Recent appeal to the concept of design in composition studies benefits teaching writing in digital media. Yet the concept of design has not been developed enough to fully benefit composition instruction. This article develops an understanding of design as a matter of resolving wicked problems and makes a case for the advantages of this…

Definitions of literacy that focus solely on reading words provide too narrow a framework for many students with severe disabilities. Obtaining information from the environment may be accomplished in a variety of modes, such as visual literacy, which is the ability to discern meaning conveyed through images. A component of visual literacy is…

This paper examines the role of myths and symbols in society through the use of a hypothetical dialogue. The paper begins by explaining what myths are and the functions they serve. Mythology and mythical symbols of past and present are compared. These changes in the nature of mythological symbols are explored through a dialogue between an artist…

The unfounded and sometimes absurd attacks on television have tended to obscure many of the medium's obvious personal, social, and aesthetic benefits. It is easy to watch, and if its content does not always provide viewers with much to think about, television does not ask much of them either: they may eat, sleep, and unwind in front of it,…

Semiotics addresses the question of how people derive meaning from a text, and meaning stems from considering phenomena as signs and from looking at the relationships among these signs. Thus, a semiological analysis of the television series "Cheers" reveals that the title suggests happiness, good spirits, and companionship. The show…

A visual literacy project to explore how children who have had no experience or instruction in the use of television would use the technology as a communication medium is discussed. One second and one fourth grade class were chosen to prepare three videotape "letters" communicating to their counterparts in another school information about their…

This annotated bibliography lists sources which attempt to define the boundaries of visual literacy and the possible relationship between the development of visual skills and verbal skills, particularly with regard to reading. The contents are divided into four sections: (1) references on nonverbal communication; (2) general reading on visual…

A total of 48 fifth-grade and 30 nursery-school subjects were administered picture pairs in a discrimination learning experiment. In addition to a control group, one group of subjects (pre-choice) was instructed to pronounce both items before choosing one, and another group (post-choice) was told to say both items after choosing one. The…

Elementary school children of migrant farm workers were provided with cameras, film and guidance in their usage during a six-week program to find out if encouraging visual literacy would increase traditional language skills. Children in such experimental groups had better language facility and increased their reading ability more than children in…

Visual literacy, the integration of seeing with other cognitive processes, is an essential tool of learning. To explain the relationship between the perceiver and the perceived, three types of theories can be brought to bear: introverted; extroverted; and transactional. Franklin Fearing, George Herbert Mead, Martin Buber, and other theorists have…

Specialists in communication theory and educational technology, working together, can make meaningful contributions to the knowledge needed to permit the use of media of all types to improve learning through the proper application of communication theory. (Author/STS)

Maintains that an anthropological perspective offers exciting possibilities for developing intercultural understanding in the visual arts. Examines the problems encountered when applying this perspective to the visual art of radically different cultures. (JDH)

Three conceptual frameworks for examining the cognitive response to film are reviewed. It is suggested that a phenomenological rather than atomistic conception of the film-viewer interaction will be most useful for the generation of further studies in this area. (Author/RM)