Reflective Blog: Visual Literacy and the Internet

Picture obtained from http://barbarabray.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/see-think-wonder.gif

In my Grand Canyon University class, TEC 538:  Learning in the Digital Age, we've been give a 2nd task to answer the following question:  

How can visual literacy and the use of the Internet impact the teaching and learning process in the classroom? What are some visual-thinking strategies you would like to use in your classroom? What role do you want the Internet play in your classroom?

This is my response:

Visual Literacy is the concept that students and teachers demonstrate the ability to interpret graphics that surround our world. We are visual creatures by design and nature, so it would be only fitting if the interaction with the Internet be visual by design.   There are elements used in the Internet that we see in daily life as the examples below show. 

Picture obtained from http://bigthink.com/design-for-good/the-noun-project-a-global-database-of-visual-literacy-symbols

These images must be meaningful and help move the user from one point of the Internet to the other.  Just like the driver that uses signs on the road and icons in the car to help them get from point A to point B, we use the graphical information to navigate from site to site. They show us that we’ve connected to destination or if there is a glitch in the system and access is denied.  In the classroom these graphics can play double roles.  What the students understand and respond to in the World Wide Web can be used to guide students to information or give instructions in a teacher’s presentation to the classroom.  Or be used to provide the graphical assistance in a project the student is sharing with peers. 

I believe the role of visual literacy and the Internet will have a big part in the student’s and teacher’s life.  Just like the ability to be literate in the library was a skill teachers stressed to students in the past, visual literacy is just evolving it’s form and function to keep up with our Internet-savvy students, who need those skills to develop more understanding in our multimedia world.