Images in Learning

Images in learning.

Below I have described the use of images in learning. Their benefits, pedagogical affordances alongside their technical affordances.

A Picture is worth a thousand words and in the year 2014 we need to assist our students to become visually literate citizens. Their world is very visual; they can upload and download images in a second. Their world is digital, with images surrounding them in this digital environment.

 

Visual literacy allows for meaningful interaction with texts of all kinds. It establishes the process of analytical thinking about representation and meaning. It is imperative that teachers help students develop visual literacies in order to survive and communicate in a highly complex world. “The use of visual media in learning and teaching is supported by research demonstrating that learner preferences and styles can more effectively be addressed (Gardner, 1993) and that enhanced learning and retention take place through the use of visual material” (Carney & Levin, 2002). Our students need to be able to interpret, negotiate, and make meaning from information presented in the form of an image.

How best do you learn? Is it by listening, doing, watching or experiencing? We all learn differently and see things differently; we explain things differently and imagine things differently. When we use images, videos and audio in the classroom we are giving each student the opportunity to learn their way. When we ask students to write a story, create a song or draw a story board about a picture they are shown, they will all do it differently. The images they use or create will be different and this will give them an opportunity to see things from others’ perspectives. To become open to other ideas and to then think about their own learning; this is the power of images in learning. This is the power of technology in learning!

Images are powerful! Just look at any ‘National Geographic’ front cover.  Images are used in society to persuade, entertain, and involve an audience. When we see an image of a child suffering, or a couple getting married or a child being born we are impacted. To what extent depends on the individual, we learn from images and we have all created images in our lives at one time or another. The 21^st Century learner is all about sharing and social media, images influence their thoughts, judgements and ideas each and every day. Modern technology has made images very real, very powerful and influential to students’ lives.

Images can be influential, rewarding and commanding. The great thing is that images can be used in all forms of learning. They can be used in a variety of different ways, for various learning outcomes and for numerous benefits. Students can learn anything from style and composition to mathematical procedures. They can also sort out and organise information.

 Visual organisers can emphasise cause and effect, organise information, sequence an event, compare and contrast information, similarities and differences and more. Students can create maps, stories, parts and components, explain geography and geographical data. They can help students categorise information in any way that suits their needs. As categorising information is a step to thinking critically this is a valuable skills and learning tool to use. Visual organisers are inexpensive and can be used on Ipads, Tablets and Computers. Bubble us!, FreeMind, Inspiration and Kidspiration are just a few software programs that can be used to do this. They all offer editing tools and are easy to use.

Kidspiration is designed specifically for kids. It is easy to use and offers a start up screen, in which students can choose 3 views. These views are, a picture view to mind map, with words and pictures; writer view, where they can organise their thoughts and the maths view in which students can develop and gain conceptual understanding of mathematical skills.

An example of a Venn diagram used with Kidspiration

These creations are easily added into a blog, social media or a wiki.

In using these tools, students are able to see how some ideas are connected. They can work autonomously or in groups to organise information. They can adapt and update their organisers along the way to add ideas from others in the group. Whole class visual organisers can put all the information together and allow students to analyse information; to think about ideas they did not have and to discuss new ideas with others. They learn new concepts and are able to relate it to prior knowledge.

Images are a powerful Social Media tool and students need to understand this. Using images and having students think about images they see promotes and embeds learning that is real. Images have the ability to share information in various ways and this sometimes depends on the learner. This then allows learners to discuss meaning and ideas about images and share and critique their own and others’ ideas. It is a tool that promotes collaboration within the classroom and even wider into the world around them.

Images are easy to share; they can be 2 or 3 dimensional. 21^st century students share images all the time through social media and sharing image as part of learning will only lead to increased motivation and knowledge. Pixlr express is a program that allows students to save, edit and change images. There are a plethora of image editing programs. To save and share images you can use of the very social and online community of Flikr. In addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs, and effectively an online community, the service is widely used by photo researchers and by bloggers to host images that they embed in blogs and social media.

When teaching students about persuasive writing teachers can have students create images to persuade their peers. They can work in groups/pairs and use both visual and written cues to argue their point. This allows students the opportunity to again see other student’s ideas and allows for critical thinking skills to be developed and/or used. Students can apply their knowledge of persuasive writing in a meaningful way more relevant to a 21^st Century learner. Students begin to understand that the images they use to persuade others need to be appropriate for their intended use and need to be strong!

PicMonkey, 5 Card Flikr, Skitch, PicFont, and thinglink can be used to develop students writing skills.  In other literacy areas, images can be used as prompts to promote narrative writing; they can be used to promote critical thinking, a teacher can start a story and then have students write their own ending; telling a story without an ending and asking the children to finish the story is another way to encourage critical thinking skills such as synthesis. The children must take the information from the story and creatively compile it, draw conclusions and come up with their own ending (Anderson & Lapp, 2008). Images can be used in Blogs, Wikis etc promoting the use of social interaction and collaborative learning. When students create an image, alter an image and use an image they capture their visual thinking in a way that conceptualizes problems to given solutions. “Students gain a deeper understanding of a concept when they are encouraged and enabled to create a nonlinguistic representation of that concept” (Guymon, 2014, np). When paired with linguistic -- or text-based -- literacy, visual literacy can multiply students' ability to recall and think about what they have learned.

 

Visual literacy skills such as being able to interpret and analyse images encourage students to think outside the square; something that they will need to become successful global citizens. Five card Flikr is a game that assists students’ promotion of visual literacy skills and the creation of storytelling. Students can choose 5 images and once the 5 images are selected, can use Screenhunter to capture the image. This can then be inserted into a Google Doc or Wiki.. Wiki’s and Google Doc allow many people to be working on the same document at one time creating a very collaborative environment. Students and teachers gain the power of the commenting feature to engage in dialogue. This is quite an easy process to follow and students will find the ability to use what interests and motivates them to create their ideas and stories. This makes learning very real and relevant to each student. They are able to give their own ideas and share their thinking and work.

Here is a small example of the start of a five card Flickr story by a few students in my class. Students had a variety of images to choose from for their writing task. It has been screen captured and inserted into this blog.

 

 

 

 

Hey Mum you left the light on all day.

I wonder how much electricity you wasted?

                                                                                                              My house looks so big from here

 

 

References

Anderson, P. & Lapp, D. (2008). Developing language skills is education. New York, USA :McMillan

 

Carney, R.N., & Levin, J.R. (2002). Pictorial illustrations still improve students' learning from text.

Educational Psychology Review, 14(1), 5-26

Guymon, D. (2014). Using social media to teach visual literacy in the 21^st century classroom. Retrieved from  http://www.edutopia.org /social-media-visual-literacy-classroom-dave-guymon