog is a final reflection where students answer questions about their learning in the course and discuss changes in perspective, if any, after reviewing their first vlog. (Playlists of example vlogs are available at https://sites.google.com/site/vmlexamples.) In addition to producing the vlog video, students are required to add a closed caption track to the initial vlog to gain experience in accessible video production for learners with disabilities. The caption track displays synchronously with the video on YouTube after clicking the closed caption button on the player. Students use the caption and subtitling tool, accessed through YouTube, to create and edit the captions (YouTube Help Center, n.d.a). Once created, the captions can be translated to other languages on YouTube making the video message accessible to a wider audience. An additional side effect of captioning videos is that it helps students identify patterns of speech, wordiness, or the presence of problems such as “um” or “uh” while speaking. The vlog project requires students to record and display their image along with their personal thoughts regarding the assigned topic or questions. Even though the syllabus states that their work will be uploaded to YouTube, which is a public space, some are not comfortable displaying the vlog in public view due to its more personal nature. The privacy settings for YouTube videos are introduced at this point and students are given the option to upload their vlog as a public video (anyone can view), unlisted (only people with the link can view), or private (must be shared between YouTube users to view). The remaining projects in the course are instructional videos, typically without student faces and personal opinions, and they evoke fewer privacy concerns.

PowerPoint Movie The PowerPoint movie project provides an intermediate level of complexity for instructional video design in the YouTube for Educators course. Familiarity with

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PowerPoint is typically high as many people have created or viewed presentations prior to the course. It is common for misgivings to be expressed about the project due to having experienced boring or poor-quality presentations in the past. The project offers an opportunity to apply a fresh visually oriented approach to what some consider an older and less exciting technology. VML competencies, as well as technical skills, are easily integrated in a simultaneous process. Access, Analyze, and Evaluate  One of the goals for the PowerPoint movie project is to use visuals, such as images, pictures, and diagrams, to help convey instructional information in a video. Students are encouraged to begin by selecting a topic that lends itself to representation in visual form. For example, a tutorial about parts of the cell is an example of a visual topic where visuals are easily integrated. However, a presentation on study tips for students or parts of speech may be more challenging to represent in visual form. Once a topic is selected, students must either locate or create suitable visual elements that clearly serve to illustrate what they are teaching in the video. Images are typically selected from online archives containing public domain or Creative Commons media. Use and Produce  The PowerPoint project requires using PowerPoint or a similar presentation tool (e.g., Google Drive, Keynote) to teach something with pictures, images, or diagrams in video form. Minimal text is used on the slides as suggested by the redundancy principle of multimedia learning, which states that on-screen text can be detrimental to learning under certain conditions (Mayer 2009). Text is used according to the signaling principle of multimedia learning to provide cues about content organization. Slide titles, short phrases, or labels are often applicable. Animations are also used as a visual and signaling aid to draw the eye toward screen elements corresponding to voice narration. Once the PowerPoint presentation is ready, screen-recording technology is used record a video of the computer screen while the presentation is clicked through. Voice narration is simultaneously recorded by speaking through a microphone attached to the computer. The final video is uploaded to YouTube where it can be easily shared and captioned for accessibility. Many educators in the course have expressed surprise at how easy it was to use this approach to develop visual presentations in video format. (A playlists of example PowerPoint movies is available at https://sites.google.com/site/vmlexamples.)

Remix Video The remix video is a more advanced educational video project involving selection or repurposing of visual content found online in public domain or Creative Commons archives. Goals for this project include identification of online media resources, management of multiple media assets, and production of an educational video with a combination of media elements. VML competencies are embedded within the process of completing a remix video.

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Access, Analyze, and Evaluate  One of the first steps in the remix project is to identify a topic and acquire or create media assets to produce a video that teaches something about the selected topic. Students are encouraged to search online media archives (e.g., Internet Archive, Wikimedia Commons, Library of Congress) for public domain or Creative Commons media with a CC-BY license permitting remix and reuse (Creative Commons, n.d.). Close examination of media licenses, copyright, and fair use come into play when selecting and reusing media assets. This can be a challenging and eye-opening experience for some. Hobbs (2010) has noted considerable confusion among educators who sometimes think there are no limits when it comes to using media in education. Similar confusion has come up numerous times in the YouTube for Educators course when students upload copyrighted materials in their video projects despite instructions provided to circumvent these problems. Videos are automatically scanned by the Content ID system on YouTube and students sometimes encounter problems with videos getting muted or blocked (YouTube Help Center, n.d.b). This can happen even with legitimate public domain content, although a dispute system is in place to resolve these types of problems. It opens an interesting dialogue regarding copyright, fair use, and automated scanning systems. Use and Produce  Students have created a variety of videos with the remix approach in the YouTube for Educators course on topics such as the evolution of animation, parts of speech in classic cartoons, and propaganda in film. (A playlists of remix examples is available at https://sites.google.com/site/vmlexamples.) In these educational remix videos, students use images, sound files, and portions of existing videos to compose something new. Possibilities for creative repurposing of media assets are endless. However, the mini-documentary video is one particularly good application for video remix due to the availability of media that has entered the public domain because of age. In a mini-documentary, a video is created as a factual story that can feature local people, places, events, or other historical stories. An example is the video called Making Movies in the Late 1800s: Edison’s Black Maria (Snelson 2012), which was created with public domain media to tell the story of the first movie studio in the USA where films were produced in conjunction with the newly invented motion picture technologies.

Interactive YouTube Videos Interactive video is another advanced project created in the YouTube for Educators course. This project highlights how the tools on YouTube add functionality after video production and upload. Interactive video is created with an annotations tool on YouTube, which offers a way to add links from one video to another after upload. It is possible to create video quizzes, simulations, virtual tours, interactive adventures, or branching stories by linking a collection of videos together. Each new video presents a set of choices for different pathways through the content based on user decision enacted by clicking on the video link.

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Access and Evaluate  One of the first steps in the interactive video project is to access and evaluate several examples on YouTube, which are provided in a playlist at https://sites.google.com/site/vmlexamples. The examples are reviewed for content, but also for branching structures, to analyze and evaluate how the videos are linked together on YouTube. Each video contains links on it that allow users to click and open a new video. Use and Produce  The process of designing and creating an interactive video introduces the nonlinear element to video, which can change the instructional message depending on user selection. This is different from traditional film or video, which is a sequential presentation. With interactive video, an educator can create a virtual tour of a local historical site, create an audiovisual quiz, or simulate decisionmaking processes. This is a much different way to engage learners with the video content and relatively easy to do on YouTube.

Reflection and Conclusion YouTube was selected as a platform where students could develop their technical and instructional media design skills and it has worked very well over the years. The technologies are robust, content is widely available on many topics, and the presence of YouTube-related stories in the news provide plenty to talk about. As illustrated in this chapter, VML skills are naturally integrated within the mix of educational technology, pedagogy, social media, and educational video design projects. Over the years, Web 2.0 technologies have evolved along with the baseline skill set of students. As compared to the early days of the course, students now tend to arrive with more sophisticated skills, greater familiarity with video technologies, and a comfort level with YouTube. Curriculum must be regularly updated to maintain projects and assignments set at an appropriate level for an increasingly advanced entry level. In addition, YouTube functionality tends to change often, which adds another reason for continual updates. Anyone who teaches a course like the one described in this chapter should be prepared for continual updates to course curriculum and materials. One of the remaining challenges for instruction involving video production or social media is that of assessment. It can be challenging to identify and assess VML or quality of instructional message in video projects (Schilder 2014). There is room to continue refining what it means to have attained visual or media literacy and how to measure those outcomes. Rubrics are used to assess student video projects in the YouTube for Educators course, but they assess VML indirectly through assessment of the final product. The online video rubric (Table 2) is a generalized version of the rubrics used for class assessment of video projects created for the course. Overall, it has been an interesting experience to design and teach the YouTube for Educators course over the years. Much has been learned from reviewing projects and discussion forum posts produced by students who are themselves educators.

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Student reactions to the course, and particularly to the video editing aspects, have been positive. As one student stated, “This was such an innovative course. I really like how it focused on video production in the education setting. I never thought I’d learn some of these techniques, and I am really glad I took the course. I would recommend it for any educator, and I had fun creating projects.” The symbiosis of VML and educational technology is evident in student projects and also when mapping out the related standards across the course curriculum. The course will continue to evolve, because social media and student experiences with these technologies are constantly changing. However, VML and educational technology competencies will remain central to future iterations of the YouTube for Educators course.

References Anderson, L. W., & Krathwohl, D. R. (Eds.). (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives. New York: Longman. Alexa (2014). Top sites: The top 100 sites on the web. http://www.alexa.com/topsites. Accessed 10 May 2014 Alexander, G. (2010). Academic films for the classroom: A history. Jefferson: McFarland. Alon, I., & Herath, R. K. (2014). Teaching international business via social media projects. Journal of Teaching in International Business, 25(1), 44–59. doi:10.1080/08975930.2013.847814. Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL). (2011). ACRL Visual literacy competency standards for higher education. http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/visualliteracy. Accessed 10 May 2014 Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT). (2012). AECT standards 2012 version. http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/aect.site-ym.com/resource/resmgr/AECT_Documents/ AECT_ Standards_adopted7_16_2.pdf. Accessed 10 May 2014 Bergman, J., & Sams, A. (2012). Flip your classroom: Reach every student in every class every day. Eugene: International Society for Technology in Education. comScore. (2014). comScore Releases January 2014 U.S. Online video rankings. https://www. comscore.com/Insights/Press_Releases/2014/2/comScore_Releases_January_2014_US_Online_Video_Rankings. Accessed 10 May 2014 Creative Commons. (n.d.). About the licenses. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/. Duggan, M. (2013). Photo and video sharing grow online. Retrieved from the Pew Research Internet Project. http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/10/28/photo-and-video-sharing-grow-online/. Accessed 10 May 2014 Earle, R.S., & Persichitte, K.A. (Eds.) (2005). Standards for the accreditation of school media specialist and educational technology specialist programs (4th ed.). Bloomington: Association for Educational Communications and Technology. http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/aect.site-ym.com/ resource/resmgr/AECT_Documents/AECTstandardsREV2005.pdf. Accessed 10 May 2014 Forristal, L. J. (2012). Using YouTube videos of anthropology of tourism pioneer Valene Smith’s work and philosophy to balance the tourism curriculum. Journal of Teaching in Travel & Tourism, 12(1), 91–104. doi:10.1080/15313220.2012.650098. Google (2014). Recent and ongoing disruptions of traffic to Google products. http://www.google. com/transparencyreport/traffic/. Accessed 10 May 2014 Greenburg, O. (2009). Education for all [Web log post]. Official YouTube Blog. http://youtubeglobal.blogspot.com/2009/03/higher-education-for-all.html. Accessed 10 May 2014 Hobbs, R. (2010). Copyright clarity: How fair use supports digital learning. Thousand Oaks: Sage.

