- ISB – Inquiry
A Brochure Without Words is a fabulous idea if you are a prospective teacher, parent or student. As none of the above I was disengaged as I watched ISB’s brochure feeling it did not pertain to me. I did not know the students, the location or the school. I do not feel that I know any of the above better for watching the video. I could be looking at any school brochure from anywhere. I did enjoy the images that had text with them and those I actually looked at the expressions of the children to see if the words captured the emotions. “Inquiry” is one such image that made me ponder out of the 36 in the slide show. I do not think that their brochure is not quality work it just does not work for me.
For me words and images are more powerful and will stick in my brain far longer than either by themselves. I constantly sing the song UPS rewrote for their “That’s Logistics” commercials song by Nadia Ackerman with music from That’s Amore (Dean Martin).
I started with the first link for this week’s assignment and quickly realized that each person will take away from a visual what they need or don’t need at any given time. I revised my post title to the current one and then I read the Presentation Zen post: The power of the visual: Learning from Down Under promotion videos which states my thoughts better than I and confirms my title.
“Visuals that surprise people, touch them, delight them, and support your story are best because they affect people in an emotional way. People are more likely to remember your content in the form of stories and examples, and they are also more likely to remember your content if your visuals are unique, powerful and of the highest quality.”
This video for the Sony Bravia was pretty cool and mentioned in the comment section of the Presentation Zen post. It was amusing and intriguing to me because I thought it would be awesome to be standing in the middle of the road as all these balls came at me….that was until I saw the trash can tip over and realized the force is stronger than I would have thought possible. I also loved the image where the kid is peeking out waiting for them.
Videos that engage me make me think and wonder about something new. Dulux has a Let’s Colour Project that so intrigued me I now follow their blog.
I am a visual learner but I do not think that I learn best from images. During the readings for this week and last I noticed that I read the words first and then looked at the images. A great deal of the readings say that letters are graphics the brain processes for meaning. I believe that I learn best having to convert them without that step my brain does not process the info. I see images but unless they are so powerful to cause an emotion I do not pay attention to them unless I have been directed to focus on them.
Thanks for your post Nancy! I have also been thinking a lot about “engagement” – I think that this is the critical piece when thinking about learning. I also like adding the word “emotion” to engagement when you consider visual literacy. As I wonder about how visual literacy affects student learning in music I think a lot about engagement. Some styles of music, often classical music, have really alienated young people – I’ve been wondering if visual literacy could be used to increase both understanding and engagement of the listener, no doubt increasing the emotion the listener attaches to that music. Very few people get to enjoy the feeling of emotion from music. Perhaps its time that music educators use visual literacy as a tool for engagement and bringing out that emotion. Thanks for helping me to think through this. Really enjoyed your post.