Aug 17 2009
New Literacy
For a while now, I have been pondering the notion of literacies beyond that of the written word, particularly that of visual and new media literacies. In the fascinating article “Expanding the Concept of Literacy” Elizabeth Daley goes so far to propose that multimedia and the language of the screen is the current vernacular; a true new literacy equal in importance to traditional literacy of the printed word. It seems to me that educational institutions have a long way to go towards recognition of non-traditional literacy, however I have observed some progress on occasion.
For example, Daniel Pink recently wrote about how the University of Pennsylvania, which normally assigns a book to the incoming freshmen class to study and analyze, this year has assigned a famous painting for study and consideration. I find the story interesting because it suggests a broad recognition of visual literacy as a valid and important field of study at that institution.
Intrigued, yesterday I tweeted the story out, seeking thoughts on the idea and unfortunately have been away from my computer for a day and wasn’t able to reply to anyone who responded. Some things are ill-suited for discussion on twitter anyhow, and this story and its accompanying ideas seems too big for 140 characters, so I wrote this quick post to continue the discussion. Here are some of the ideas that were suggested:
Chris wants to open a can of copyright worms…
Chris, I know we are in a mash-up world, but I’m going to have to learn a whole bunch more about copyright before I could effectively lead such a discussion. And it seems like the more I learn about it, the more confused I get. Still, it would certainly be interesting! How much is fair-use? How much can you expect to use before you get into legal trouble, etc.?
Jeff gets right to the heart of the matter with a suggestion of turning it into an explicit lesson in visual literacy…
Most of my students are definitely left-brain oriented, and this suggestion would certainly lead to some lively debates and discussions. What do you think of doing this debate-style and just randomly having people argue for and against? I would love to get some engineering technology students arguing for visual literacy because I certainly more often hear arguments against needing this kind of knowledge.
Then we have Dr. Taylor confusing the heck out of me…
This is why I think some things are better discussed somewhere other than twitter. When we abbreviate to the point that the message becomes confusing, maybe it’s time to take it to the blog? Rel ` icons? Is that religious icons? Ren ` ports to Cubists & Bacon? Not sure what ren ` ports is either.
I’m liking your postcard idea, but would like some further clarification on this before I comment further. I hope you can take my gentle ribbing, but either I’m just too tired or too thick-headed to decode that last tweet.
We have some terrific ideas starting us out here, I’m wondering if anyone else would like to weigh in?
At my school, we have a freshman experience class, although I am not directly involved with it. I’m not sure if they have an assigned reading assignment, but something that the incoming freshmen could do together to start developing critical thinking skills I think would be awesome. Why not a painting? Congratulations Penn, I think this is a fabulous idea for welcoming new students to college, and getting their feet wet in the world of literacy. Perhaps a video lesson might be great as well. Show them an indie or foreign film that none of the students are likely to see.
What do you think of using a film for developing visual literacy? Video is definitely a part of this generation’s lives, the trick is finding a film that they haven’t seen yet.
One film I have shown past groups of students is the French film Amélie. It is full of complementary colors and stunning visual imagery. I have yet to have a student who has seen it before I have shown it to them. Most are skeptical that they can watch and enjoy a non-English film with subtitles, yet most are surprised at how well they can follow the story.
If you have more ideas & suggestions on developing visual & new media literacies, I would love to hear them! I’m particularly interested in seeing detailed plans on how these literacies are being taught.
I’m also interested in hearing what you think about the whole notion of alternative, non-printed literacy.
9 responses so far
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I’m not sold on the importance of visual literacy. New media literacy yes, but I don’t think that and visual literacy are related.
I’m not sure about Visual Literacy eithe. (Or indeed ‘literacy’, but that’s not a very helpful thing to say here).
But New Media Literacy seem to me about ‘mash-ups’ and repurposing.
How about a task that encourages learners to imagine as many ways as possible to use a given medium?
Or the reverse, to give learners a task and for them to carry it out using as many media as possible?
I think any task given should be capable of surprising you. I mean really surprising you. If you’re studying ‘New Media’, you have to emphasise the ‘new’.
Visual literacy & new media literacy are related because video is perhaps the most important of the new media, and it is primarily a visual medium.
We are constantly bombarded with visual information. The field of graphic design has simply exploded. Even in our rural Kansas area where we live, billboards dot the landscape. I remember as a kid seeing few of these driving through the countryside, but now they are everywhere.
If you do not understand how visual literacy works, you are more susceptible to suggestion from those who do (e.g. marketers & advertisers). Also, an awareness of cultural differences of interpreting visual information is beneficial to those who want to be effective communicators in the modern world.
Dan, I find your comment particularly interesting because it was the visual aesthetic of the Clifton-Clyde Tribune that first caught my attention. I felt compelled to contact you and inquire about writing for that paper because it looked so good in comparison to others we were used to. (Of course the writing was superb as well.
But because the entire package was so well conceived, I wanted to be a part of it! You obviously are quite visually literate, perhaps without recognizing it.
Well if you put it that way…
I was translating the concept of visual literacy in a different way. Almost like art appreciation I guess.
I see your suggestion more as a design and aesthetics topic, which I feel is a huge part of the new media experience. We need to be thinking outside the box with our visual presentation in new media.
I was thrown off by the “what does this work of art mean to you” project that you said a college was doing. That could be used to help students think more deeply about how something is visually. I guess I was thinking “see how the artist shows love by placing the woman’s hand so gently on the baby’s cheek” sort of stuff… snore.
Yes, the art appreciation as a tough sell, but it is a valid way of teaching visual literacy. The trick for those teaching it (myself included) is to find a connection to make it relevant to students “subjected” to it.
I think Fair Use should be a required topic for everyone, not just Educational Technologists and teacher candidates. There are many examples of commercial Fair Use (news media, publishing companies) that apply to almost any “major” in college. Knowing how to interpret and evaluate “Fair Use” is a now critical skill for anyone in the workforce.
Here are some resources that Kristin Hokanson (@khokanson on Twitter) has helped compile, especially the “Reasoning Tool” that she helped create. The other resources on this wiki are fantastic.
http://copyrightconfusion.wikispaces.com/reasoning-tool
Kristin is also affiliated faculty at Temple University’s Media Education Lab: http://mediaeducationlab.com/ They’ve compiled a “Code of Best Practices Fair Use in Media Literacy Education” on that website, along with other great examples.
Thanks Chris,
I absolutely agree we should learn more about fair use. I also agree with Mike Wesch that we need to re-examine copyright in the first place. The original intent of copyright protections has been lost, expanded to protect large corporations indefinitely rather than protecting individual creative people for a relatively short period of time.
Thanks! I’ll check those links out.
As a national media literacy educator, I am connecting visual literacy with film literacy. My audiences (teachers and students) create scripts and storyboards from passages taken from popular novels. The results are astounding and it connects to standards for ELA, Arts and more. Contact me for specifics.
Frank,
You’re describing something that really interests me. I spent the summer making videos of local-interest stories. Surprising to some, most of this work was not spent operating the camera but was spent planning, script writing, contacting prospective subjects, editing, developing the story, etc.
I’m hoping to pass this knowledge on to my students this fall.