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Hobbs, R. (2011). Digital and media literacy: Connecting culture and classroom. Thousand Oaks: Sage. Januszewski, A., & Molenda, M. (eds) (2008). Educational technology: A definition with commentary. New York: Routledge. Jenkins, H., Clinton, K., Purushotma, R., Robison, A.J., & Weigel, M. (2006). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media education for the 21st century. http://www.macfound.org/press/publications/white-paper-confronting-the-challenges-of-participatory-culturemedia-education-for-the-21st-century-by-henry-jenkins/. Accessed 10 May 2014 Johnson, L., Adams Becker, S., Estrada, V., & Freeman, A. (2014). NMC horizon report: 2014 higher education edition. Austin: The New Media Consortium. http://www.nmc.org/ publications/2014-horizon-report-higher-ed. Accessed 10 May 2014 Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M. (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of social media. Business Horizons, 53(1), 59–68. doi:10.1016/j.bushor.2009.09.003. Liberatore, M. W., Vestal, C. R., & Herring, A. M. (2012). Advances in engineering education YouTube Fridays: Student led development of engineering estimate problems. Advances in Engineering Education, 3(1), 1–16. Mayer, R.E. (2009). Multimedia learning (2nd ed.). New York: Cambridge University Press. Mihailidis, P., & Cohen, J. (2013). Exploring curation as a core competency in digital and media literacy education. Journal of Interactive Media in Education. http://www-jime.open.ac.uk/ jime/article/viewArticle/2013-02/html. Accessed 10 May 2014 Morain, M., & Swarts, J. (2012). YouTutorial: A framework for assessing instructional online video. Technical Communication Quarterly, 21(1), 6–24. doi:10.1080/10572252.2012.626690. National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE). (n.d). Media literacy defined. http://namle.net/publications/media-literacy-definitions/. Paulussen, S., & Harder, R. A. (2014). Social media references in newspapers. Journalism Practice. doi:10.1080/17512786.2014.894327. Pitzer College. (2007). Learning from YouTube. Participant Online. https://www.pitzer.edu/participant_online/2007_fall/pitzer-college-news/in-the-news.asp. Accessed 10 May 2014 Potter, J.W. (2013). Review of literature on media literacy. Sociology Compass, 7(6), 417–435. doi:10.1111/soc4.12041. Purcell, K. (2013). Online video 2013. Retrieved from the Pew Research Internet Project. http:// www.pewinternet.org/2013/10/10/online-video-2013/. Accessed 10 May 2014 Scheibe, C., & Rogow, F. (2012). The teacher’s guide to media literacy: Critical thinking in a multimedia world. Thousand Oaks: Sage. Schilder, E.A.M. (2014). Perceptions of media literacy assessment: A mixed methods study. Dissertation, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. http://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/bitstream/handle/10919/47727/Schilder_EA_D_2014.pdf. Accessed 10 May 2014 Snelson, C. (2010). Mapping YouTube “video playlist lessons” to the learning domains: Planning for cognitive, affective, and psychomotor learning. In C. Crawford et al. (Eds.), Proceedings of society for information technology & teacher education international conference 2010 (pp. 1193–1198). Chesapeake: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education. Snelson, C. (2011). YouTube across the disciplines: A review of the literature. MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 7(1), 159–169. http://jolt.merlot.org/vol7no1/snelson_0311. htm. Accessed 10 May 2014 Snelson, C. (2012). Making movies in the late 1800s: Edison’s Black Maria [Video file]. https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjSNrfpPFCg. Accessed 10 May 2014 Snelson, C. (2013). Vlogging about school on YouTube: An exploratory study. New Media & Society. doi:10.1177/1461444813504271. Snelson, C., & Perkins, R.A. (2009). From silent film to YouTube: Tracing the historical roots of motion picture technologies in education. Journal of Visual Literacy, 28(1): 1–27. Truong, B. (2011). Opening up a world of educational content with YouTube for Schools [Web log post]. Official YouTube Blog. http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2011/12/opening-up-worldof-educational-content.html. Accessed 10 May 2014

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Chareen Snelson  is an associate professor and associate chair in the Department of Educational Technology at Boise State University. The EDTECH program offers several graduate degrees online. Dr. Snelson has designed and taught online courses for more than a decade on topics including web design, multimedia, and technology integration. Dr. Snelson developed a course called YouTube for Educators, which covers video sharing and online video production for the classroom. She has produced hundreds of instructional videos for use in her online courses, and she maintains an active YouTube channel. Her scholarly activity centers on YouTube, online video, and qualitative research methodologies for YouTube and other social media.

Using Scientific Visualization to Enhance the Teaching and Learning of Core Concepts S. Raj Chaudhury, Lynn Mandeltort, Amy B. Mulnix, Eleanor V.H. Vandegrift and Jennifer R. Yates

Abstract  Scientific visualization is a particular type of information representation that involves the use of static and dynamic visual and graphical media. To develop fluency with scientific visualization, one needs to develop the ability to interpret, analyze, and construct meaning from appropriate visual representations. Results from the cognitive sciences and discipline-based education research indicate that visual images help us learn and reason. We present vignettes from a variety of higher education perspectives in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines that illustrate the use of scientific visualizations in different settings. In particular, the cases illustrate how faculty recognized that a lack of media literacy was impairing student success and then responded by embedding the teaching of those skills into course content. In this chapter, we move from basic interpretation of x–y line graphs in mathematics, physics, and chemistry courses to learning biology from animated simulations and student-generated digital videos to explain neuroscience concepts. Practitioners reading this chapter will gain instructional insight into the challenges students encounter when learning and strategies that faculty can employ to overcome those challenges.

Introduction In this chapter, we present vignettes that illustrate challenges the authors have faced in teaching and supporting student learning and how we addressed these challenges. We discovered that our students in college-level science, technology, engineering, S. R. Chaudhury () · L. Mandeltort Auburn University, Auburn, AL, USA e-mail: [email protected] A. B. Mulnix Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, PA, USA E. V. H. Vandegrift University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA J. R. Yates Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, OH, USA © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 D. M. Baylen, A. D’Alba (eds.), Essentials of Teaching and Integrating Visual and Media Literacy, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-05837-5_9

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and mathematics (STEM) courses needed a particular type of media literacy— namely the ability to interpret, analyze, predict, and construct representations of scientific phenomena. Our instructional goals have required the use of static and dynamic visual and graphical media. The National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) defines a set of competencies, including the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and communicate information in a variety of formats (NAMLE 2014). This type of visual media literacy is, in our view, most closely aligned with the interdisciplinary field of scientific visualization. Abstract representations of ideas through static pictures, visuals, and diagrams (long available in text books) are being supplemented by the ready availability of computer animations and models, videos, screen casts, and podcasts that require students to focus on visuals that represent the material (Toto and Booth 2008). Yet, results from discipline-based education research in STEM consistently demonstrate that students have difficulty interpreting representations of ideas and phenomena (Singer et al. 2012). Faculty often overlook such difficulties, even as students are asked in situations such as a flipped classroom to interpret visuals without faculty explanation and then use those visuals during subsequent class time to expand on the material through discussion and guided inquiry activities (Fulton 2012). In addition, there is now widespread consumption of digital video through sites such as YouTube and the instant production of videos through the availability of smartphones and other handheld devices. The research base for the ideas expressed in this chapter is captured most recently in Thinking Visually by Reed (2010), which presents evidence from empirical studies that human learning is influenced by visual images, both static and dynamic, that “help us learn and reason” (Reed 2010, p. 173). Reed points out that while we communicate primarily through language, much of our thought is actually composed of visual images. Mayer and Alexander (2011) contend that the act of integrating verbal and pictorial components is critical for learning to understand. It follows that to teach students to “think scientifically” it is imperative they learn to interpret and produce visual images. At the same time, one has to be careful about cognitive overload in the student (Ambrose et al. 2010; Sweller 1994). Compounding the challenges, particularly in STEM fields, is that students do not always interpret media in the way instructors intend (Jenkinson and McGill 2012). A likely explanation for the gap between students and teachers may be that experts interpret and utilize information within their expertise in different ways than novices in the same field (Ambrose et  al. 2010). Not only do experts think and learn differently than novices but they are also typically unaware of the component processes that contribute to their own learning, reasoning, and problem solving (Wieman 2004). Each of the authors has detected at least one instance when the beginner’s level of knowledge and skills coupled with our erroneous assumptions about students’ media literacy skills, inhibited, if not prevented, student understanding, as well as higher-order thinking. Independently, each of us arrived at the conclusion that for students to make progress in our classrooms, we needed to teach them how to make sense of the visual information we were presenting. We needed also to make our own

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cognitive processes more transparent for them. In the vignettes, each author uses a lens informed by best practices in student-centered learning (Bransford et al. 2000; Handelsman et al. 2007; Pellegrino and Hilton 2012) to understand the shortcomings in media literacy of our respective introductory-level college students’ abilities and to subsequently adapt our classroom practices to grow student fluency in representational thinking. The adjustments each of us made to our teaching address one or more of the NAMLE (2014) competencies. We introduced scaffolding and opportunities for students to interpret, analyze, predict, and construct representations of phenomena with static and dynamic visual and graphical media. The NAMLE media literacy standards also call for instructors and students to be critical thinkers and creative producers in the use of language, media, and sound to deliver a certain message. We use the vignettes to model how technology can support intended educational outcomes and to draw attention to the roles of the teacher and student as both consumers and producers of media. Although each one of us teaches in a STEM field and describes experiences mostly with college students in introductory courses, we believe these issues are relevant across many college courses. Furthermore, because our experiences represent diverse student bodies, some of our reflections may be appropriate for persons teaching advanced high school students or upper-level college students. We demonstrate in this chapter that: (1) when students are finding it difficult to learn from visual resources, teachers ought to consider whether poor media literacy skills are contributing; (2) teachers can support students in moving from novice-to expert-like behaviors through intentional development of students’ media literacy skills; and (3) best practices in teaching and learning can be applied to teaching media literacy skills. In each of the vignettes below, we explain why media literacy is important to the field, and provide the context and content of each course. Each vignette also illustrates why media literacy not only supports students in learning scientific content, which cannot be easily visualized (be it atoms or vectors), but is necessary for their success in the authors’ respective fields. Scientists and science-oriented readers may recognize the representations of scientific principles we are demonstrating in the vignettes. Nonscientist readers may benefit from actively engaging in the vignettes by asking how media literacy plays out in their own fields. A theme cutting across the cases is that each of us encountered experiences in our teaching when we expected students to have a particular visual literacy skill only to find that students were lacking this key skill—a skill independent of the content. We have each described how we tried to support student learning along the novice to expert continuum (Ambrose et al. 2010). In each vignette, the faculty experience is italicized and concludes with a reflective interpretation of the incident and advice for other teachers. The vignettes are not based on empirical research collected on students. Instead, they model the reflective and metacognitive strategies that teachers can engage in to improve their teaching and how evidence-based pedagogical practices can be designed to support specific issues in student-centered classrooms (Ambrose et al. 2010; Singer et al. 2012).

