Visual Literacy in Preservice Teachers: A Case Study in Biology

In this study, we explore the competence of preservice teachers (n = 161) in labelling and creating new cross-sectional human diagrams, based on anatomy knowledge depicted in longitudinal sections. Using educational standards to assess visual literacy and ad hoc open questions, results indicate limited skills for both tasks. However, their competence is particularly poor creating diagrams, where shortcomings were observed not only in visual literacy but in content knowledge. We discuss the misconceptions detected during these assessments.

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Visual Literacy, Rhetoric, and Design at the Graduate Level

While much has been written about visual literacy and multimodal teaching, almost nothing has been published on preparing instructors and graduate teaching assistants to provide students with the mechanics of visual design, rhetoric, and cultural criticism to help them build complex, multimodal projects that go beyond visual inclusion and critique. This chapter focuses on a graduate course on visual literacy, rhetoric, and design that was taught by one of the authors and taken by the other four.

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Study on Visual Learning Based on Network Environment

The paper describes a study of visual learning in a network environment, which includes a new instructional model, the STILE (situation, tools, interaction, lucubration, evaluation) model which is based on Problem Based Learning (PBL). We describe the process of blended learning through a teaching experiment which offers a good reference to teachers. We then describe how this model can be carried out in a network environment efficiently. The experimental results show that visual learning in a network environment can improve the learning effect, which promotes students’ learning from passive to active and leads to a better communication and reflection.

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Playfulness in the Archives: Enhancing Digital Collections through Card Sorting

Regardless of institutional type or resources, one question facing archives and special collections is how archival collections can be efficiently enhanced with minimal or no original metadata. This issue becomes a focal point when collections are digitized, as metadata is what makes digital collections more accessible and usable. This case study explores the development of a digital collection using card sorting activities and gamification techniques and analyzes the direct and indirect effects of each strategy, including student employee connections to library learning goals and visual literacy standards.

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Developing an Instructional Design for the Design of Infographics and the Evaluation of Infographic Usage in Teaching Based on Teacher and Student Opinions

Infographics have been frequently used in recent years with the purpose of the visual presentation of information. It is a visualisation method which aims at presenting any content with a visual composition, combining such elements as shapes, symbols, graphics, photographs, illustrations, and texts for the target audience. The purpose of this research is to develop an instructional design based on the ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation) model of infographic design as well as the determination of student and teacher opinions on the usage of infographics in teaching.

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Perceptions of Prospective Teachers on Digital Literacy

The aim of the quantitative study is to identify the digital literacy levels of prospective teachers in terms of several variables. The sample consisted of 354 prospective teachers studying in different departments of Sakarya University College of Education. The 30-item instrument used to gather the data was the “Digital Literacy Scale” developed and used by the researchers. The scale was composed of 5 different factors namely information literacy, visual literacy, software literacy, technology literacy and computer literacy.

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Integrating Visual Literacy Training into the Business Curriculum. A Case Study at Dublin Business School

Visual literacy, the ability to interpret, analyse and create visual material, is an increasingly crucial skill for today’s graduates. However, this importance has not yet led to its teaching being widely introduced into the third-level curriculum. This study uses a constructivist and social constructivist approach to introduce a visual literacy element to a business curriculum.

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Information Literacy Contributions from Archives and Special Collections: Developing Information Literate Students in the Library Workplace

Theories, methodologies, frameworks, and scholarship have been built around information literacy and libraries worldwide for over fifteen years. In academic libraries, information literacy experiences traditionally include instruction sessions and classes, activities in library learning spaces, and interactions with librarians. Often overlooked but equally as important to augmenting the student experience is employment in academic libraries and its relationship to information literacy in the workplace. This is particularly true with regards to the contribution of special collections and archives, as most scholarship associated with information literacy and special collections has been focused on instruction and teaching with primary sources.

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Growing the Art Image and Visual Literacy Garden: The Journey to Create a Practice Guide for Student Employees

Expanding upon my poster titled “Art Instead of Just Images: Training Students to See Beyond the Screen” presented at the 2016 ARLIS/NA + VRA Third Joint Conference in Seattle, I detail the current journey of my project to create a practical guide for student employees to understand and manipulate images of art.

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Describing Images: A Case Study of Visual Literacy and Information Science Students

This paper reports on a study that examined the development of pedagogical methods for increasing the visual literacy skills of a group of library and information science students. Through a series of three assignments, students were asked to provide descriptive information for a set of historical photographs and record reflections on their experiences via blog posts.

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Visual Literacy (VL) in Teacher Preparation: Measurement to Direction

An abridgment of the dissertation Measuring Visual Literacy Ability in Graduate Level Pre-Service Teachers by Teresa A. Farrell, this quantitative descriptive study was designed to establish a baseline of VL ability within this population using a national pool of graduate level students enrolled in teacher preparation programs. Avgerinou’s (2007) VL Index (modified to an online format) was the instrument used to measure VL ability. Results of this study indicate there may be a need for purposeful VL instruction in teacher preparation programs to better equip teachers in K-12 to be visually literate.

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The Teacher Candidates’ Views Concerning the 21st Century Literacy Education Project (LEP)

Today, the concept of “Literacy” represents reading and writing in various forms of texts which embody knowledge and a range of skills. Different literacies are essential for human to live, work and produce in the society. In order to use communication technologies in educational and teaching processes appropriately, individuals are not only required to become scientifically and technologically literate but also multimedia literate. Within this respect, a Project called “The 21st Century Literacies Education for Teacher Candidates” was conducted with the support of TUBITAK at Amasya University.

