Images are central to our understanding of and learning about our world. We argue that visual training needs to be improved in the higher education system to enhance the potential of visual thinking to mediate productively our relationship with the context we inhabit. Initiatives from the social sciences and humanities since the end of the twenty…

The ubiquitousness of images in the digital era highlights the importance of individuals' visual communication skills in the 21st Century. We conducted a literature review of visual literacy initiatives in academic institutions to illustrate best practices for imparting these skills in students. The literature review identified five categories of…

Observing that people are confronted with posters, billboards, video and other images more and more every day, this paper theorizes that the structure and principles of rhetoric can assist the public in understanding how visual images function and affect them. The paper presents a syllabus designed to assist rhetoric instructors in developing…

The essays in this collection discuss the "image" as both product and process. Representing such diverse disciplines as rhetoric, composition, clinical psychology, journalism, photography, communication, education, and sociology, the essays describe how images function and how they are linked with language and explore the role of images…

Describes using Hitchcock's work in the writing class to promote attention to detail, careful preparation for writing and revision, and stylistic concreteness. (CRH)

The articles in this journal issue provide a rationale and methods for enhancing students' critical awareness of visual media and for a process approach to composition instruction. The titles of the articles and their authors are as follows: (1) "Reel English: Film Study in the High Schools" (James Griswold); (2) "Introducing History Media"…

The premise of this 14 week anthropology course is that endeavors by the mass media should be understood as cultural enterprises. Students will examine the means by which anthropologists, photographers, filmmakers, writers, new reporters or other observers translate their observations of another culture to members of their own culture. The Eskimo…

The long term aims of the Growth and Structure of Cities major at Bryn Mawr College are to introduce into the curriculum an interdisciplinary program which builds on existing strengths within the college and which offers students the opportunity to study the changing character of the contemporary urban environment in an historical, aesthetic, and…

Explores the role of genre painting in the education and socialization of 17th-century Dutch children. Focuses on three types of painted scenes that transmitted educational messages: the private sphere of family life and the public domain of the street and of the school. (MJP)

"Our Town: An Architectural Perspective" is a program for at-risk elementary school children which was instituted at Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania). The goal of this effort was to introduce built-environment awareness in the public schools, where the neighborhood serves as the classroom and as a vehicle for…

This article discusses how the utilization of the visual capabilities of a World Wide Web site can enhance the development of teacher curriculum design employed in graduate level education courses. In using these Web sites, teachers have an opportunity to peruse numerous visual samples as a basis for creating integrated and interdisciplinary…

Advocates reconceptualizing visual arts as a core subject embodying key elements of experiential learning and critical thinking through an interdisciplinary approach. Illustrates this approach with a discussion of the interconnected issues surrounding family snapshots (social history, aesthetics, technological advancement). Discusses issues of…

This document highlights the findings of a committee formed by The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) to assess the status of film at all levels in American education. The introduction by the editor, William Costanzo, stresses that film is best understood in relation to the language arts--not as a "visual aid" but as an…

This document describes a university course designed to provide an historical understanding of Latin America through feature films. The booklet contains an introductory essay on the teaching of a film course on Latin America, a general discussion of strengths and weaknesses of student analyses of films, and nine analyses written by students during…

The IADIS CELDA 2012 Conference intention was to address the main issues concerned with evolving learning processes and supporting pedagogies and applications in the digital age. There had been advances in both cognitive psychology and computing that have affected the educational arena. The convergence of these two disciplines is increasing at a…