Fostering Verbal and Visual Literacy in ELearning

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FosteringVerbal and Visual Literacyin E-Learning

• Harriet Napierkowski
• Department of English
• University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
• WCET Conference, November 8, 2002

2
The Verbal Bias

• Verbal literacy is absolutely necessary for
  the development not only of science but also of
  history, philosophy, explicative understanding of
  literature and of any art, and indeed for the
  explanation of language itself.
• (Ong, 1982)

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Text-Only Example

• The Four Stroke Engine
• The four stroke engine was first demonstrated by
  Nikolaus Otto in 1876 hence it is also known as
  the Otto cycle. The technically correct term is
  actually four stroke cycle.  The four stroke
  engine is probably the most common engine type
  today.  It powers almost all cars and trucks.

4

Text and Image Example
The Four Stroke Engine
The four stroke engine was first demonstrated by
Nikolaus Otto in 1876 hence it is also known as
the Otto cycle. The technically correct term is
actually four stroke cycle.  The four stroke
engine is probably the most common engine type
today.  It powers almost all cars and trucks.

5

• Questions
• What is visual literacy in the context of online
  teaching and learning?
• How has technology affected the need for visual
  literacy?

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What Is Visual Literacy?

• The ability to understand, use, and create images
  to intentionally communicate with others.
• The ability to think and learn in terms of
  images.

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Tectonic Communication Shifts

• Speech oral
• culture
• Print text-based culture
• Computers visual culture

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Principles of Visual Design

• Contrast
• Repetition
• Alignment
• Proximity

(Williams, 1994)
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Principles of Visual Learning

• The dual-modality principle
• The contiguity principle
• The coherence principle

• Adding graphics to words improves learning.
• Placing graphics near related text improves
  learning.
• Gratuitous use of graphics can impeded learning.
• (Clark, 2002)

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Recommendations

• See ourselves as constructors of meaning both
  through words and through images.
• Take advantage of the tools for blending the
  verbal and the visual.
• Make visual learning goal-oriented and
  purposeful.

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Recommendations

• Recognize the increasing importance of visual
  design in the delivery of text itself.
• Treat verbal and visual literacies as interactive
  and symbiotically related.
• Discuss the ethics of using images responsibly.

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Conclusion

• We are coming to depend on visualization as a
  vital tool for conceptual thought in ways that
  were simply impossible before the digitization of
  information. If we want to prepare our students
  for the world out there, it must be a new kind of
  preparation for a transformed world.
• (Lanham, 1993)