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Teaching Visual and Media Literacy Skills Through Media Production Technology

Information professionals such as archivists and librarians are faced with the challenge of preserving, describing, and providing access to information encoded on a variety of media, both text based and visual. While the visual and media literacy discourse recognizes the role of information professionals in visual, media, and information literacy education, the literature contains few pedagogical approaches those charged with training informational professionals at the graduate level. This chapter discusses one approach to visual and media literacy instruction in the Moving Image Archives course offered at the University of Pittsburgh School of Information Sciences, and suggests one method for visual and media literacy instruction at the graduate level. This technology-based approach addresses the “designing and creating” competencies from the Association of College and Research Libraries Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education, creating an environment that simulates production by introducing students to the tools and technologies of media production. This approach could also be used in other academic disciplines, such as film and media studies, where students learn to analyze and interpret specific media products, but do not engage directly with the technologies used to create these images.

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Multimodal Composition in Teacher Education: From Consumers to Producers

In the twenty-first century, visual texts are vital to learning in English language arts (ELA). As English educators, we know the importance of telling and sharing stories in various formats in order to build community as well as facilitate deep understanding of the concepts we teach. In our methods courses for undergraduates, two of our course projects help students think creatively and reflectively about themselves as ELA teachers, particularly in this time of changing demands, standards, and high-stakes testing. Further, these projects also help to expand students’ understanding of visual and digital ELA content and promote their development as sophisticated consumers of these texts. However, the projects also encourage students to be producers of digital content and to better understand the affordances of multimodal composition. We ask students to use digital tools such as iMovie, Windows Movie Maker, and VoiceThread to achieve our goals. In this chapter, we share the multimodal assignments we use and student project examples. While we teach in a university setting, we discuss adaptations to these projects that make them applicable to learners in other contexts.

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Librarians and Graphic Design: Preparation, Roles, and Desired Support

Librarians often become de facto graphic designers for their libraries, taking responsibility for designing signage, handouts, brochures, web pages, and many other promotional, instructional, and wayfinding documents. However, the majority of librarians with graphic design responsibilities are not trained as graphic designers. This exploratory research study surveyed librarians to determine their graphic design training and preparation for their assumed design duties as well as the support and training they desire. Results from this study can be used by library administrators when providing support for librarians with graphic design duties.

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Equipping Teacher Candidates with Media Literacy Skills: Best Practices in Online Education Courses

This paper provides an overview of how to reach the millennial generation, primarily at the higher education level. However, it does address an audience of K­12 teachers, higher education faculty, researchers, administrators, and practitioners, who not only teach the higher education population of students, but who prepare students who will one day attain a postsecondary education. Currently used practices that have been grounded in theory are presented along with evidence of curricular integration of visual and media literacy skills. The skills are in alignment with the standards of the Association of Colleges and Research Libraries (ACRL), the definition of visual literacy from the International Visual Literacy Association (IVLA), and the definition of media literacy from the National Association of Media Literacy Education (NAMLE).

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Digital Design and 3D Printing in Technology Teacher Education

This paper reports changes in the Technion technology/mechanics teacher education courses aimed to enhance students’ knowledge and skills in teaching digital design and manufacturing. The two major changes are: (1) equipping the departmental laboratory of technology with modern computer aided design software tools (Creo, Mathcad) and 3D printer, and (2) upgrading the courses to meet the conceive-design-implement-operate (CDIO) approach. Our ongoing study indicates that the CDIO approach can be applied to balance learning pedagogical fundamentals, training technological skills, and teaching practice. The study provides indications that learning activities in the courses facilitate development of visual literacy skills.

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Constructing and Reading Visual Information: Visual Literacy for Library and Information Science Education

This article examines visual literacy education and research for library and information science profession to educate the information professionals who will be able to execute and implement the ACRL (Association of College and Research Libraries) Visual Literacy Competency Standards successfully. It is a continuing call for inclusion of visual literacy into the curriculum for library and information science education and research in order to educate students to provide professional services in this visual information world and it is a call for a paradigm shift from text-based information services and research realm to a social construction of meaning, reading, searching, finding meaning in a visual information world.

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An Investigation into the Impact of Visual Aids in Post-Compulsory Education

“This study seeks insight into the use of visual aids in contemporary post-compulsory teaching. This thesis comprises a two-part study and employs a mixed methods approach. The first part inquires into teachers’ and lecturers’ practice with regard to their visual aids, and the second compares the effectiveness of text, images and imagery displayed in support of a lecture.The findings of the thesis are combined to propose a principle of Visual Working Memory Utilisation (VWMU), upon which future research into visual aid design and use in post compulsory education might be based.”

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Measuring Visual Literacy Ability in Grade Level Pre-Service Teachers

“This descriptive study is preliminary study to investigate the measurement of VL ability across the United States in order to establish a baseline VL ability measure from which to make vital decisions in the purposeful training of visual literacy within teacher preparatory programs and professional development within school districts. This study describes the mean performance levels of 125 participants collected from a randomly stratified national population within five of the six regional accrediting agencies for public higher education. The measures of central tendency and variance for the individual skills within the Avgerinou (2001) VL Index indicate a need for growth, in particular, in the intellectual skills of concrete concepts, defined concepts, and higher order rules. The implications of these findings emphasize the need for more development in critical engagement with visuals especially as it applies to Common Core State Standards assessments, consumer-driven marketing and power roles, and new modes of digital authorship in a media-saturated society.”

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