Looking Ahead: the future of visual literacy is here now

Choice Reviews Online, 2013

IJAEDU- International E-Journal of Advances in Education

The dominance of the pictorial world forms the beginning of the effect of new visual civilisation in the 21st century. Today, we already know that photograph, film and television are just fist stage of visual era. The modern phenomena of digitalisation and mass communication related to the development of information and communication technologies and Internet, dramatically saturate the pictures and pictorial messages to public space and thus also to our everyday life. Posters, billboards and various visual posts attack us every day with their pictorial messages, trying to influence us while going to the work or school as well as while being on the road for a joy or relax. The presence of visual impulses is perceived also in the public space, for example in shopping malls. In such an environment, their role is to affect our purchasing habits. The information lettering in pictorial form-iconograms-orientate us on the streets, at the stations of mass transport, at the airports, in shopping malls, in tourism regions. Today, Internet and social networks are mainly the source of information mediated in the form of pictures in multimedia form. In the contemporary world, heavily saturated with pictures and media, our view of what literacy means must be extended, or even redefined. To read pictures is more than to read and write text, this is the "reading of the world of pictures". The Kaiser Family Foundation Study implies young people devote still greater attention to the pictures in the new media (Internet and social networks). While this was six hours and twenty-one minutes a day in average in 2009, it is seven hours and thirty-eight minutes a day in 2013. The numerical data say there has been a significant shift for 4 years and young people pay greater attention to pictorial information, they devote more of their time to them, by one hour and seventeen minutes. We may state that the use of new media has been intensified for recent 10 years, thus also time capacity devoted to media by young people has been increased too, save one exceptionthe interest in reading has decreased, yet it still consider it to be the basic, non-excludable literacy. Saying it in more unambiguously, text reading gets to the background and the first place is attained by reading, or perception of pictures in digital media. In the article we present a theoretical model of visual literacy and develop new personnel competencies of children for the 21st century, such as visual perception, visual thinking, visual language and learning visual literacy.

The inclusion of visual images in current educational literacy discussions tends to contextualise them within more semiotic, socio-critical and textually focussed theoretical traditions. These particular traditions privilege and emphasise the structures and "language-like" aspects of visual images, and include the broader social and cultural structural frames, such as gender and class, as well as the specific codes and "grammars" of individual images. While there are strong benefits in employing these approaches, the nature of visual images themselves may require a broader, interdisciplinary approach. This paper will include discussion of the field of visual culture in general, the unique nature of images, the role of philosophy in regard to image, the inclusion of the individual's hermeneutic role in meaning-making, and the attendant educational implications when applying such work to contemporary educational literacy practice.

Educational Considerations, 1981

English Language Teaching, 2009

For centuries people have conveyed meaning through the use of visual images, without the aid of written text. Consequently, wordless picture books have become a distinct genre within the world of literature. The wordless book is unique in that its content must be ...

European Journal of English Studies, 2013

IJAEDU- International E-Journal of Advances in Education

The dominance of the pictorial world forms the beginning of the effect of new visual civilisation in the 21st century. Today, we already know that photograph, film and television are just fist stage of visual era. The modern phenomena of digitalisation and mass communication related to the development of information and communication technologies and Internet, dramatically saturate the pictures and pictorial messages to public space and thus also to our everyday life. Posters, billboards and various visual posts attack us every day with their pictorial messages, trying to influence us while going to the work or school as well as while being on the road for a joy or relax. The presence of visual impulses is perceived also in the public space, for example in shopping malls. In such an environment, their role is to affect our purchasing habits. The information lettering in pictorial form-iconograms-orientate us on the streets, at the stations of mass transport, at the airports, in shopping malls, in tourism regions. Today, Internet and social networks are mainly the source of information mediated in the form of pictures in multimedia form. We can not only watch but also create video messages and films on the biggest worldwide Internet portal YouTube we send MMS via smartphones, and we take photos and record videos using the intelligent mobile phones. Another example of digitisation and mass communication is web page Pinterest allowing the users to create thematic sets of pictures or photos free of charge. Of course, the contemporary visual expression may be disputable as long as its functionality is concerned. Many times, we are the witnesses of the origin of the world of "hyper-reality" or virtual reality where experience, real pictures or products are replaced with the virtual ones. The immersion into the new "world" is not investigated to such an extent that we would be able to assess the impact of "hyper-reality" onto the emotional and rational world of a human. In the article we present a theoretical model of visual literacy and develop new personnel competencies of children for the 21st century, such as visual perception, visual thinking, visual language and learning visual literacy.

Open Journal for Information Technology

The paper discusses the place and role played by the pictures and text in the digital era. The digital art has become an essential component of contemporary art and new tools currently available to artists are revolutionizing the way they think and create, and so, artistic projects that could not have been accomplished with traditional methods, are now possible through computer interfaces. The computers have facilitated the traditional processes, and also offered a whole new vision on the sketches and the idea forming process, allowing the artists to create many virtual versions of an artwork-a concept. In order to analyze the history of digital art, it is necessary to study the history of several disciplines: computer history as visual medium, the history of graphic design and computer history integrated in the visual arts. Often these disciplines coincide during certain periods, making the study even more difficult to conduct. This chapter presents a brief history of computer generated art, of deconstructive typography and the importance of information visualization. Some of the earliest known examples of computer-generated algorithmic art were created by artists such as George Nees, Frieder Nake, Manfred Mohr and Vera Molnar in the early 60's. As a conclusion, we emphasize the idea that artists should use the computer as a tool adapted to their will, but understanding its potential to host systems that might allow the creation of artwork or graphics. In this regard, the computer must be considered a generative tool with a potential that must be understood in the context of the artist's work and intentions.

Learning and Leading with Technology, 2004

Refocusing the Vision, …, 2010