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Vignettes Graphical Literacy Across scientific disciplines, ideas are communicated through symbols and graphs with visual representations of data used to explain phenomena (Roth 2002). Graphical literacy, one way that students can demonstrate scientific literacy (Gormally et al. 2012; NAMLE 2014), involves cognitive skills such as reading, finding relationships, drawing conclusions, and creating graphical representations of data (Beck and Blumer 2012; Beichner 2008; Beichner 1994; Gormally et  al. 2012; Picone et al. 2007). Pe’rez-Echeverria et al. (2014) point out, however, that high school students are infrequently asked to analyze graphical or visual information and how it relates to written descriptions and yet this skill is important in college science courses. Even students who have developed some skills in graphical literacy may be unable to correctly interpret graphs when given more complex questions (Carlson et al. 2002; Pe’rez-Echeverria et al. 2014) such as those involving rates of change (Carlson et al. 2002). Developing graphical literacy can be a learning goal integrated across a college disciplinary curriculum. The vignette below describes how one academic program created a collaborative tool focused on supporting students’ development of graphical literacy. Both formative and summative assessments, active learning, and authenticity of tasks are incorporated to support student learning (Freeman et al. 2014; Speth et al. 2010). One of the authors is part of a team of colleagues that teach undergraduate general education courses in a program focused on building scientific literacy for nonscience majors. A common concern across their science disciplines was that students lacked the skills to synthesize and analyze graphs. The faculty assumed students would be able to extract information from graphs and found that this skill was not only lacking, but its absence was also hindering students’ development towards scientific literacy, including the ability to read and interpret scientific claims relevant to their daily lives in popular media. The collective recognition of the lack of graphical literacy led to a collaborative project between faculty and the library to develop an online tool, “Graphicacy,” to evaluate students’ ability to use and interpret graphs across disciplines. The online tool has several layers, which can be used in or out of class to provide faculty and students with real-time formative assessment about the students’ graph interpretation and construction abilities. The most basic level is a ten-question diagnostic quiz where students respond to a set of predetermined multiple-choice questions about content in graphs from a wide range of scientific and nonscientific disciplines. Both faculty and students can receive feedback about the overall quiz performance, success with different graph types, or understanding specific questions. Results are used to guide further learning objectives and classroom activities such as those described below for the chemistry and physics vignettes. At the most advanced level, students and faculty can create their own unique graphs to best represent data collected during the course and share the graphs with colleagues in other disciplines. Graphical literacy is easily embedded directly throughout a general education course using the online tool. Students start the beginning of the term with reading simple two-axis plot or line graphs and move to more complex graphs with different axes or comparison of graphs with multiple scales as others have suggested for graphing skills development (Pe’rezEcheverria et al. 2014). As the term progresses, students are asked to read and interpret

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written text and transform those data into graphical representations. Without the early introductions and step-by-step scaffolding, novice students may not be able to understand the symbols and representations in a visual format.

Media Literacy Takeaways for Practitioners 1. Progressive development of graphical literacy where students are asked to access, analyze, and evaluate information across a course is critical to success with graph content tied directly to course content. 2. Students should learn how to communicate information and should receive continuous feedback on their performance through formative assessments and progress to higher levels of graphing skills. 3. Development of graphical literacy needed for accessing, analyzing, evaluating, and communicating visual information can be integrated directly into the course assessments and activities using evidence-based teaching practices so it is an authentic part of the course.

Application in Physics Scientific visualizations play a prominent role in most instructional materials for physics. In particular, the interpretation and creation of motion graphs is a central tenet of the study of kinematics and dynamics and often challenges students who must link the graphs to both Newton’s Laws of Motion and the real-world picture being presented (Beichner 1994; Testa et al. 2002). Moreover, graphs demand and support visual thinking (Reed 2010, p. 99). In a packed curriculum, teachers need to address building foundational skills early in the term, (e.g., graphical literacy) while not sacrificing the learning of basic phenomena. The vignette below describes the approach adopted by one of the authors to meet these challenges: The first author teaches an introductory college level physical science course that is primarily designed to meet the general education requirements for nonscience majors. He noticed that students were having trouble extracting physical meaning from an image of a relatively common phenomenon—a person throwing a baseball straight up in the air and letting it hit the ground. Students’ mathematical backgrounds appeared to be correlated to their abilities to make meaning from the diagram. After preliminary investigations, he determined that students with a calculus background had no trouble analyzing the motion (see Fig. 1). Vectors are used to represent change of position, velocity, and acceleration of the ball at different times during its flight. Previous researchers (Carlson et al. 2002) investigated the issues that even high-performing students encounter with graphs of rates of change (echoed in the chemistry vignette below). In addition, a compounding instructional barrier was that most students were nonscience majors and had less-developed mathematical skills and little exposure to vector representations. Interestingly, the diagram was provided in the students’ textbook (targeted for this audience) with multiple layers of information that needed to be deconstructed to understand the physical phenomenon being studied (see baseball player in Fig. 1). The text simply referred to the diagram as an example of the motion of an object under gravity with no further explanation of the

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Fig. 1   Example of motion represented pictorially in a learning-supportive manner with both symbolic ( vectors) and mathematical ( graphs) representations side by side visual details necessary to understand it. To help students grasp the underlying physics, the teacher designed three additional versions of the diagram, each of which addressed only one aspect of the more complex diagram (not shown here): • Showed only the position vectors of the ball as a function of time. • Showed the velocity of the ball as a function of time. • Showed only the acceleration of the ball as a function of time. Due to time constraints, only a single 75-min lesson using the visual materials was devoted to this topic in class (which would have been typical for most instructors covering this content). To enhance instruction, the faculty member linked the pictorial and graphical representations of motion by creating the enhanced diagram shown in Fig. 1 where the artwork is presented proximally with a set of graphs representing the same physical quantities—position, velocity, and acceleration as a function of time. To properly assess students’ learning, the physics faculty had to create his own quiz and exam problems. The textbook had no questions that addressed the baseball toss visualization in either the end of chapter problems or the supplied test bank. Working with the professor’s simpler set of diagrams enabled students to demonstrate a greater understanding of these phenomena at a later time. Other instructors verified that students enrolled in all course sections had covered the same material from the chapter but without explicit attention to the visualization. These students scored 20 % lower on the same common final exam problem (Chaudhury 2005).

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Media Literacy Takeaways for Practitioners 1. Explicit instruction in decoding scientific diagrams can help students overcome limited mathematical knowledge to gain sophisticated insight. 2. To align instruction with assessment, instructors may need to create their own visualizations and examination or homework problems that explicitly test visual literacy. 3. Development of graphing skills for accessing, analyzing, evaluating, and communicating visual information can be embedded within the context of the course and thus not detract from content coverage.

Application in Chemistry Since the early 1930s, the American Chemical Society has recognized the importance of conveying both abstract and concrete ideas with images including the use of projectors, slides, motion pictures, and other technologies for the display of static or moving images in the chemistry classroom (ACS 1930). Because chemists work by “thinking molecularly,” visualizations of the abstract are ubiquitous in chemistry culture (Kozma and Russell 2005; Rocke 2010). In the realm of chemical education, however, fewer recent efforts have been focused on the use of data-driven rather than concept-driven visualizations (Davis 1929; DeMeo 2005; Hoshall 1934; Kozma and Russell 2005). The need for graphical literacy as a foundational skill in chemistry is evident in that the vast majority of introductory and advanced techniques used by chemists make use of graphical data. The skill of encoding and decoding discipline-specific information through graphs deserves more explicit attention, as suggested by Speth and colleagues (2010) who incorporated graph visualization in the framework of quantitative literacy (QL) within introductory biology. This vignette describes a common disconnect in the general chemistry classroom: The chemistry faculty’s lesson was constructed based on student performance on homework that was submitted and graded online. She included interspersed clicker questions on topics that many students had responded to incorrectly in the homework. After a few minutes of lecture, the first clicker question presented equilibrium concentration data from a reaction ( A  B) in a familiar tabular form. The students were asked to calculate the equilibrium constant K from the given data. The majority of students quickly identified the correct answer (from Table 1, K = B/A = 1.0/0.5). Upon reviewing the answer with students, the faculty presented the next question, which employed a visual representation of the same conceptual material. The graph showed the concentrations of two chemical species (reactant C and product D) changing as a function of time, followed by a flattening as they approached equilibrium. The students were again charged with determining the equilibrium constant for the reaction C  D. The distribution of responses on this question was much more scattered, with most students selecting an incorrect answer.

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Table 1   Numerical representations of data for calculation of equilibrium constant of reaction A   B Equilibrium concentration

Species A

Species B

0.5

1.0

Fig. 2   Numerical and visual representations of data for calculation of equilibrium constant of reaction C  D

The faculty then instructed the students to consider the features of the graph and what they knew about the condition of equilibrium. With the second polling of the class, the majority of students (but not all) were able to correctly answer the question (from Fig. 2, K = D/C = 1.0/0.5; Table  1). The numerical presentation of the data failed to make visible to students a fundamental feature of equilibrium—that the reaction approaches this condition asymptotically over time (i.e., at infinite time, D approaches a value of 1 and C approaches a value of 0.5). Although the graphical presentation still required students to use familiar calculations in the numerical form, the initial processing of the visual data was hindered. Recognizing the students’ discomfort with the graphical presentation, from this point on, the faculty utilized strategies incorporating visual data in both the classroom and teaching laboratory. Deliberately juxtaposing graphical and numerical forms of the same conceptual material provides a means to probe and practice visual literacy and can lead to students more consistently responding correctly on assessments. In the teaching laboratory, where students collect and use data, the visualization exercises can be used in greater depth as pre-laboratory or “dry laboratory” assignments. In one iteration, the faculty distributed hypothetical data to students for experiments that mirrored content from the lecture course. Another disconnect emerged in this context. Although students had spent significant time studying and practicing problems with the same conceptual content, they struggled to graph and interpret the data in the visual format. Finally, the chemistry faculty used varied forms of assessment both inside and outside class to help students learn. She also adjusted instruction to be informed by assessment. She approached graphical literacy as tightly coupled to chemistry—students learn to process visual data not just as an isolated skill but also as a means to understand concepts. It may be pertinent here to make an analogy to the “learn to read” and “read to learn” approaches in traditional literacy (Duke et al. 2003): Students should not learn to read (graphs) solely for the purpose of reading. A more productive view of reading might be as “a cognitive process in which learners actively construct their [science] knowledge in a transaction with the text” (Gillis and MacDougall 2007).

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Media Literacy Takeaways for Practitioners 1. Students who excel in traditional numerical assessments of evaluating information may struggle with visual equivalents. 2. Juxtaposing visual and tabular/numeric forms of the same content can help instructors identify the degree to which students can evaluate and analyze visual information. 3. Deliberate integration of numerical competence and visual literacy for evaluation, analysis, and construction of meaning can be addressed through collaboration between laboratory and lecture courses.

