Visual+Literacy

This artifact was given as an assignment in EDT 3010 to demonstrate the importance of visual literacy. Below, the assignment has me analyze the picture and note the visual aspects it contains and does not contain. Visual literacy is important for teaching because it can give good emphasis on the lesson being taught. Secondly, it can make learning and teaching more enjoyable. I feel that visual literacy is very important for remembering information. I am a visual person and remember the way things look rather than they read more. This is true for others and that is why I plan on carefully using visual literacy in all of the presentations and and lectures I will be giving in class. This is a good concept to grasp for any profession.

** Visual Literacy **

This visual representation is awful. Who ever put this together should have asked for advise on how to make a good visual representation. Visual Literacy is very important today. People are visual creatures and the way something looks can affect weather we understand it or see the importance of its appearance. This is why it is important to understand how a picture looks can change the affects it can have on people. It is a good tool to make difficult concepts more clear to understand. The learned ability to understand, analyze, interpret, and create visual information is visual literacy. When I look at the chart above without reading it first, I cannot make a connection of the topic with these pictures of food and chicks. The pictures do make sense once you read the content. The content is another misleading aspect. Yes these numbers on the picture are huge but they mean nothing when there is nothing to compare them to. Overall, the picture mostly represents a fast food chart. But once you read it, its clear that this is about eating too much protein in our diets. This chart is good but it doesn’t really abide completely to the principles of the PAT model. First all, they presented the chart in proper format. The information is clearly expressed. The hierarchy of the chart is not present. The most important information is not explicit and you cannot compare the numbers at all so no order is present either. As a whole, the chart has contiguity with the information presented because the information is relevant. There are a lot of things I would change to enhance this representation. First of all there is no contrast. The colors are not distinctly separated. The pale colors are not attractive enough as well. They don’t catch my attention. Secondly, the pictures added to the chart should not crowd the title. The pictures also can be changed to get the point across like a steak or a chicken drumstick. The information is also a poor representation of what the graph should show for over consumption of protein. Values for protein such as pounds pork would be a better example because people can relate those figures to life. Also the information could have been ordered most consumption to least as well. Many attributes are forgotten while making ths visual representation and there is much room for improvement. I will and already do understand how visual literacy works. I think it is valuable because it creates better understandings of subjects. I would use this knowledge in creating PowerPoint to enhance the information and also use it in class website to make it more appealing and easier to understand the subjects.