What is Visual Literacy and Its importance in Education.

Visual Literacy is nothing less than the ability to understand, interpret, and evaluate visual messages. It is based on the idea that pictures can be "read", communicating its meaning and making it easy to associate it with the text that accompanies it. 

Visual Literacy is something that has been primarily related to art, where students learn how to analyze paintings, and learn about techniques and concepts, such as lighting, color, or composition.

But today, visual literacy can be used in other disciplines; images are a major part of our world.  Images can be used to influence and persuade so why not use them to educate?
Visual literacy is a staple of 21 century skills, and it's reflected in the following standards:

• Common Core State Standards (CCSS)
  
  • CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-8.7: "Integrate visual information (e.g., in charts, graphs, photographs, videos or maps) with other information in print and digital texts."
  • CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.7: "Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media.. "
  • CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.6: "Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text."
  • CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.SL.1: "Prepare for conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively."
• National Council of Teachers of English Standards (NCTE)
  • Standard 1: Students read a wide range of print and non-print texts.
• The Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning Corporation (McRel)
  • Standard 9: Uses viewing skills and strategies to interpret visual media.
   

Visual Literacy is an universal language, with a complex structure that comes in a wide diverse of format such as :Advertisements,Cartoons,Charts,Collages,Comic books,DVDs,Graphic Novels,Graphs, Magazines, Photos, Pictogram,Signs, Slide shows, Symbols, or Websites.

This new Visual Literacy strategy is simple to execute, powerful, and effective, which helps students learn by interpreting images. With simple questions like What's going on in this picture?,What do you see that makes you say that?, or What more can we find,? we can spark children's cognitive interest in the subject that would engage them in a more effective way.
Images are considered a window to reality, so why visual literacy? Well, "because an picture is worth a thousand words." 


Sources:

Edutopia.orgIste.org- Visual Literacy
Vislit.org/visual-literacy/
Edutopia.org

EVERNOTE- Web 2.0 in action

What Is It?

Evernote is a web-based tool that allows you to keep all of your notes, images, and ideas in one “searchable” environment. Evernote allows you to gather clippings from various websites without having to bookmark the entire site.You can clip the text and photos that are important to you and "store" them in Evernote. Free software is available for both PC and MAC and allows users to work offline and then sync to the web version when they have online access. Evernote integrates with a variety of programs and devices including:

·        Skitch - manipulate images, add text or digital ink and upload to Evernote

·        Penultimate - send notes directly from the Penultimate app to Evernote

·        Twitter - send information from Twitter directly to your Evernote account

·        Most SMART phones (cameras can email pictures directly to Evernote)

·        iPads and other tablets

Evernote supports a number of operating system platforms (including OS X, iOS, Chrome OS, Android, Microsoft Windows, Windows Phone, BlackBerry, and webOS) and also offers online synchronization and backup services.

Unfortunately, the free version of Evernote is more restricted, and the use of the online service is free up to a certain monthly usage limit, with additional monthly use reserved for Plus subscribers, and unlimited monthly use for Premium costumers.

How Do I Integrate It?

There are a number of ways for students and teachers to use Evernote in the classroom:

·        To-do list

·        Notes

·        Research "web clipper"

·        Webpage "archive" or "link collector"

·        Business cards

·        Snapshots

·        Videos

·        ePortfolios

Consider the value of using Evernote during a research project. The teacher provides students an authoritative list of websites. This list is posted on the class web page! This saves paper and a few trees too! Students can review the sites and locate the piece(s) of information that are relevant to their topic. Rather than taking notes, most students will simply hit FILE > PRINT and print the entire page or in some cases the entire web page! The student takes the stack of pages that just printed out, stuffs it into a folder and forgets the specific portion he needed as soon as he walks out of the room. Here is where Evernote comes to the rescue. By clipping the appropriate part of the document, inserting the URL and tagging the information, the student has a virtual note card that is stored and ready when he needs the information.

Examples:

The Many Purposes of Evernote
Lesson Plan: Evernote in an Elementary class
Interesting and Unique Uses for Evernote
Shared Evernote Notebook Class Requirements

 Assessment: Evernote is a great tool for organizing notes, images, web clips, etc. By creating notebooks to organize content for each subject, students have one place to keep copies of handouts, class assignments, research, etc. If used as an electronic portfolio, assessment would address the specific requirements for the portfolio. Students can also share their notes with their classmates, and set reminders. 

