Blog Post 3 - Visual Literacy

Visual literacy, like verbal literacy, comes from the idea of taking smaller parts and combining them into a whole in order to form or understand a concept. In verbal literacy, the parts we use are well-known and include the alphabet, grammar, and words. These components add up to a language in which we can use to communicate. As for visual literacy, the parts used include dots, lines, shapes, color, texture, scale, and dimension. These elements may not be as well known to people, but they are the constituents that make up the images we see in every day life. Being visually literate can help us to understand the meaning of images that we come across.

In education, visual literacy is very important. When children are young, they often use pictures as a way to help them understand words, such as seen in picture books. Although they do not realize it, children begin to become visually literate at a young age. It is important for teachers to display pictures around their classrooms and expose their students to images regularly so they will be more competent in their visual skills. Also, as a teacher, it is important to be visually literate; when making presentations, power points, or posters, teachers should understand and know the components of the images they use so they can best convey information to students and give them understanding of the images.





I chose to include two bubble maps- the first shows important elements of visual literacy, because it is important for people to know the components. The second is a map of how visual literacy is useful, because teachers should know how visual literacy can positively affect their students. The first was found on portals.studentnet.edu.au/ and the second was found on learninglive.co.uk