Visual Literacy and the Internet

Visual Literacy and the Internet 

Visual literacy can impact teaching and learning process in the classroom by allowing students to have the opportunities to embrace reading as a fun subject. The Internet will bring engagement while students are reading. A simple and free app and web-based software program is called Epic! This application of web-based allows students to read books online and even allow some books to be read out loud to students. Students could use the Internet to answer higher level questions based off an image to show their comprehension.


Visual-thinking strategies 

What emotions does this photo portray?

Visual-thinking strategies that could be used in the classroom are thought provoking images aligned to content. For example, a 6th grade standard in the state of Arizona in the science subject is natural disasters. An image that could be posted would be a picture of Hurricane Katrina and the question that could be posed would be, "What emotions does the picture portray? What safety measures could be taken in an unexpected hurricane? How could we help victims of a natural disaster?" A great idea for visual-thinking strategies would be to pose an image in the morning as bell work to allow students to use higher order thinking skills. It could be a simple image or a complex image with questions or no questions.


Role of Internet

The role I would like the Internet to play in my classroom is through blended learning. I am not yet ready to be a flipped classroom with technology, but blending the Internet daily into each subject would be nice. I would like students to be involved in discussion boards, blogging, Google classroom assignments, programs to fit into math and reading, and game based learning (Kahoot). As of right now my students are responsible and capable of using the Internet safely after I have taught digital citizenship and explained the expectations/consequences. We use Kahoot, Prodigy, Epic!, Google, Class Chatter, and ShowMe. The role of the Internet is becoming more and more involved in my classroom and I have noticed the role carries on when my students leave the classroom. My students are taking all the things they are using on the Internet and using it at home. The learning has become fun for them and they are using the role of the Internet educationally.


For more information on blended learning watch the following YouTube video.

By: Heather Murray