Developing a Research Method to Analyze Visual Literacy Based on Cross-Cultural Characteristics

This chapter presents a new approach of a quantitative analysis used to research the understanding of visual literacy issues. The objective of the research is to find common patterns, opinions, and behaviors between different people regarding the use of visual communication and people's state of visual literacy, while also considering the possible cultural differences related. To explain visual literacy and its implications, the theoretical background about the visual literacy research field is presented first. Then, also within the section on background, the chapter presents the main concepts related to culture, and how it and visual literacy can be analyzed together to enable cross-cultural analysis. To conduct these cross-cultural analyses, this chapter proposes a new kind of quantitative questionnaire-based instrument that includes a section to measure the cultural characteristics of the individual and their level of literacy. This instrument proposal is the main result, since the research field of visual literacy lacks this kind of quantitative approach.

El alfabeto latino como estímulo para la alfabetidad visual. Diseño, formación del profesorado y derivas tipográficas urbanas

The Latin alphabet as a stimulus for visual literacy. Design, teacher training and urban typographic drifts

Visual Rhetoric and the Power of Imagery: A Brief Lesson in the Rhetorical Power of Images and the Need for phronesis and krisis in the Teaching of Visual Rhetoric

Since the ancient rhetoricians, humans have awarded imagery, the visual, and the vivid an extraordinary effect on emotions and memory. Such assumptions have led to iconophobia, iconoclasm, and myths about the special power of images. The issue of the power of pictures, however, is more complicated. As all other kinds of rhetorical utterances, the visual can be both powerful and powerless depending on the circumstances. For many pictures, the rhetorical power lies not mainly in their political deliberation, but instead in their nature as demonstrative or epideictic rhetoric: a rhetoric that does not primarily advocate immediate change, but tries to increase adherence to existing view-points, attitudes and values. Even though visual rhetoric may perform a powerful address to those who are already convinced, it does not necessarily hold much power over adversaries and sceptics. This article argues that when teaching visuality and the power of imagery, educators ought to help young pupils – and the citizenry in general – not only to decode visual communication, but also to interpret and evaluate it. The first requires knowledge about rules of visual literacy, the second requires not only critical thinking, but also situational and cultural knowledge, as well as sound judgment.

PENGEMBANGAN BAHAN AJAR BAHASA INGGRIS BERBASIS DIGITAL VISUAL LITERACY

Pengembangan bahan ajar Bahasa Inggris pada level Pendidikan SMP/SMA/SMK dengan pemanfaatan potensi teknologi komunikasi dan media internet merupakan isu penting dalam pengembangan profesionalisme guru pada abad ke 21 sekarang ini. Menyikapi hal ini, tim PPM (Pemberdayaan dan Pembelajaran Masyarakat) pada program studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan, Universitas Pattimura telah melaksanakan kegiatan pelatihan pengembangan bahan ajar Bahasa Inggris bagi guru-guru Bahasa Inggris pada kelompok MGMP SMP/SMA/SMK pada Kabupaten Seram Bagian Barat (SBB) Provinsi Maluku. Pelaksanaan pelatihan ini dilaksanakan sebagai respon terhadap kebutuhan peningkatan kapasistas guru Bahasa Inggris untuk mengembangkan bahan ajar berbasis Digitial Visual Literacy yang merupakan keterampilan penting yang perlu dimiliki guru untuk memfasilitasi proses belajar Bahasa Inggris yang bermakna dan komunikatif. Pelatihan ini telah dilakukan dalam tiga tahap kegiatan, yaiut; persiapan, pelatihan dan pendampingan. Kegiatan pelatihan dilakuan dalam bentuk pelatihan dalam jariangan (daring). Hasil dari kegiatan pelatihan ini menyimpulkan bahwa guru Bahasa Inggris memiliki tanggapan positif dan responsive terhadap pengembangan bahan ajar berbasis Visual literacy. Guru-guru Bahasa Inggris juga memiliki motivasi yang tinggi dalam mengembangkan bahan ajar dengan aplikasi Digital Story Book dan Model Photo story.

Pendidikan Karakter Anak Usia Dini Melalui Mainan Edukatif Amigurumi Berbasis Budaya Lokal

Character building needs to be given as early as possible. Educational toys can be a medium for character building, but it is still rare to find educational toys that have local cultural values. Most of these educational toys refer to popular toys that are oriented towards Western culture. This condition needs to be balanced with the creation of educational toys that have local cultural characteristics as a form of early childhood introduction to their culture as well as a medium for educators to internalize character building. The process of creating educational toys in this paper uses methodological steps that are described in a descriptive qualitative way, starting from data collection, data analysis, and the embodiment process. In this paper, will be described the process of creating educational toys in the form of amigurumi with the theme of Ramayana, represented by the characters Rama and Sinta which visual ideas are based on Kamasan-style puppet paintings and an analysis of their use for early childhood character building. The benefits of using Rama and Sinta amigurumi dolls in learning are: as a visual literacy of local culture for early childhood and as an interesting medium for conveying character building values.

Visual Literacy in the Context of Digital Education Transformation

The evolution of digital technologies and the use of visual media in our everyday life highlights the necessity to educate visually literate individuals. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, 2018) has launched the Future of Education and Skills 2030 that emphasizes that due to the digitalization into all areas of life, digital and data literacy are considered to be core foundations and being literate in this context requires the ability to comprehend, interpret, use and create textual and visual information in various formats, contexts and for diverse purposes (making meaning based on encoding and decoding signs/sign systems). The concept of visual literacy has been studied for several decades, however, it is a relatively new study area within a digital environment in Latvian media and education context. By bringing attention to the practice and reporting students comprehension and competency within the domain of digital visual literacy, the author reports the findings of a study that examined the competence of the sub-domain of visual literacy, applying Inquiry Graphic (IG) as a framework for the analysis. The purpose of this paper is to contribute quantitative and qualitative data to the domain of visual literacy amongst the Riga Art and Media school final year students and conceptualize visual literacy in the process of digital education transformation, proposing further research on academic practice and pedagogical tools to improve a person’s visual literacy and visual media competence in a digital environment.