Resources

https://www.evernote.com/

http://lifehacker.com/5989980/ive-been-using-evernote-all-wrong-heres-why-its-actually-amazing

https://teachwithweb2.wikispaces.com/Evernote

7 Reasons to Use Evernote Screen Clipping and Webshots
How to Share Kindle Notes in Evernote

Evernote Handout (1 pg)

Web 2.0

TECHNOLOGY "AFFORDANCES" AND "CONSTRAINTS"

Technology is like second nature to children and young adults this days, so why not use it in our advantage and incorporate it in the classroom.  Technology has become part of their daily activities, they use it to stay in touch with friends, search for answers, and as a source of entertainment. Consequently, why not use it as an effective tool to get students engaged, helping them to see the relevance between the curriculum they are to learn and what they will need in the real world.

The trick grounds in determining what tools to use, how to use them and when. Websites such as, www.fefe.arizona.edu assists Educators throughout the United States to identify the most effective tool for the task.  It provides educator with a list of classroom-tested tools, instructions sheet for the teacher as well as the students, online tutorials, and some other useful teaching tips.

It enforces students interaction through collaboration and sharing.

Some of these tools are: 

Lino. - Similar platform  as Twitter, great for brainstorming, discussing and reviewing a topic. www.linoit.com.

Popplet. - A graphic organize that can be created in real-time using virtual collaboration, during or after a lesson. 

GoAnimate. - An easy method for creating an animated video or comic. A fun way to summarize any subject by writing a script and turning it into a video. www.goanimate.com

Technology Affordances encourages to multiple career paths, re-evaluating pedagogy methods to provide students with many skills. Need to expand our vision so learners become active participants or co-producers rather than just consumers. Web 2.0 social software can positively impact pedagogy. 

Technology Constraints in the other hand is represented by the limits impose by the Education system. Technical constraints might also refer to how technology has been limited to text, graphics and simple animation when it can actually do much more. On top of this, another constraint technology might encounter is the cost of the equipment and software, that schools lack of resources for such purchases, as well as the cost students will have to incur to comply with the class's demands.

Resources:

Taylor & Francis Online/ Contraits 

Social Science Research Network 

Education affordances  

Flipped Classroom

What is Flipped Classroom? 

It's a new way to teach using pre- recorded lectures to optimize class time with discussion and engaging activities. The students review the material at home in form of a short video, so they come prepared to class. The lectures are to be recorded either by the instructor or downloaded from a independent website.

There is no single model for the flipped classroom. The only way to know if the students learn is by quizzing them.

Regardless of how students access to the video, this method has many advantages for students, teachers, and even parents.

PROS:

• Parents can be part of the process by seeing what their children are learning and help them.
• Students are in control; they can skip the materials they already know, and  repeat what they are struggling with as many time as they need. 
• Students will feel more comfortable at applying what was learn in the classroom.
• Videos can provide links that could help them expand their knowledge, or just clarify any concept.
• Teacher can dedicate classroom time to answer any questions, or to work with those who still have some doubts.
• Learning process won't be affected by sickness or forced absences.

Unfortunately, like any other method, it also has its disadvantages.

CONS:

• Hard to assure all students will have access to a computer and Internet.
• Students will have to hold until class with any question when the concept is confusing.
• Designing and grading daily quizzes will be much work for the teacher.
• It may be to complex  for students when designed by a predetermined provider and not by the teacher. 
• How to deal with those students who don't complete their homework.
• Finding quality videos-examples for each lesson.

The system is already being used by some higher education individual faculty, especially for short tutorials of lectures that are difficult to explain in a regular setting. In traditional lectures, students struggle to take notes as the instructor speaks, causing them to misunderstand or miss information that might be crucial, for which videos would be more effective. 

In the other hand, flipping a classroom lecture requires careful preparation of the materials taught, recording the videos demand time and extra effort from the teachers, which may require the teachers to develop new skills. Also, some students might miss the face to face interaction experienced in the traditional lectures. There might be others who can see the flip as a way to skip class and focus on other activities.

New tools emerge to support the out-of-class portion of the curriculum. Particularly, at the speed technology develops. The ongoing changes in mobile devices are making  the access to educational resources wider, reaching more students.

In conclusion, flipped classroom constitutes a huge leap for instructors, who are willing to sacrifice  their front-of the-class position to favor a more interactive, creative, hands on model of learning.  The system leaves more responsibility in the shoulders of the students, as well as allows them to learn the concepts first hand and at their own speed. The class goes from monotone to dynamic, providing more communication among students.

Sources
7 Things you need to know about Flipped Classrooms
Center of Teaching and Learning
Wikipedia.org-Flipped_classroom