The saying ‘A picture speaks a 1000 words’ is often thrown around when discussing graphic displays of information. Images are not new fangled communication methods; they have been around for millennia. The way we use them with ICT’s though, this is a huge consideration in planning for technologies in the classroom. The key thing to remember when using images in ICT’s is what words do I want this graphic to convey? – Ultimately, how will I frame this image so that my students take appropriate meaning from it?
This what Thibault and Walbert (2003) identify as the first
level of visual literacy, the “Basic identification of the subject or elements
in a photograph, work of art, or graphic.” We should scaffold activities
appropriately for effective learning experiences so that the visual literacy
component does not become lost in translation. This being said, images are very
helpful for engaging student attention, but have the potential to weaken the
actual message through distraction and misinterpretation.
Many issues arise when using images in online spaces. Here
is a summary from my experiences in the exercises I participated in:
- Licencing. Picture taken from the web need appropriate approval from their owner if they are under licence. One way around this is to use images with a Creative Commons licence. These are free-sourced images that can be altered, modified and used for commercial purposes. One source for searching these types of photos is the Creative Commons website – www.creativecommons.org.au
- Safety. Especially in school environment, students must never be identifiable on the open Internet. Along with this, images that show informal and incorrect situations should never be uploaded, as so many issues can come from this.
- Permission. As with any picture or multimedia, the permission of the subject/owner of the photo must be obtained before it can be used.
Putting these issues aside, correctly structured activities
involving images can be very effective learning experiences. In my KLA of the
Arts (Music Strand) images can provide very useful as a learning tool, however,
the ideas for activities are limited as it is an audio focussed medium. However,
some examples of using images include:
- Students can make a photo diary of a school recital and reflect on the entire event. (Practical workplace situation activity)
- Students could take photos of setups during a music-recording project to easily document the complex setups instead of writing on very, very confusing diagrams. The same can be done with screenshots of the software setups (Eg. Mixing Bus setups on ProTools LE)
Activities that we were asked to do in the Images Tool
section included resizing and altering images. As I have a lot of experience
with software including PhotoShop and Fireworks, I feel rather comfortable with
manipulating images. It did make me realise that images need to be tailored for
online spaces – right size and right resolutions. An example of this consideration can be found on my Group 2 wiki page.
To summarise my experience with images for ICT’s, I prepared
a PMI analysis:
Plus
- Visuals are excellent for engagement!
- Removes a lot of reading writing and reduces work time – a picture says 1000 words.
- Powerful as a memory stimulant: Visual memory.
Minus
- Online safety of students needs to be considered.
- Permission needs to be obtained to use images taken from others (Permission and Liscencing)
- Can detriment content through distraction (irrelevance)
Interesting
- Graphic forms of data and images in general are so much more appealing than what words and tables can be. This makes learning and reading a lot easier.
References
Thibault, M., & Walbert, D. (2003). Reading images: an introduction to visual literacy. Retrieved from http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/675
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