DMcCrary Final

Reflection

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I have learned so much valuable information about visual literacy in this course and feel
equipped with the knowledge to defend or support any issues and discoveries in the area of
media literacy. While completing the creating meaning with images assignment, it really had me
visually analyzing all kinds of images looking for the elements, principles and theories of design.
I learned that an artist or designer are intentional in every aspect of their creation. With the
knowledge gained from the reading assignment and applying content to complete this part of my
web page, I have an excellent understanding of visual communication. I can use the information
from this assignment and others by allowing my students to complete activities that use the
elements and principles of design. For example, I can give them an explorer and instruct them to
use a visual with limited text to inform the viewer of their exploration. Using and applying the
knowledge gained from completing all task in this course will allow me to become a better visual
literacy and media design student. I have also learned that the educational benefits of analyzing
visual texts in the classroom are numerous and can enhance instruction. Giving students
opportunities to develop their comprehension and thinking skills through visual images is just
one of the example of how beneficial sequences could be. Additionally, I feel that writing and
interpreting images through text will allow students to think critically and analytically with a
twenty- first century twist. Furthermore, using images and sequences in the classroom will
obviously be a lot more engaging and stimulating than to just see text written in books and
presented in class. Probably the most compelling benefit of using visual text in the classroom is
that "images are "stored in long-term memory." (Fisher&Frey 2008, 11). The most important
aspect of learning's having memory of important concepts, skills and concepts all being able to
recall an image or sequence will achieve this goal. In addition to learning the principles of visual

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Reflection

and media literacy, I truly enjoyed completing the assignment with comics, cartoons and graphic
novels. The impact on visual literacy and reading comprehension is astounding and I cant wait
to share with my students and colleges. I learned that there are so many awesome and easy to
use tools that were uniquely designed for comics and graphic novels. In fact, I gained knowledge
on how to use many of them and found pixton.com to be my favorite due to the ability to add my
students in a class group. After mastering the concepts of using comics and cartoons to enhance
visual literacy, I also truly enjoyed and had a great experience completing with designing
infographics and posters. Although this wasnt my first time using these tools, I was still able to
expand my competency with using them with my instructional practices. The impact on visual
literacy and reading comprehension of infographics and posters are astounding and I can't wait to
continue to share with my students and colleagues. I found that there are so many awesome and
easy to use tools that were uniquely designed for infographics and posters and learned how to use
many of the tools recommended found piktochart.com to be my favorite due to the ability to
easily upload images and incorporate text. While completing the assignment on analyzing
commercial, I found to be an awesome learning experience and really allowed me to think about
the intention and motive of commercials within my daily life. I find myself today, falling into
the creators intention to encourage the purchase of their product and the feelings they want to
convey. After completing research on visual literacy, I believe in the present study investigated
and the effectiveness of a training program based on the stages of change designed in order to
improve the knowledge and behavioral intention of the students in exposure to media messages. I
learned from the study findings of the effectiveness of the training program in improving the
intervention group students for having an active, critical reaction toward the media messages. I
also learned and truly believe that knowledge is often considered as a prerequisite and

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Reflection

predisposing factor to behavioral change. Also, knowledge is considered as an essential attribute

of behavior, and higher rates of knowledge are correlated with higher rates of positive behavior.
The result, in my opinion, were substantial and very enlightening and realistic. Overall, I truly
enjoyed the research assignment. I found it very interesting to find so much information about
the importance of medial literacy and visual principles. There is an abundance of studies and
research to support this new topic and I learned a lot during my studies.

Before taking this course, I always used simple slideshow with my students that were not
visually enhanced. However, after gaining knowledge about multimedia principles and dual
coding theory, I began to think about the content given. Some of the PowerPoint presentations
and artifacts I have been presently using did not follow Richard E. Mayers multimedia principle
or Allen Paivio's dual coding theory. Within various slides for instructions, I decided to enhance
them by following Mayer and Paivio's theories of instruction. According to Paivio, there are two
ways a person could expand on learned material: "verbal associations and visual imagery."
Therefore, I have added visual images and decreased the amount of text on the various slides in
my classroom in hop of extending a mental connection to learning concepts and skills.
Additionally, in agreement of Mayer's theory that the rationale for multimedia instruction is that
"people can learn more deeply from words and pictures than from words alone." I am always
sure to keep some of the original wording and add additional images that captured the printed
text.
The most challenging issue about this course was finding the time to complete the tedious
assignments, in addition to reading the numerous references that were connected to discussions
to post. I found it overwhelming to read and view several videos before sharing my perspective.

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Reflection

I feel that 2-3 references should be more than enough to share thoughts. Additionally, I felt that a
3-4 page reflection was too much. We have reflected on almost every assignment and a final
reflection, in my opinion, should not warrant a response of this length.

Reference
Frey, N., & Fisher, D. (2008). Teaching visual literacy: Using comic books, graphic novels,
anime, cartoons, and more to develop comprehension and thinking skills. Thousand Oaks, CA:
Corwin Press.

(n.d.). Retrieved from https://westga.view.usg.edu/content/enforced/1162500CO.540.MEDT7490.81407.20172/ Multimedia Instruction - Mayer.pdf

(n.d.). Retrieved October 16, 2016, from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mentalimagery/theories-memory.html