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expanding your notion of
visual literacy (120 minutes)
a. make your own personal visual
literacy map/timeline
obtain and copy images from the internet and make a digital map with powerpoint or any other tool(s) of your choice that is representative
of you: your personal history, traits, hobbies, interests, beliefs, etc.
the purpose of this activity is to help you see the connotation, or the
potential meanings, of the images you see and select and how these
specific symbols and images connect to experiences in your life. this
activity also will give you the important experience of creating a
narrative based mostly on image, which will help enhance your own develop
your own personal definition of visual literacy.
use:
pictures of historical events
that have occured in your life that have had an impact
photos of
places you have lived; maps, landscapes, houses
photos indicating
activites, hobbies
photos depicting family heritage, ethnic
roots
artistic and abstract photos that are indictative of moods,
personality
icons, symbols, logos, cartoons
illustrations
advertisements
themes, collections
you must include the following distribution (minimum):
| historical photos |
4 |
| advertisements |
1 |
| symbols |
1 |
| abstract photos |
2 |
| photos of nature |
1 |
| maps/geographic |
1 |
| places |
1 |
| architectural photo |
1 |
| illustration/cartoon/logo |
1 |
optionally include videos (linked or embedded)
try to stretch your imagination and select images that are
not directly related to specific activities, but have more abstract
meaning and connections to your life. include images that require a range
of viewer interpretation. use a variety of images. mix history, art,
iconography. use a variety of topics and themes.
remember: don't
just madly collect images from the internet. stop. plan. think. this is an
exercise in reflection about connecting one's life to image, not
collecting images. you might want to consider a metaphor for your life (map, maze, timeline, train journey, phases of the moon, metamorphosis, emergence, transcendence, light and dark, the blues, dance, or anything else)
be sure to indicate the source of all images (best to provide a link back to where you found it)
the challenge of this activity will be organizing the
pictures. you can separate pictures into different "scenes" by years,
decades, periods in your life. you can separate scenes by picture types.
or your don't have to separate at all. you can collage, rotate, crop. how
you organize your pictures might say something about yourself as well.
or, use a hypertext format.
as you select images, think of what you might tell
students if you were guiding them through this exercise. how would you
help students learn how to "see" images? to pay attention to detail, form,
and nuance? though it may be easy for students to decode straightforward
images, the more complex symbols and historical pictures might prove to be
more challenging for them to interpret. how could we help students
identify specific markers in historical photos that would give indications
of time and place? how could we teach them about what affects the mood of
a photo? how different angles, perspectives, lights might alter how a
subject might appear? what skills would students need to understand the
difference between an artistic photo and a news photo? all of these skills
are part of developing visual literacy.
b. write a
paragraph describing your map,
on a slide, or on a
separate file, write a paragraph describing your map and why you
selected some of the pictures, particularly the ones that require more
interpretation.
c. upload your presentation
compress your presentation to make it smaller than 5 mb, then upload it to the approrpiate place on the web, include a link on your nlutie.com web site, and email the class with the URL.
links & resources to use for your
assignment:
historical archival
photos.
picturing the
century
american
memories
library of congress
photo index
photosharing
http://www.flickr.com/photos/search/
flickr. photosharing site. locate user personal photos by tags, such as
"hurricane katrina" or "dogs"..
woophy: this sit allows users to locate
photography by geographical location.
advertising archives (you can find old
ads from your childhood.)
ad access
database
adflip
image databases
google images
freefoto
public domain photo library
copyright free media
symbol database
http://www.symbols.com/ great resource!
random and interesting
emporis database of
buildings. if you live in a high rise, you can find your structure!
maps
google maps/satellite view get a view
of your childhood home!
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