Application in Biology Biology has benefited tremendously from advances in various forms of microscopy and structural analyses of complex molecules (e.g., X-ray crystallography). Each of these tools generates static images that range across orders of magnitude in size (tissue to cell to molecule) or that capture a series across time (how a molecule moves from one compartment in a cell to another) or space (rotation of a molecule around an axis). In the last decade, sophisticated computer graphics and animations have allowed composite representations of cells, molecules, and processes to be represented in ways that illustrate changes across size (zoom in/out), time (forward/ reverse stepping), and space (rotation). Teachers highly value these latter developments in part because they better represent complex multidimensional relationships (Jenkinson and McGill 2012). However, teacher-experts often fail to understand that it is their extensive knowledge and experience that allows them to recognize, comprehend, and extract information from all of these visuals (Bransford et al. 2000). In fact, students do not always understand in what ways a visual represents a realworld phenomenon (Uttal and O’Doherty 2008). As novices, students need explicit instruction in interpreting and utilizing these animations, videos, or even the diagrams that accompany a text (Schönborn and Anderson 2006). The vignette below describes one instructor’s experience in cell/molecular biology: The “Inner Life of the Cell” is a beautiful and dynamic animation of the workings of a cell built from an understanding of abstract structures and functions that experts have constructed over their careers (Fig. 3). When watching this video, a cell biologist immediately recognizes a plasma membrane, nucleus, and mitochondrion. The relationships among the cells and their components with respect to size, time, and space are so obvious that the expert can, in fact, create a coherent story even without the narration. Much to her surprise, the biology faculty discovered that her first-year students, while captured by the beauty, could make little sense of the meaning, even after the content was covered multiple times and in multiple modes. She did not recognize that although students might have an understanding of the function of the mitochondrion and have seen both electron micrographs and diagrams, they did not necessarily have the skills in abstract thinking or in transferring their knowledge to new contexts required to interpret the animation. This became apparent when the faculty asked students to be ready to identify organ-

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Fig. 3   Example of an image from “Inner Life of the Cell” showing a motor protein transporting a large membrane-bound vesicle along a microtubule protein (Viel and Liu n. d.)

elles and molecules from “Inner Life of the Cell” as part of an examination. Because this content was covered in lecture and represented in multiple two-dimensional images in the text (e.g., micrographic images and diagrammatic representations of mitochondria), she assumed students would easily recognize images. However, about a third of her students were unable to answer: “What is the molecule/organelle to which the arrow is pointing?” when asked on an exam. These students were unable to transfer their understanding from a text-based, two-dimensional representation to an animated representation of molecules and their functions. The biology faculty probably should have anticipated the difficulty since a few years earlier she had stumbled on the fact that her students were relying on textual descriptions of molecules and processes rather than images and diagrams in their text. She used an active learning exercise that asked students to match diagrams from the reading to their respective figure legends. Many struggled. When she listened to the conversations that were occurring, and when asked why this was so difficult, students admitted that they did not look at the images when reading and expected her to explain them when she covered the material. Both of these experiences have led the biology faculty to be more explicit in teaching media literacy skills. During class time or as homework, she now asks students to interpret an image on their own and/or to engage in pair and share before she provides a class-wide explanation. In simple cases, this can mean labeling the structures in a diagram. For an animation, she may pause and ask students to describe what they see in writing. Alternatively, she may read the text and/or legend associated with a diagram aloud, making frequent stops and asking students to check with their neighbor to match words with the image. She has also used this strategy when assisting students with interpreting results in a research paper. Other kinds of scaffolding she uses to support media literacy and deeper understanding includes asking students to predict outcomes of changes in the process (what-if questions). She also models her reasoning processes by verbalizing her understanding of the visuals and how she verifies her interpretations are correct.

Media Literacy Takeaways for Practitioners 1. Because some students rely solely on text-based descriptions when preparing and studying for a biology class, they do not learn to analyze and evaluate information presented in other media formats (micrographs, diagrams, flowcharts).

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2. This reliance on text only may be due to lack of skill and practice in the relevant visual media literacy or due to lack of recognition that use of visual media are an integral part of the culture of science. Both of these can be developed through classroom activities that require students to analyze and evaluate a variety of images. 3. Explicit instruction, scaffolding, and practice with feedback not only aid learning media literacy skills but also move learners towards increased depth of understanding of the course content and lay the foundation for more advanced literacy skills, including creation of media components.

Application in Neuroscience Among the media literacy goals of NAMLE (2014) is to foster the ability of students to creatively produce artifacts that communicate information relevant to their ­studies. While there are limited assessment data of learning outcomes based on student-generated content in late K–12 and early college-level courses, several positive outcomes are noted in the literature. With increasing use of digital video in many fields of study and business, the creation of video and other visual media is an authentic, skill-building task (Kearny and Schuck 2005; Willmott 2014). Instructors who use these types of assignments find benefits such as creative thinking by students, development of group work, storytelling, and building multimedia/software skills that are transferable to other academic pursuits (Willmott 2014). Students appreciate the creative nature of an assignment in fields that may normally seem more quantitative and dry. Greene and Crespi (2012) discuss the value to students such as actively engaging in activities, opportunities for social learning, and bonding with classmates. The vignette below describes one instructor’s experience in neuroscience: The last author engages in two activities to build communication and presentation skills in her students. In one, she has her students take part in a program by the Society for Neuroscience called the Brain Awareness Video Contest. Students generate a video on a topic of their own choosing related to neuroscience. The goal of the contest is to create videos that can later be added to the many visual and other resources available to the public (with a particular focus on K–12 educators and students) on http://www.brainfacts. org, the society’s primary public outreach tool. While she does this with college students, a recent high school student submission was of such high quality as to earn a special award, and submissions have even come from elementary school students. She has created rubrics to consistently assess student efforts when she assigns course credit for the student video submissions. These video are professionally judged, but more importantly the very act of creating the videos requires students to integrate different representations of the neuroscience concepts and students have all reported on the benefit to themselves of engaging in the exercise. The second activity has grown from the realization by the neuroscience faculty that she has worked in her courses to make her students good consumers of science in both academic and popular press domains and good communicators of science in more traditional academic writing, but she has placed little emphasis on building public science communication

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skills in her students. With a colleague in the English department who teaches courses in Native American literature and storytelling, she designed a series of assignments focused on “scientific storytelling.” Students have the option of telling their own story of science (how they came to be scientists or an important event in their lives that involved science) or adapting an empirical article to tell a story accessible to the general public. Creating a video story is one of the options that students have to create and share their stories. Grading rubrics for these projects include content-based evaluation (e.g., accuracy of information), accessibility of presentation (e.g., would a “lay” audience ­understand the content as presented), and presentation effectiveness (e.g., presentation skill in oral presentations, writing skill in written stories, and video quality and style in visual media).

This faculty uses the video contest to provide an outlet for students’ creative sides in dealing with a highly technical discipline. Her students also gain skills through storytelling, such as making scientific information accessible to a public audience as well as the practical skills of video recording and editing.

Media Literacy Takeaways for Practitioners 1. Student production of videos, whether to illustrate a complex scientific concept or to tell a story of science, is a valuable process and helps to meet NAMLE’s goal of communicating science in a variety of formats. 2. Video production can be used as a tool for students to practice the skill of translating science to a “lay” audience, a key component of raising the scientific literacy of the general public. This allows students to gain skill in evaluating science (for appropriateness to a given audience) and communicating that science. 3. Video production need not be a costly or cumbersome process as reasonably high-quality videography is found on smart phones and other electronic devices commonly available to students and faculty. Most computers now come with basic, yet versatile, video editing software (e.g., iMovie on Apple computers). To communicate the science, it is imperative that students learn to use the tools that enable the best communication and storytelling.

Summary and Conclusions As the tools for investigating and representing phenomena have advanced, visual media have become even more central to teaching and learning in STEM fields. Students, however, struggle for a variety of reasons with understanding, interpreting, relating, applying, and creating visual content. It is not clear on whom the burden lies to teach skills associated with scientific visualization, graphical literacy, and quantitative literacy (Speth et al. 2010). Our approaches, as illustrated by the vignettes and discussion throughout the chapter, have been to directly teach these skills. Importantly, doing so has not detracted from course content coverage because each of us intentionally integrated discipline-based content with teaching the media literacy skills (see Table 2). Our vignettes should be especially valuable in

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Table 2   Summary of student difficulty and faculty response and goals addressed by each vignette Vignette

Student difficulty

Response

NAMLE goal

Graphical literacy

Unable to interpret meaning of graphs. Unable to take data and represent it as a graph

Coordination and collaboration across disciplines to create a tool to help with formative assessment of students’ graphing abilities. Progressively building skills using authentic examples

Access Analyze Evaluate Communicate

Physics

Unable to analyze diagrams when limited in mathematical knowledge and exposure to rates of change. Understanding multilayered diagrammatic representations

Explicit instruction in decoding a diagram with embedded rates of change information. Redrawing diagrams so each layer is represented separately

Access Analyze Evaluate Communicate

Chemistry

Unable to apply conceptual knowledge to graphical representations and vice versa. Unable to recognize multiple representations of same abstract idea

Deliberate incorporation of graphical forms paired with numerical forms. Explicit instructions to create and interpret graphs

Analyze Evaluate Communicate

Cell biology

Ignore images and relying only on text for understanding. Do not recognize multiple representations of same abstract idea. Do not understand conventions in diagrams

Explicit instruction in diagrammatic conventions. Scaffold exercises with formative feedback. Explicit modeling of expert thought processes

Analyze Evaluate

Neuroscience Lack of experience presenting material visually and, in particular, to a “lay” audience

Introduction of summative assessments based on creation of videos. Use of disciplinary video production contest to drive student creative video production. Tailoring video products for different audiences

Evaluate Communicate

higher education for STEM research professors, who spend significant time pondering visual data with fellow experts, and are also expected to teach novices, who, as demonstrated, often lack these skills. Scientific visualizations have the power to make concrete that which is not apparent to the naked eye and thereby engage and inspire learners. We view the use of scientific visualizations as a new type of literacy, which has requisite demands on explicit instruction and requires appropriate scaffolding for learners. Proper ­attention needs to be paid to the development and usage of pedagogical constructs to best support learners and educators in teaching media literacy in STEM fields.

