Ashley Pence
October 19, 2007
What do I know or what can I find out about photo-visual literacy skills?
My first experience with photo-visual literacy began in middle school. I do remember some experience in elementary school, but my real memories stem from 7th grade. I never considered what I was doing at the time to be practicing photo-visual literacy skills, but now that I read about them, I know that that was exactly what I was doing. Although my purposes for using these skills was a social aspect, I used them all the same. By doing so I have created a base to stand on that will guide me in new and more useful things which in this case includes my class work. From my previous reading of Experiments in Digital Literacy I have gained a fairly strong grasp on what photo-visual literacy skills entail. Photo-visual skills are reading instructions from graphical displays. This includes advancing from text based digital environments to a more graphic based environment. In this sense it requires us to use our vision to think. (2004) When I was younger and first began using photo-visual skills I may have began with a computer game that required me to understand symbols and icons and left me no choice to read the game with text.
While searching for other resources about photo-visual literacy skills I stumbled upon another journal article by Alkalai, who is a co-author of the article on Experiments in Digital Literacy. This article provided me with information that I had not previously known or obtained from the first article. The article brought up an interesting point that I felt was relevant to address. Alkalai discusses the history of writing as a means of communication which is exactly what photo-visual skills are.The author explains that writing is a means of communication that uses symbols. Those symbols throughtout history have changed from an alphabet of pictures, which used symbols with associative visual meanings to represent words, consonants, or letters. These required a low level of cognitive mediation and were used in very early times by what we now know them as, Cavemen. The next historical change was to the modern alphabet which includes meaningless symbols/letters, and therefore requires a higher level of cognitive medation. (2004, Alkalai) What I found most interesting is that we have somewhat reverted back to the early signs and symbols when referring to modern photo-visual skills.
What are your reactions to the idea that there are such skills?
My first reaction to the fact that there are such skills is one that is not surprised. As a matter of fact I didn’t see why there weren’t mandatory classes that educate people on such skills. Then I realized that as a student I did have those classes and was exposed to photo-visual literacy every day thousands of times a day. The thing that shocks me the most is how skills such as these are now hard to get by without having them. I think about today’s society and how it has been hammered with new and modern technology and think how on earth could someone survive without having the ability to read the “new” means of communication.
How do you think this “new” literacy will change education/schooling?
As I mentioned above I am surprised at the increase in neccessity of this skill. I can see that in the school system things are being done to enhance our skills and have been since my elementary days. Schools are now using computers on a daily basis multiple times in a day even and this is building the basic information that children in schools today will need for their future. Some may argue that this “new” literacy is not useful in teaching children and that we should stick to the old ways because it worked for them, it should work for the children today. However, in todays society we can’t expect students to be satisfied with pre-determined content material and subject matter. To gain the interest of today’s generation we must move away from the concepts of learning that many current educators grew up with. Everything we knew as a child is undergoing major shifts and we must embrace that. (2005) Although I grew up with an introduction to the “new” literacy I can still see major changes and should prepare myself for even more.
Resources:
Eshet-Alkai, Y., & Amichai-Hamburger, Y. (2004, August). Experiments in digital literacy. Cyberpsychology and Behavior, 7(4), 421-429.
Eshet-Alkai, Y. (2004). Digital literacy: A conceptual framework for survival skills in the digital era. JI. of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 13(1), 93-106.
Aphek, E. (2005) Digital, “highly connected” children: Implications for education. Retrieved October 19, 2007 from www.phil-inst.hu/mobil/2005/Aphek.pdf
