Pictures speak a thousand words. Visual literacy is a major part of communication within our society. Images are particularly useful in an educational setting for visual learners. The use of photographs for educational purposes is the topic of this blog. As I searched through the endless libraries of photographs within countless websites, I came to discover that there is an image for every occasion. The beauty of this is that any image is accessible to any individual within seconds. I would like to take this opportunity to thank those who have uploaded their images on to websites for the public use.
The image on the right would be utilised within a science classroom for students to learn the anatomy of an insect. The image was found in www.kiddk.com.
Hey Cameron. Got to agree with your comments regarding the power of pictures. It is a shame however when trying to engage students in the classroom, Education Queensland so often puts a block on relatively safe site such as Flickr and other photosharing sites. Prensky (2005) emphasises the importance of exploring or investigating on the internet in a real, homelike style setting. Imagine not being able to share or look at Flickr as a photography student! For digital natives this is almost incomprehensible or enraging.
ReplyDeleteYes, it would be enraging for digital natives when seemingly safe web sites are blocked by Education Queensland. Alternatives exist however. If I may make a recommendation to your digital native friends who are teachers it would be this; have a look within the Learning Place (http://education.qld.gov.au/learningplace/). In the Learning Place you can make your own virtual classroom. The virtual classroom allows you to choose and use appropriate material that may otherwise be blocked by Education Queensland.
ReplyDeleteThankyou for sharing this image, It also provides a great way to model what a diagram looks like and how to label the parts. "Drawing information as a diagram, map or table helps children see how facts are connected, whereas 'making notes' often provides only a collection of isolated pieces of data". (You may be interested in the following site: Using Visual Literacy:
ReplyDeletehttp://k-8visual.info/using_Text.html ). I love the way your image will provide understanding for a range of different learners, in a literacy context.
Hi all,
ReplyDeleteI did not realise that Flickr was blocked by Education Queensland. I understand the importance of protecting students from sensitive material but there has to some sort of grey area. Would this mean that a teacher is unable to source material from FLickr to use in the classroom?
When I was at my prac last year the school had an extensive photo library on the school intranet. This was great as students were able to quickly obtain photos without having to go and search on the Internet. This also meant that there was no concern of students encountering sensitive material.
More schools should create these intranet based photo libraries, does anyone else agree with this?
Happy blogging
Nick