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Faculty should also be mindful that expert use of representations is an acquired skill and, as experts, we need to build the same capability in our students. These skills are not only essential for a deep understanding of content but are also becoming expected of a twenty-first-century workforce and effective citizenry (Pellegrino and Hilton 2012). A challenge that cuts across all educational levels is matching educational experiences with development of cognitive skills. College faculty differ from K–12 ­faculty in that most do not receive formal instruction in cognitive developmental processes (Brownell and Tanner 2012). The lack of awareness of students’ true abilities is compounded by college faculty not recognizing how their own expertise contributes to learning, reasoning, and problem solving (Brown and Roediger 2014). The vignettes we presented illustrate that even when faculty are otherwise striving to work with and from what students know and to engage in best pedagogical practices, it is easy to fall into practices that are faculty-or content-focused, rather than student centered. The vignettes also illustrate how the process of converting to a studentcentered approach is an iterative one that occurs when faculty become attuned to student learning versus content delivery and they engage in reflective and metacognitive practices based on student learning assessments (Handelsman et al. 2007). It is our hope that the vignettes not only make other teachers aware of their assumptions regarding students and provide teachers with best-practice examples of how to respond to student difficulties but that they also describe the reality that studentcentered teaching is a process, not an end point. While our learning activities were intended to support student development in STEM higher education settings, they are also applicable to K–12 teachers and to non-STEM disciplines. Educators throughout the P–20 educational system should want to work on developing students’ media literacy both for lifelong learning and for a deeper understanding of content knowledge; excellent learning experiences for students can be supported in both K–12 and higher education scenarios. While the specific examples from the vignettes are designed for our unique teaching experiences, they can be seen more broadly as faculty encountering areas where students were struggling to understand content presented through traditional text representation. Each author addressed this bottleneck in student understanding by incorporating activities that allowed students to address the concepts through visual means, and in doing so, faculty realized the necessity of integrating the teaching of skills in media literacy with content knowledge. We believe more research should be conducted about which particular skills and pedagogical approaches best support student media literacy development. However, we find the evidence discussed above sufficiently convincing that we encourage instructors at all educational levels to consider multiple media representations of content. The approaches we have taken to building media literacy while teaching scientific concepts may have implications beyond improving the performance of our individual students. We propose that intentional skill building can contribute to increasing the persistence and success of underrepresented groups in STEM fields. Research suggests that student-centered approaches that build explicit bridges between what students know and what they are learning can help close the achievement gaps between students who have advantages versus those from

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disadvantaged educational backgrounds (Bransford et al. 2000; Singer et al. 2012). Graham and colleagues (2013) review many of the challenges faced by students and propose a framework to increase student persistence in STEM. Prominent in their proposal is the use of active learning methods in introductory courses such as those illustrated here. This active engagement of students in scientific visualization may maintain interest in the subject, encourage identity as a scientific thinker, and support persistence in STEM as others have found (e.g., Summers and Hrabowski 2006; Watkins and Mazur 2013). Additionally, we are hopeful that providing experiences to learn science through visual representations and to improve media literacy levels the playing field for our classrooms that are filled with students from diverse backgrounds by asking everyone to engage and learn in new ways. In closing, we found several overlapping teaching takeaways for practitioners, which are applicable to various disciplines. First, pedagogical approaches that combine active learning and oral explication of expert thought processes are highly valuable uses of instruction in face-to-face settings for students and instructors alike. Second, providing introductory-level college students with multiple representations (text, numerical, diagrammatic, video, etc.) in the absence of instruction to enhance media literacy may be insufficient for the desired literacy and content mastery outcomes. Third, assessment of student knowledge and skill must be consistent with desired student outcomes; if an expectation is that students gain skills in graphing, diagram interpretation, or generation of media, then students must be assessed on products (e.g., exam questions, activities, or projects) designed to measure those skills as well. Fourth, translation of numerical competence into visual literacy is not always direct but can be addressed by deliberate integration of multiple courses or portions of courses (e.g., coordination of laboratory and lecture components or course content aligned with a video production project). Fifth, teaching visual literacy can be authentically embedded in regular coursework and assessed through careful design of formative assessments (e.g., clicker questions and graphing interpretation assignments). Lastly, visual media literacy exists as a multidimensional continuum, from the interpretation of simple line graphs to the creation of original video. Appropriate course design in any discipline can help students achieve media literacy. Acknowledgment  Eleanor Vandegrift acknowledges support of HHMI Science Education Award 52006956 and her colleagues from the University of Oregon Library Interactive Media Group and Science Literacy Program for their work on Graphicacy. Amy Mulnix acknowledges support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. S. Raj Chaudhury acknowledges the contribution of Paul Springfield in creating some graphics for the chapter.

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S. Raj Chaudhury  is a Special Assistant for International Programs and Distance Learning in the Office of the Provost at Auburn University. He was formerly with the Biggio Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning. He has conducted research into the use of emerging technologies for the teaching and learning of abstract science concepts in secondary and postsecondary instructional settings, including digital video, classroom response systems, and graphical data visualizations. His work has been funded by The National Aeronautics and Space Administration

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(NASA), National Science Foundation (NSF), and US Department of Education. A member of the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (CASTL), Chaudhury received his B.A. in physics from Vassar College and Ph.D. in physics from University of California, Los Angeles. Lynn Mandeltort  is a Lecturer with the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Auburn University. After earning a B.S. from the College of Charleston, she pursued a doctorate in physical chemistry from the University of Virginia. She then worked as a postdoctoral scholar at Auburn University where she developed course curricula for introductory chemistry laboratories. As a lecturer for medium and large enrollment courses, her interests lie in student engagement and active learning spaces. Amy B. Mulnix  is director of the Faculty Center at Franklin and Marshall College which provides programming and support for faculty across all career stages in the areas of teaching and learning, scholarship, and contributions to community. A biologist by training, Dr. Mulnix’s primary interests are in translation of learning research to classroom practice and investigating factors that characterize faculty willing to take risks in the classroom. Eleanor V.H. Vandegrift  is the associate director of the Science Literacy Program and a senior instructor of biology at the University of Oregon. Her work focuses on supporting faculty and graduate students with implementation of active learning through evidence-based student-centered pedagogical approaches in college science courses. She is active in efforts to promote national STEM reform as a National Academies Education fellow and National Academies Education mentor with the Summer Institutes on Undergraduate Education. She completed her undergraduate studies in biology at Earlham College and graduate studies in forest ecology at Oregon State University. Jennifer R. Yates  is assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience at Ohio Wesleyan University (OWU). She is director of the David O. Robbins Neuroscience Program. She served in the past as the president of the Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience and currently serves on the Society for Neuroscience Public Education and Communication Committee. She is coordinator of the Teaching Circle at OWU. She received her B.S. in psychology and pre-medicine from the University of Dayton and earned her Ph.D. in neurobiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Mapping Concepts for Learning Taralynn Hartsell

Abstract  Graphic organizers such as concept mapping help instructors and students organize information visually. For instructors, concept maps help in the planning and presentation of course material through visual means to demonstrate how ideas, concepts, and topics are related. Concept maps can also offer students an alternative way to structure content, comprehend the relationships between topics, and present their understanding to others. This pilot case study demonstrates how an instructor of a graduate course uses concept maps to structure textbook material. Instead of using text notes and traditional outlines to highlight certain information in the textbook, the instructor uses concept maps to present the information visually. Student responses concerning the use of concept maps are also addressed in the case study. As a result, the instructor discovered that although concept maps were much more difficult to design initially, graduate students appeared to enjoy the option of reviewing a visual organizer of the key points in the textbook chapters than reading text-based notes. Concept maps accommodated the various learning styles of the students and helped the instructor organize course content.

Introduction Visual learning occurs when learners improve their comprehension and retention of information through a graphical means by associating ideas, words, and concepts with images (O’Bannon and Puckett 2010).Visual learning has been related to graphic organizers as they provide a visual display of information that may be more easily understood. Visual learning through the means of graphic organizers can assist both instructors and learners in facilitating the presentation and acquisition of knowledge. Information and content presented in text-based formats can be more easily understood once images and links between the concepts, supplemented with words and notes, are offered.

T. Hartsell () Department of Curriculum, Instruction, and Special Education, The University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS, USA e-mail: [email protected] © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 D. M. Baylen, A. D’Alba (eds.), Essentials of Teaching and Integrating Visual and Media Literacy, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-05837-5_10

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This chapter addresses the various areas associated with the use of graphic organizers and their relation to teaching and learning, particularly in the form of concept maps. Concept maps, in particular, “demonstrate how individuals visualize relationships between various concepts” and is generally, “a graphical node-arc representation of concepts and their relationships with each other” (Daugherty et al. 2012, p. 11). First, an overview of graphic organizers will be presented to offer a background into this form of visual learning and how the research has examined use of graphic organizers. A discussion of learning theories that sustain visual learning is then given to provide a foundation of how graphic organizers and concept mapping can support the learning process. A descriptive case study of the author’s implementation of concept maps in instruction is described to assist in understanding the value of using graphic organizers. Finally, a discussion for further examination concerning the integration of concept mapping into learning activities is offered.

Background Graphic organizers provide a visual aid in facilitating learning and instruction of both concrete and abstract concepts. Graphic organizers can become an effective visual representation of information that permits learners to examine patterns and relationships. Lerner (2000) defines graphic organizers as “visual representations of concepts, knowledge, or information that incorporate both text and pictures. They make it easier for a person to understand the information by allowing the mind ‘to see’ complex relationships” (p. 207). There are different types of graphic organizers and have been referred to as concept maps, diagrams, advance organizers, semantic maps, and webs (Dexter and Hughes 2011; Kim et al. 2004). Although each type may vary slightly in terms of focus and design, graphics organizers overall serve one purpose: provide an alternative way to comprehend concepts, ideas, content, and relationships in a graphical representation by the learner.

Application of Learning Theories Learning information visually is based upon the original work of David Ausubel in the 1960s. He focused upon how learners’ cognitive structures help them organize new information through the assimilation learning theory (Ausubel et al. 1978).This theory assumes that learning occurs through the assimilation of new concepts into existing concept frameworks held by the learner. Ausubel believed that graphic organizers could help students put in order the new information through visual means (Mayer 2003; Novak 1998). Visuals such as maps, diagrams, and charts could facilitate learning by assembling the information into categories. This is particularly useful when ideas are unfamiliar or abstract. Graphic organizers could direct learners’

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attention to new concepts by highlighting information and reinforcing learners’ prior knowledge. Ausubel was a supporter of the now-known schema theory in which new knowledge was dependent upon previous knowledge embedded in the individual. By constructing a network of ideas from previous experiences, learners can add upon those ideas with the new information. Construction of knowledge begins as learners observe and recognize instances in which the information has already been ingrained by their experiences. Graphic organizers, in this sense, are useful in clarifying links between the old and new knowledge (All et al. 2003). Graphic organizers or visual learning encompasses a variety of learning theories. These learning theories help explain the foundation from which graphic organizers are built upon. Understanding the foundation assists instructors in facilitating student learning by connecting learning styles with the creation of graphic organizers. Three primary learning theories include dual coding, schema, and cognitive load. Dual coding theory suggests that learners code information in both verbal and nonverbal formats (Clark and Paivio 1991). Both can be addressed with visual learning tools, and thus, make retention easier. Schema theory proposes that schemas (networks of information) exist in a learner’s memory, and these schemas make up prior knowledge (Axelrod 1973). Visual learning tools assist learners in linking the existing schemas to the new knowledge. Finally, cognitive load theory explains that there is a limit to the information that can be processed at one time (Ayers and Pass 2012). If that limit exceeds, no learning will take place. Visual learning tools such as graphic organizers can reduce the load and make learning possible.

Relation to Visual–Spatial Learning Using images instead of text form can accommodate learners with different learning styles. This is true in particular for the visual–spatial learner. Linda Silverman (2002), one of the founders of visual–spatial learning in the 1980s, developed the concept after observing several gifted children who excelled on tests that integrated a visual component. She defined visual–spatial learners as those who (a) think in pictures than words, (b) learn better visually than auditorally, (c) learn holistically and not from repetition and drill, (d) are nonsequential and take tasks head-on, (e) arrive to solutions that they themselves cannot explain, (f) have difficulty in completing easy tasks and excel with complex ones, (g) view problems as a system and miss minor details, (h) are organizationally impaired and unconscious about time, and (i) are often gifted creatively, technologically, mathematically, or emotionally. Because this group of learners that relies upon visual elements exists in the education system, she proposes using visual–spatial learning methods to accommodate such learners.

