Visual Aids in Learning Brittany Phillips Kelli Keeling Amy Molina

Visual Literacy Visual literacy is acquired through many teaching and learning processes that children experience. No matter the content, how you design, arrange and present what you teach; it will have a positive or negative affect on the visual literacy skill set. Clarity and consistency will help build skills.

Visual Communication Every visual consists of three primary elements in a deliberate arrangement: Visual Text Affective Arranging these effectively can overcome communication barriers such as sensory, cultural, and learning style.

Visual Guidelines

Good Visual Desi gn Poor Visual Design Balanced design Legible text Minimal letter styles and sizes Appealing colors Provides unity and direction Consistent and cohesive Relevant images Design lacks balance Text style difficult to read Too many letter styles Minimal color appeal Lacks unity and direction Inconsistent look Images disconnected

Non-projected Visuals Real objects- help address kinesthetic learning, any objects that can be brought into the classroom for examination. Models- 3-D representations cannot be reasonably brought into classroom but provide an object to be studied. Exhibits- include dioramas and class displays that are created to illustrate instructional content.

Digital Projectors Images shown on a digital projector can be captured with a digital still camera, a digital video camera, from an analog videotape using a video capture card, or even from an electronic smart board. Teaching and learning will continue to be visually enhanced through application when teachers learn more about the technology and schools increase their acquisition.

Document Printing -This is a video camera mounted on a stand that captures and projects an image of whatever is placed on the stand’s document table. -Using top back lighting on the table and the video camera’s zoom features, overhead transparencies, slides, documents, and 3-D objects can all be projected to a large group. Advantages Science experiments, small real objects, and procedural presentations can be easily shared. As a teacher gives a live demonstration the small details can be seen by the students. Teachers no longer need to walk around the room with demos because this machine will do it for them.

Interactive Multimedia: Elementary Trip to the zoo! Capture by pictures which then can be made into transparencies, posters, story books, etc. Students can make their own recordings of sounds for animals or comment on other sensory impressions. After reviewing kids can add pages of text that provide facts about each animal and its habitat as well as other graphics from clip art or their own drawings.

Interactive Multimedia: Secondary Use multimedia software, learners can work in teams to investigate and act out alternative scenarios to resolve a conflict. Students can use a digital camera to capture the setting of the conflict and the players involved, and create navigation buttons to jump to alternate resolution options. Each option screen can offer either pictures, text, and student audio recordings describing the option and the possible outcome if that option is taken.

Why use visual technology? Allan Paivio conducted studies which led him to develop a theory explaining that humans use two processes to absorb input. Lagogens-verbal entities used to absorb verbal input Imagens-visual entities used to absorb visual imput “When input is processed one or both of the subsystems are engaged, depending on type of input. This is known as the “theory of dual coding”. When lagogens and imagens are both used to present input, memory performance was better.

Graphics Some examples of graphics are as follows: Cartoons Drawings Diagrams

Traditional Visual Resources Bulletin boards - Can display both print or graphic visuals and numerous other resources to create an effective instructional display. You may use a computer and desktop publishing software to create visuals for use on magnetic boards, felt boards, whiteboards, or even chalkboards. Overhead Projectors - Color or black ink can be used to create transparencies from a computer via a printer, or photocopied. Ink-jet or laser printers will create permanent transparencies.

Resources DEMCO, (n.d.). Equipment. Retrieved Feb. 01, 2006, from http.//www.demco.com Lever-Duffy, J., McDonald, J., & Mizell, A. (2005). Teaching and learning with technology. 2nd ed. : Pearson.