Images in the classroom

Hi All,

I personally believe images offer great potential in the classroom as they are an important component of our culture. We encounter images throughout our day, as they are used to entertain us, persuade us with advertising and provide vital information through an easy access medium. I think images and visuals are becoming a major part of our society and students are encountering them on a more regular basis. Therefore we as future learning managers must expose our students to a range of images and develop the visual literacy required to be an informed and critical thinking citizen.

According to Callow (1999) visual literacy helps to extend the concept of literacy beyond being able to read and write print to encompass ideas about how we communicate in our culture through images. Therefore students need to develop meaning making systems that enable them to understand images that:
-"Represent actions, objects, and settings
-Create interactive or interpersonal meanings between the viewer and what is viewed by the use of features such as colour, angles, shot distance, and type of media employed (e.g., photos, clip art, diagrams, etc.)
-Present layout choices that indicate the value of or emphasis on particular elements within an image, such as the salience (attention-gaining aspect) of a particular object or piece of text." (Callow, 1999.)
Callow’s article looks further into the importance of visual literacy and is a great read to understand the importance of using images and visual aids in the classroom. This article can be accessed online here.

I explored some online image sites recently as my grade six class is starting a unit on global warming. I found this “world in your hands” image on Flickr and believe it would be great to provoke thinking and emotions in my students. A discussion of what this image means to the students could help guide students into acknowledging that they have a role as global citizens and that their actions can affect our world. Therefore by providing this image I am connecting students emotionally to content and creating positive attitudes and perceptions to the global warming content because student will be encouraged to see the task as relevant and meaningful. (Marzano & Pickering, 1997) Another online tool I found useful when searching for relevant images for my global warming focus was search-cube.com. This site is a search engine that gathers relevant images and video files for your target content. It then compiles its findings into a handy cube arrangement. I believe presenting this cube to students would be a great method to engage them in the unit, however one would have to review all images prior to ensure all material is appropriate.

Overall images offer multiple benefits for the classroom context. My colleague, Kelly Blood has performed a PMI analysis on Images in the classroom and I have added further to this analysis. This discussion can be accessed here.

Image retrieved from Flickr.