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Rationale for Using Graphic Organizers Graphic organizers, particularly concept maps, can be effective tools to help the instructor plan his or her instruction (Rye et al. 2013). Concept maps are graphical tools for organizing and representing knowledge that are generally focused around a central topic or focus question (Novak and Canas 2007). For instance, a focus question could be “what are birds?” The concepts or ideas related to that question are then enclosed in nodes that can be in the form of shapes, boxes, or graphics that represent the concept or idea (e.g., an image of an egg or feather). Each concept or idea is then linked using lines and arrows that signify relationships between the concepts. On the links, certain linking words or phrases are given to demonstrate the relationship between the two concepts. For instance, if the concept map is about birds, then a linking word between the concept of birds and concept of eggs could be “lay.” Another example would be inserting a linking word “offer” between the concept of feathers and insulation. In short, the concept map is a visual representation of all of the concepts and ideas that represent the main topic. The map helps viewers comprehend information in a hierarchical order from top to bottom using graphical means. Much like an outline, the concept map demonstrates the relationships between concepts and ideas in a different layout represented by shapes, color, text, links, sound, video, etc. (Novak and Canas 2007). In short, concept mapping “can be used to transform abstract knowledge and understanding into concrete visual representations that are amenable to comparison and measurement” (Hay et al. 2008, p. 295). Because concept maps are graphical representations of ideas, relationships, connections, etc., they serve as a foundation to plan lessons and content modules. No instructor can teach every detail of a subject area, no matter how knowledgeable he or she may be. Time, resources, and limitations of the human mind cannot instill and remember every little detail. Careful planning must occur and concept maps can assist instructors to prepare and review teaching lessons. By brainstorming a subject area and dividing these areas into topics through the form of nodes or concepts on a map, the instructor is able to see what topics are vital and what topics can be eliminated from the module or lesson. Further, by examining the map the instructor has the opportunity to begin developing class notes, student questions, learning activities, and assessment. Instructors can also use concept maps in lessons (Edwards and Cooper 2010). When they present information on a particular topic, the instructor can match concepts on the map with the presentation slides. This action provides learners with a visual organizer of the more linear presentation by the instructor. Completed maps can also be given to learners as a summary of a lesson or module. These maps can be used as a form of retrieval and practice for studying. Concept maps could also be used as a form of assessment to measure knowledge gained (Kamble and Tembe 2013). Creating maps with learners during class time as a form of brainstorming activity can help learners become more involved in the knowledge construction process. Creating concept maps also benefits student learning of complex material (Harris and Zha 2013), and improves their motivation (Paxman 2011) and retention

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of information (Blunt and Karpicke 2014; Wahidin and Meerah 2013; Yen et  al. 2012). Mapping activities should be integrated into learning tasks as a way to supplement lecture-type of instruction through a more collaborative and visual approach. When using mapping as a form of activity, instructors need to make sure that certain processes are followed. These would include providing context for the learners, providing clear instructions, focusing on the learning outcomes, and using maps as a presentation tool to others (Daugherty et al. 2012). First, learners must be provided with an authentic situation in which the concept maps are created. If the learning context is not authentic, then the motivation to create maps will not be present. Clear instructions need to be offered to learners as they create the maps. Loosely defined criteria can be given to learners, but this should be reserved for those who are more advanced in using and developing concept maps. Third, focusing the maps on achieving specific learning outcomes can assist learners to acquire the information needed for a particular concept, idea, theory, etc., without straying too far from the target. Finally, concept maps are to be shared. Learners can have their peers review the concept maps to obtain different perspectives and develop collaborative relationships with others.

Instructional Case Study of Implementing Concept Maps The following case study documents how this author used concept maps in organizing material for a graduate level course in instructional technology and design. In the past, the author has taught an undergraduate preservice technology education course that required students to create concept maps concerning a subject area of their choice. The students used the Inspiration software to create these concept maps that embedded images, sounds, animations, and hyperlinks (e.g., web site). Students have particularly enjoyed creating these concept maps and using the software. After teaching concept maps for several years in this particular class, the author finally decided to take the next step and use concept maps to organize content for a graduate-level course. Although the graduate students themselves did not create the concept maps in this particular class, the maps created by the author were targeted toward helping students better understand course content, primarily the readings.

Concept Mapping Software There are a number of tools that can be used for creating concept maps. Beyond using paper-and-pencil methods, computer- and web-based tools are also available at low to no cost for the teacher and students. In this instructional case study, the author used commercial software called Inspiration (http://www.inspiration.com) to create concept maps. Inspiration had been used because it was (a) available to the author, (b) simple to use, and (c) easy to export the maps into different file for-

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mats (e.g., MS Word). Inspiration was a proprietary software, and students needed the software program to view the actual.isf file format; thus, the ability to export concept maps as image files, word documents, etc., was convenient in this case. The software allowed the author to save the map as a Word document or a graphic file. Because students would not have the actual Inspiration software on their own computer systems, all concept maps were converted into a Word document. Inspiration did this conversion very well in that the program inserts a graphic image of the actual concept map and included a text outline that contained the instructor’s notes, hyperlinks to web sites, etc. Inspiration could be downloaded for a trial period of 30 days, and some students did this to view the Inspiration maps initially. Further, the software program allowed the user to add images, sounds, and change formatting of the maps. This was very useful to differentiate the different levels and highlight certain topics as the instructor. Other software is available to teachers and students without cost. The Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) CmapTools is a free program that empowers users to construct and share concept maps (http://cmap.ihmc.us/). Created by the Florida IHMC, the software allows users to construct their maps on personal computers and share them on CmapServers anywhere on the Internet. Bubbl.us is an interactive online mind-mapping program that allows others to participate synchronously (https://bubbl.us/). This program is like an online interactive whiteboard where individuals participate to create a mind map. Text 2 Mind Map is another free online mapping tool for those in education and needing a quick map to create (https://www.text2mindmap.com/). Once at the site, a person can insert his or her keywords and the nodes are automatically created. Although the free tools may not have the same features as proprietary software (e.g., ability to add sound files, convert to different file formats, use images instead of shapes), such tools are obtainable and can be used for instruction or learning content.

Using Concept Maps for Organizing Content Concept maps were created for the first time for an online instructional technology and design graduate course called Sociological Perspectives of Technology. The topics of this course included issues and trends related to social, human, ethical, and legal concerns of technology such as developing an understanding of the factors that contribute to digital inequities in education, promoting safe and healthy use of technology resources, ensuring legal use of technologies, and modeling proper use of technologies. In this particular online course, five doctoral and eight master’s students were enrolled. Majority of the students were instructional technology majors ( N = 8), with one student from the following areas: general studies, educational research, curriculum and instruction, occupational education, and mass communication. This was the second time the author taught this particular course and she decided to incorporate concept maps. This case study served as a pilot project to determine the practicability of creating concept maps to highlight material from

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textbook chapters. Although the case study focused more on what the instructor actually completed in the course, students were asked a few questions concerning the use of concept maps at the end. These three questions were: • Did the overall course map aid in your planning for this course? If so, please explain how the map helped you organize your learning (or not)? • Did you find the concept maps for the book chapters useful? If so, please explain how they helped you in understanding the chapters (or not)? • If you were an instructor/teacher, how would you use concept maps for your classes?

Procedures Implemented At the beginning of the semester, an overall course map was created. Major topics were organized visually into a web form that highlighted major topics from the subtopics. Each level was identified by a different format in the use of colors, shapes, images, etc. Because the course included online reading material, web sites, and videos (e.g., YouTube) these hyperlinks were inserted onto the map. This course map helped the author “visualize” the overall structure of the course and served as a bridge to the hyperlinked readings. The figure below illustrates the course map that has been developed for the course. As seen in Fig. 1, the main topics were divided into subtopics identified with a different format such as color. Hyperlinks were underlined in blue font, and one instructor note was shown as an example of how the software allowed instructors to add notes. Notes included additional information

Fig. 1   Concept map of the course

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such as definitions, facts, questions, and links to sources (e.g., web site, e-mail, files). Instructor notes in Inspiration could be opened and minimized, thus freeing space on the map itself. Concept maps for several of the book chapters were also created to provide students with a visual representation of the important topics in the chapter, which later helped facilitate the online discussions. These chapter concept maps also included relevant hyperlinks to online sources. Only a few of these maps were made because of time. The chapter maps highlighted major ideas or terms addressed in the chapters the author believed were most relevant and would help students plan their discussion response. Text versions of these concept maps were also offered to students who preferred to learn through a text-based medium. This was a simple task to perform as Inspiration allowed the user to quickly create a text outline from the maps with a click of a button. Therefore, students were given a choice to select the most appropriate medium to use. This author has observed that not all learners prefer visual images and diagrams over text-based notes. Such learners acquire information best by seeing words and phrases, and thus, both formats have to be made available. When creating concept maps for this course, the author went through a procedure. First, the goal (course) or main topic (chapter) was identified. From this point, the author brainstormed in a word processor the possible concepts or ideas that related to the goal or main topic. In fact, the map originally began as an outline as the author was determining first-, second-, and third-level concepts or ideas. Creating an outline helped the author in this particular situation because everyone learns differently and she was attempting to create concept maps for the first time. Thus, the transition from an outline form to a visual map assisted the author in this situation. After the levels were determined, the mapping of ideas began in Inspiration. Because the outline had more words than what a node concept would contain (e.g., the assistive technology idea was originally written out as a sentence), the author had to reduce the sentences into one or three words otherwise the nodes would be too large. After inserting all of the concepts, decisions had to be made toward the design. Color was used to separate the different concepts instead of altering shapes. The author chose color with the intention that color would help students differentiate concepts. To distinguish between levels (e.g., first, second), the author used images to represent the first-level ideas to make them stand out and provide a graphical representation of that idea. Pictures, instead of shapes, could help students remember the concept or idea better. The layout of the maps was in a spider or web form. Other layouts are possible such as hierarchical tree, flowchart, systems, etc. The author selected to use the spider layout because the concepts in the maps have no descending order of importance.

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Results from Using the Concept Maps As an instructor developing concept maps for the first time, the author found the task to be quite time-consuming at the beginning. Choices had to be made, not only of the content but also design considerations. Colors, shapes, words, font styles and sizes, images, and other features had to be considered. In addition, because concept maps only include so much text information, narrowing material to a few words can be difficult. Inspiration does allow the author to use the notes feature to add more text, but she could not insert entire paragraphs of information into these. In addition, because the author has been using text outlines and notes for many years, transitioning from text to visual is quite daunting. Even for a visual learner who prefers to have graphics, tables, figures, images, and visuals to remember information, the transition is difficult because it required a different instructional style and thought process. Like any other instructional material however, once the map is completed the instructor can revise and add onto the original. The map does not have to be recreated entirely, but serves as a living document to be modified as changes occur. The students enjoyed the concept maps and having an alternative method of visualizing the course structure and chapter content based upon the feedback gathered at the end of the course. Although not all of the students found the maps practical in assisting with their readings, they benefitted from the maps being made available and aided in their preview of material as they commented to the author’s questions. The author could not track or monitor students’ use of the maps throughout the course. For instance, the author could not track how long a student viewed the map or visited any of the hyperlinks on the map. Therefore, feedback from students concerning the usefulness of the concept maps was based upon answers given to the three previously mentioned questions. The course map, as explained by the students in their comments, assisted in the students’ overall impression of the course. To explain, the map served as a holistic picture of the topics that would be covered in the course. Because the map contained all of the major topics, along with hyperlinks to the course readings, the map was more inclusive to the students, as opposed to going between different documents to locate the information. With the map, they could see the entire picture without jumping back and forth. One issue with the map was that the course map had not been organized by week. Thus, students did eventually refer back to the course schedule to make certain that they accessed the correct reading materials and reviewed due dates of assignments and discussions. The course map did offer students a good overview as one instructional technology student explained, “The course map was a good representation of what we would be covering in the course in terms of topics. I had no clue what I was getting into before coming to class, and the map helped me see the overall picture.” Another common response concerning the course map was the layout and design. Students liked the visual layout of the course map as it separated different levels and integrated colors and images. The course map was different from a flowchart format and helped increase interest as another instructional technology student said, “A flowchart would have worked just as well, but I like this format because the

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colors, images, shapes, etc. offered variety. I was able to see how things are divided from one another.” The course map also helped students identify and remember key terms. They began to associate images, colors, and shapes to key terms or ideas that would be repeated in the course. In other words, the map served as a useful tool for recalling key terms and ideas as they proceeded through the course. For instance, a first-year instructional technology student said that she associated the image of the stop sign on the course map with the term security, or being more aware of the consequences and repercussions if certain legal and ethical guidelines are not adhered. As she completed assignments and participated in discussions, that image always emerged when the topic had been mentioned. The chapter maps also had the same reactions. Students seem to appreciate the mixture of having colors, images, and levels to separate chapter content. The chapter maps helped students remember key terms as they associated them with different images, shapes, and colors. One response, different from the course map, was that the chapter maps offered students a preview and/or review of what was to come. Chapter maps gave students a preview of the information to be read. As students read through the chapter, they remembered what they had seen in the map. This offered them a way to organize and comprehend the readings as the mass communication student commented, “The chapter maps helped me see what is to come in the readings, as opposed to going in blind. If the maps were not there, I would have just begun reading the chapter without an idea of what was to come.” Another comment concerning chapter maps was that they served as a review of material from previous chapters. This aided in recall and retention of material as students remembered what had been covered earlier. A student from educational research mentioned that the maps “…helped me remember what the previous chapter was about. I was able to see how the chapters either differed or expanded the ideas.” A majority of students were new to concept maps, not even knowing they could serve as an instructional tool. Only a few of the students in class had seen or used a concept map before. Thus, concept maps in this particular class were a novelty and students benefited from seeing how they were modeled. Some students, especially those who have been teaching, valued the opportunity to see how maps could serve as an organizing tool for learners. A general studies student commented, “I never thought of using something like Inspiration to create maps for my classroom. Although my students are adults, I still can see value of giving them a visual diagram of my course.” A curriculum and instruction student also mentioned how maps would help organize his own curriculum, “Mapping my course may help ‘me’ better understand why I am teaching the topics.” The students who were not teachers also enjoyed the maps and saw benefit of using concept maps as instructional and visual tools. One instructional technology student mentioned in this regard, “Maps, because they are visual, helped me as a student in this class and I would like to try to use them for my classes in the future.” In short, the findings revealed that the students in this particular class did find the maps useful. A few students did mention that the maps were difficult to understand and navigate, and thus, they reverted back to the text outline form. This response

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was expected as everyone learns through different methods and approaches. Some learners are more visual than others, and providing material in two different forms (text or diagram) permits learners to select which method is best for them.

Reflections and Conclusion This pilot project of integrating concept maps as a visual tool was enlightening to the instructor and author. Personally, she enjoyed the process of making the maps and found them helpful in preparing course material and assignments. As the course map was being created, some topics were removed or changed from the previous year because they were either insignificant or did not fit within the scope of the course goals. Creating the chapter maps also helped the author in identifying the most relevant information in the chapters that pertained to the learning goals. Overall, concept maps assisted her in planning instruction (Rye et al. 2013). For the students, they found the concept maps an effective visual overview of the content (Harris and Zha 2013). Many commented on the diversity given in the maps that appealed to their visual senses such as colors, shapes, images, and animations. This helped stimulate interest among the students and aid in the recall of key terms and ideas (Blunt and Karpicke 2014; Wahidin and Meerah 2013). The hyperlinking capability was also mentioned as a benefit, but students did not rely too much on these links in using the maps themselves. The visual aspect of the concept maps was a feature addressed most by the students in this class. Reflecting back on the course, several changes could be made to further examine this area. One issue encountered was not being able to monitor use of the concept maps. Because students downloaded the maps to their own computers and drives, there was no ability to track how many times they referred to the maps. The online course could only track how many times a student visited the page where the maps were housed, but could not track how many times a map was viewed by the student or for how long. Thus, a student could have just looked at the map once or twice and did not even click on the hyperlinks. The author does not know how to overcome this issue, but tracking students’ access to maps would have been beneficial. Another issue that could help further investigation is making the concept maps more interactive. In other words, students were the passive receivers of the maps in this course and requiring them to create maps themselves would be a worthwhile activity to examine. Instead of having the author create maps of the chapters, requiring students to create concept maps of each chapter may be more beneficial, especially when she cannot track the viewing of concept maps. Even more beneficial is to group students after they created a chapter map to share their experiences and the differences in perspectives among themselves (Daugherty et al. 2012). This may be more beneficial for the use of the threaded discussions that we, as instructors, rely upon a great deal. Everyone perceives ideas and concepts differently, and concept maps can highlight those differences. Student-created maps could also serve as assessments to monitor student understanding of the topics being studied (Kamble

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and Tembe 2013). Using concept maps for students to study from and then requiring them to fill-in a blank concept map can be a form of learning assessment. Learning can also be examined by having students create concept maps concerning a problem-based scenario, an examination question, or as a course reflection. Regardless of how maps are used, student-created maps can be an alternative form of instruction and assessment. Considering the visual aspects of concept maps, further exploration into the types of visuals and their effectiveness upon learning could be performed. For instance, creating different types of maps, one with just shapes and another with images or clipart, could offer some interesting findings when comparing the two types. Furthermore, creating concept maps with different color schemes, such as creating a monotone map (e.g., gray scale) versus a vibrant map (e.g., caliente), may be useful. Comparing whether students prefer one color scheme to another could be useful in terms of instructional design. In this case study, the author used a spider layout for the concept maps. Examining how different layouts (e.g., flowchart, systems, picture) affect retention of material can be beneficial, especially when applied to the subject matter being taught. Using concept maps as graphic organizers for this course proved to be beneficial, even though the author was not able to track their use. Concept maps, in this case, helped students connect old information with new information in the chapters (All et al. 2003). The visual aspects of the maps assisted visual–spatial learners in that they could see the course holistically (Silverman 2002). Although this pilot project is just the beginning, other studies are certainly planned for the future.

References All, A. C., Huycke, L. I., & Fisher, M. J. (2003). Instructional tools for nursing education: Concept maps. Nursing Education Perspectives, 24(6), 311–317. Ausubel, D. P., Novak, J. D., & Hanesian, H. (1978). Educational psychology: A cognitive view(2nd ed.). New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. Axelrod, R. (1973). Schema theory: An information processing model of perception and cognition. The American Political Science Review, 67(4), 1248–1266. Ayres, P., & Pass, F. (2012). Cognitive load theory: New directions and challenges. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 26, 827–832. doi:10.1002/acp.2882 Blunt, J. R., & Karpicke, J. D. (2014). Learning with retrieval-based concept mapping. Journal Educational Psychology, 106, 849–858. Clark, J. M., & Paivio, A. (1991). Dual coding theory and education. Educational Psychology Review, 3(3), 149–210. Daugherty, J. L., Custer, R. C., & Dixon, R. A. (2012). Mapping concepts for learning and assessment. Technology and Engineering Teacher, 71(8), 10–14. Dexter, D. D., & Hughes, C. A. (2011). Graphic organizers and students with learning disabilities: A meta-analysis. Learning Disability Quarterly, 34, 51–72 Edwards, S., & Cooper, N. (2010). Mind mapping as a teaching resource. The Clinical Teacher, 7, 236–239. Harris, C. M., & Zha, S. (2013). Concept mapping: A critical thinking technique. Education, 134(2), 207–211.

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Hay, D., Kinchin, I., & Lygo-Baker, S. (2008). Making Learning Visible: The Role of Concept Mapping in Higher Education. Studies in Higher Education, 33(3), 295–311. Kamble, S. K., & Tembe, B. L. (2013). Teaching of the second law of thermodynamics: Evaluation of learners’ concept maps. International Journal of the Computer, the Internet and Management, 20(2), 17–21. Kim, A.H., Vaughn, S., Wanzek, J, & Wei, S. (2004). Graphic organizers and their effects on the reading comprehension of students with LD: A synthesis of research. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 37, 105–118. Lerner, J. (2000). Learning disabilities: Theories, diagnosis, and teaching strategies. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin. Mayer, R.E. (2003). Learning and instruction.Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill. Novak, J. D. (1998). Learning, creating, and using knowledge: Concept maps as facilitative tools in schools and corporations (pp. 49–78). Mahwah: Erlbaum. Novak, J. D., & Canas, A. J. (2007). Theoretical origins of concept maps, how to construct them, and uses in education. Reflecting Education, 3(1), 29–42. O’Bannon, B., & Puckett, K. (2010). Preparing to use technology: A practical guide to curriculum integration. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc. Paxman, C. (2011). Map your way to speech success! Employing mind mapping as a speech preparation technique. Communication Teacher, 25(1), 7–11. Rye, J., Landenberger, R., & Warner, T. A. (2013). Incorporating concept mapping in project-based learning: Lessons from watershed investigations. Journal of Science Education & Technology, 22(3), 79–392. doi:10.1007/s10956-012-9400-1 Silverman, L. K. (2002). Upside-down brilliance: The visual-spatial learner . Denver: DeLeon Pub. Wahidin, K.O., & Meerah, S. M. (2013). Concept mapping in chemistry lessons: Tools for inculcating thinking skills in chemistry learning. Journal of Baltic Science Education, 12(5), 666–681. Yen, J., Lee, C., & Chen, I. (2012). The effects of image-based concept mapping on the learning outcomes and cognitive processes of mobile learners. British Journal of Educational Technology, 43(2), 307–320. doi:10.1111/j.1467–8535.2011.01189.x Taralynn Hartsell  Taralynn is an associate professor at the University of Southern Mississippi where she currently teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in the Instructional Technology and Design programs. She earned her Ph.D. in language, reading, and culture at the University of Arizona, with a focus on educational technologies. Her research interests include gender and technology, distance learning, math and science education concerning the implementation of technology, instructional design, and preservice teacher education. Dr. Hartsell has published numerous journal articles, book chapters, and encyclopedia entries in various publications, and has been serving as an editorial reviewer for two international journals.

Part III

Teaching

Digital Knowledge Mapping as an Instructional Strategy to Promote Visual Literacy: A Case Study Darryl C. Draper

Abstract This case study discusses the effectiveness of concept mapping and graphic organizers as an instructional strategy to promote visual literacy in an online graduate-level course. The challenge for teachers is to select instructional strategies that integrate visual literacy into the curriculum. Students utilizing visual thinking strategies to interpret and produce visuals will help foster a higher level of learning. Knowledge mapping as an instructional strategy promotes meaningful learning. Digital knowledge mapping offers the potential to link knowledge of complex theories and concepts to text, images, websites, virtual learning environments, and audio and video resources. Graphic organizers are knowledge visualization tools that support meaningful learning. Gowin’s Knowledge Vee diagram facilitates students’ use of their metacognitive processes to newly acquired information in order to make meaningful connections. In 1984, Novak and Gowin presented two constructivist techniques for learning: concept maps and the Knowledge Vee diagram. The Knowledge Vee enables students not only to understand the structure and meaning of knowledge but also in making important learning connections. A content analysis was used to examine the presence of themes within students’ final digital knowledge map justification assignment that provided insights on students’ thought processes, creation, and justification of concept map topics used to provide evidence of higher thinking levels and visual literacy approaches. The chapter discusses the study results and recommends instructional strategies to promote visual literacy.

Introduction Technology has influenced the way students learn and how teachers deliver content. There are two central challenges facing students and instructors alike: the dynamic nature of technology and the acceleration of newly created knowledge. The rapidly increasing use of visuals and media in digital technology has increased the D. C. Draper () Department of STEM Education and Professional Studies, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA e-mail: [email protected] © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 D. M. Baylen, A. D’Alba (eds.), Essentials of Teaching and Integrating Visual and Media Literacy, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-05837-5_11

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importance of visual literacy as well as pressure from accreditation agencies for teachers to utilize engaging and meaningful instructional strategies to help promote visual literacy. As a result, the challenge for teachers is the selection of instructional strategies and learning activities that integrate visual literacy into the curriculum. A descriptive case study of the implementation of digital knowledge mapping activities is provided to demonstrate the value of visual-based tools in the effectiveness of learning. This case study focuses on a graduate-level blended modality course in which students used the digital knowledge maps and graphic organizers to develop their knowledge of course content. This chapter addresses the instructional strategies used to promote visual literacy in the context of a blended knowledge-building community of practice (CoP) learning environment.

Visual Literacy Visual imagery has been employed as a form of communication since prehistoric times. In 1969, the term visual literacy was first used by John Debes, Coordinator for Eastman Kodak Company of the Visual Scholars Program at the University of Iowa. After Debes’ initial concepts, visual literacy was tentatively defined as “a group of vision-competencies a human being can develop by seeing and at the same time having and integrating other sensory experiences” (Avgerinou and Ericson 1997, p. 280). The term visual literacy can be deceptive because vision is used in reading text. However, Robinson (1984) posited “…visual literacy is the ability to process the elements of and to interpret visual messages, the ability to understand and appreciate the content and the purpose of any image as well as structural and aesthetic composition” (p. 267). More recently, Brumberger (2011) suggested that the best definitions of visual literacy “stipulate that the ability to analyze and interpret images, and other visual material, although critical, is not by itself sufficient for full visual literacy; it must be accompanied by some ability to create visual material” as well. A visually literate person has the ability to read and write visual information, the ability to learn visually, and to think and solve problems in the visual domain. According to Smaldino et al. (2012), visual literacy refers to the learned ability to interpret and create visual messages accurately and can be developed through two major approaches. First, teachers can facilitate students in decoding or “reading” visual images proficiently by using appropriate visuals in their instruction. Teachers select the most appropriate visuals keeping in mind the students’ age, education level, cultural background, image type, image color, and realistic or abstract images that reach desired instructional goals. Second, teachers can encourage practicing visual analysis skills in encoding or “writing” visuals by incorporating learning activities that foster students’ use of digital imagery to create visual representations of knowledge in the form of presentations, posters, reports that include graphs and charts, and concept maps.

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Knowledge Visualization: A New Frontier Technological advances and ongoing research in cognition and perception have created new practices and approaches for visualizing knowledge. Unlike the field of visual literacy, knowledge visualization is a relatively new area of study. The tremendous amount of information communicated visually has made it imperative that students become visually literate. In order to comprehend or “read” a visual image, students must be able to consider the purpose and techniques used in the creation of the visual message. “Knowledge visualization is the field of study that investigates the power of visual formats to represent knowledge. It aims at supporting cognitive processes in generating, representing, structuring, retrieving sharing and using knowledge” (Tergan 2005, p. 168). Burkhard and Meier (2004) defined knowledge visualization as the use of visual representations to transfer knowledge between at least two individuals. Concept mapping is an analytical framework that can be used as an instructional strategy that facilitates knowledge visualization to externalize knowledge. Concept mapping can represent an individual’s knowledge that can be shared and transferred to others within a group or classroom with the assistance of technology (Novak and Cañas 2008). A set of concept mapping tools can be used to facilitate the development and sharing of visual ideas.

CmapTools CmapTools (http://cmap.ihmc.us/) was developed by Joseph Novak at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) and was designed as a concept map-centered learning environment that enables students individually or collaboratively to visually represent their knowledge. CmapTools has many features that support the development and collection of knowledge maps with visual and mediarich resources. The application was developed with four guiding objectives (See Table 1). First, low threshold/high ceiling refers to the difficulty level of use and the capability of the application. CmapTools is easy to learn in a short amount of time due to the streamlined interface. Students are able to focus on concept mapping and not a multitude of icons that might distract the students. For example, students are presented with a blank screen, and with simple drag and drop actions they can create and link concepts in the construction of their concept maps. Even though the application is easy to use, the environment can support large collections of concept maps. The second objective is the extensive support for the construction of knowledge models. Knowledge models are defined as a set of concept maps and the associated visual and media resources (Cañas et al. 2003, p. 3). CmapTools supports large and small concept maps and resources allowing collaboration and the inclusion of media resources such as URLs, documents, videos, and graphics. “CmapTools supports the construction of ‘knowledge models’ sets of concept maps and associated resources about a particular topic” (Cañas et al. 2003, p. 2). The third objective extensive support for collaboration and sharing is based on constructivist pedagogy and facilitates the collaboration and construction of knowl-

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Table 1   CmapTools development objectives. (Cañas et al. 2003) Objectives

Description

Low threshold/high ceiling

Low threshold refers to the difficulty level of the application. The ceiling refers to the amount of data that can be supported by the platform

Extensive support for the construction of knowledge models

Concept maps and associated digital resources about a domain are identified as knowledge models. Knowledge models are scalable

Extensive support for collabo- Constructivist learning environment where users of all ages ration and sharing are able to collaborate and share in knowledge construction activities Modular architecture

Enables the development and evaluation of program functionality in a research environment without affecting other parts of the program. Different versions of the program can be customized to the needs of different users

edge of students. The fourth guiding objective is modular architecture that operates from a core module in which components can be added or eliminated from the application.

Community of Practice Learning Environment A CoP is a type of learning environment intended to codify and convert valuable, tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge (Draper 2010). A CoP that is designed explicitly around knowledge building entails several key principles: real ideas, authentic experiences, community knowledge, constructive uses of authoritative sources, and knowledge building discourse (Zhang et al. 2009). These principles provide empirically based guidelines for the design of learning environments that support goals and elements of the CoP. In a CoP learning environment, students engage in active learning by sharing knowledge, real-world experiences, challenges, stories, tools, and techniques to build and apply new knowledge through interaction and collaboration. This implies a level of competence or a baseline of common knowledge as the foundation for which members are able to use their individual perspectives to build knowledge and effectively work together (Draper 2010).

Concept Maps Evolution to Digital Knowledge Maps Novak developed concept maps in the 1970s. His research monitored changes in elementary school children’s understanding of science concepts over time. The theoretical underpinning of Novak’s research is based on David Ausubel’s work on meaningful learning (Novak and Musconda 1991). Ausubel’s assimilation theory of cognitive learning described how an individual’s cognitive structure develops and elaborates the

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notion of meaningful learning. Ausubel posited that learning happens by the assimilation of new concepts and propositions into existing concept propositional frameworks. On the learning continuum, rote learning happens when the learner makes no attempt to integrate new concepts and prepositions into their cognitive structure and possess relevant concepts and propositions, and/or must be relatable to other ideas in the knowledge domain. For example, concept maps are graphical tools of organizing and representing an individual’s knowledge. Typical concept maps contain shapes with identifying key words or concepts and connecting lines often with directional arrows that represent relationships among the various words or ideas. Propositions located on the connecting lines are “linking words” or cross-links between two or more concepts. Essentially, concept maps are networks of concepts linked by phrases to show the relationship between concepts, which can be either causal or temporal. Novak (1977, 1993) suggested that knowledge creation is a high level of meaningful learning accomplished by individuals or groups who have a well-organized knowledge structure in a particular domain of knowledge and have a high emotional commitment to persist in finding new meanings. To further his research in meaningful learning, another visually based instructional tool was developed in conjunction with concept maps. In a study with seventh graders, Novak et al. (1983) combined concept mapping and Gowin’s Knowledge Vee diagram to enabled middle school students to understand the structure of knowledge and the process of knowledge construction. Graphic organizers are knowledge visualization tools that support meaningful learning. Graphic organizers are based on schema theory of organizing information (Derry 1996). For example, Gowin’s (1981) Knowledge Vee diagram facilitates students’ use of their metacognitive processes to newly acquired information in order to make meaningful connections. In 1984, Novak and Gowin presented two constructivist techniques for learning: concept maps and the Knowledge Vee diagram (Novak and Gowin 1984). The Knowledge Vee enables students not only to understand the structure and meaning of knowledge but also in making important learning connections. Novak and Gowin (1984) posited that the Knowledge Vee emphasizes the structure of, and interplay between, the theoretical and methodological dimensions of knowledge (see Fig. 1). The Knowledge Vee comprises 12 elements divided into two parts: conceptual and methodological. The overarching focus question guides the process. There is interaction between the two sides. The left side or the conceptual side of the diagram comprises philosophies, concepts, constructs, and theories that provide the foundation for learning. The right side or methodological side of the diagram comprises elements relating to each conceptual element located on the left. The right or methodological side elements are: value claims, knowledge claims, transformations, constructs, and data. Critical to the current discussion is the relationship of concepts and records, toward the bottom of the Vee, the conceptual element is “concepts” or the perceived regularity in which events or objects that directly relates to the focus question. Directly across the diagram on the right side is the “records” element or the data that represents the observation of the perceived concepts or events on the left side of the diagram. In a natural evolution, advances in technology have transformed Novak’s original idea of concept maps to include resources in digital visuals and media that en-

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