Month: March 2011

VL Standards at ACRL in Philadelphia

Visual Literacy Standards Task Force members will be speaking about the draft Standards at ACRL as part of the panel, “Projecting an Image: A Field Guide to Visual Literacy.” Hope to see you there!

Event: Projecting an Image: A Field Guide to Visual Literacy, panel session
Date: Friday, April 1, 2011
Time: 1:30-2:30 pm
Place: Room 107 a/b, Pennsylvania Convention Center

Standard Seven – use ethically

Please comment on Standard Seven. Thanks!

Standard Seven

The visually literate student understands many of the ethical, legal, social, and economic issues surrounding the creation and use of images and visual media, and accesses and uses visual materials ethically.

Performance Indicators:

1.       The visually literate student understands many of the ethical, legal, social, and economic issues surrounding images and visual media.

Learning Outcomes:

    a.       Develops familiarity with intellectual property, copyright, and fair use as they apply to image content
    b.      Develops familiarity with how licenses prescribe appropriate image use
    c.       Recognizes own intellectual property rights as image creators
    d.      Identifies issues of privacy, ethics, and safety involved with using and sharing personally created images
    e.      Explores issues surrounding image censorship

2.       The visually literate student follows ethical and legal best practices when accessing, using, and creating images

Learning Outcomes:

    a.       Identifies institutional (e.g., museums, educational institutions) policies on access to image resources, and follows legal and ethical best practices
    b.      Tracks copyright and use restrictions when images are reproduced, altered, converted to different formats, or disseminated to new contexts
    c.       States rights and attribution information when disseminating personally created images

3.       The visually literate student acknowledges image creators and sources in projects and presentations.

Learning Outcomes:

    a.       Gives attribution to image creators and sources, and clearly posts credit statements
    b.      Cites images by selecting and consistently using an appropriate documentation style 

Standard Six – create

Please let us know what you think of Standard Six – Thank you!

Standard Six

The visually literate student designs and creates meaningful images and visual media.

Performance Indicators:

1.       The visually literate student produces images for a range of projects and scholarly uses.

Learning Outcomes:

    a.       Creates images to represent and communicate concepts, narratives, and arguments (e.g., concept maps, presentations, storyboards, posters)
    b.      Constructs accurate and appropriate graphic representations of data and information (e.g., charts, maps, graphs, models)
    c.       Produces images for a defined audience
    d.      Aligns image content with the overall purpose of project

2.       The visually literate student uses design strategies and creativity in image production

Learning Outcomes:

    a.       Plans image style and design in relation to project goals
    b.      Uses aesthetic and design choices deliberately to enhance effective communication and convey meaning
    c.       Uses creativity to incorporate existing image content into new image products

3.       The visually literate student uses a variety of tools and technologies to produce images.

Learning Outcomes:

    a.       Experiments with image-production tools and technologies
    b.      Identifies the best tools and technologies for the image project
    c.       Develops proficiency with a range of tools and technologies for creating images

4.       The visually literate student evaluates personally created image products.

Learning Outcomes:

    a.       Evaluates personally created image products based on project goals
    b.      Evaluates personally created image products based on disciplinary criteria and conventions
    c.       Reflects on role of personally created image products as a meaningful contribution to research, learning, or communication
    d.      Validates personally created image products through discourse with others
    e.      Revises personally created image products based on evaluation

Standard Five – use

What do you think of Standard Five? Please let us know!

Standard Five

The visually literate student uses images and visual media effectively.

Performance indicators:

1.       The visually literate student uses images effectively for different purposes

Learning Outcomes:

    a.       Plans for strategic use of images and visual media within a project
    b.      Integrates images into projects purposefully, considering meaning, aesthetic criteria, visual impact, and audience
    c.       Uses images for a variety of  purposes (e.g., as illustrations, evidence, visual models, primary sources, or focus of analysis)
    d.      Uses images for subject-specific and interdisciplinary research, communication, and learning

2.       The visually literate student uses technology effectively to work with images.

Learning Outcomes:

    a.       Uses appropriate editing, presentation, communication, storage, and media tools and applications, to prepare and work with images
    b.      Determines image file format, size, and resolution requirements for a project, and converts images accordingly
    c.       Edits images as appropriate for quality, layout, display (e.g., cropping, color, contrast)

3.       The visually literate student uses problem solving, creativity, and experimentation to incorporate images into scholarly projects.

Learning Outcomes:

    a.       Experiments with different ways of integrating images into academic work
    b.      Uses visual thinking skills to clarify and solve problems

4.       The visually literate student communicates effectively with and about images.

Learning Outcomes:

    a.       Writes clearly about images for different purposes (e.g., description, analysis, evaluation)
    b.      Presents images effectively, considering meaning, aesthetic criteria, visual impact, rhetorical impact, and audience
    c.       Discusses images critically with other individuals, expressing ideas, conveying meaning, and validating arguments
    d.      Includes textual information as needed to convey an image’s meaning (e.g., using captions, referencing figures in a text, incorporating keys or legends)
    e.      Reflects on the effectiveness of own visual communications and use of images

Standard Four – evaluate

We welcome your comments on Standard Four!

Standard Four

The visually literate student critically evaluates images and their sources.

Performance indicators:

1.       The visually literate student evaluates the aesthetic and technical characteristics of images.

Learning Outcomes:

    a.       Evaluates how effectively an image achieves a specific purpose
    b.      Evaluates the use of visual signs, symbols, and conventions to convey meaning
    c.       Assesses the appropriateness and impact of the visual message for the intended audience
    d.      Analyzes the impact of image editing or manipulation on the meaning and reliability of the image
    e.      Determines the accuracy of graphical representations of data (e.g., charts, graphs, data models)
    f.        Evaluates images using disciplinary criteria

3.       The visually literate student evaluates textual information accompanying images.

Learning Outcomes:

    a.       Evaluates information that accompanies images for accuracy, reliability, currency, and completeness
    b.      Uses observation of visual content to evaluate textual information
    c.       Verifies image information by consulting multiple sources and conducting research as necessary

4.       The visually literate student makes judgments about the reliability and accuracy of image sources.

Learning Outcomes:

    a.       Assesses reliability and accuracy of image sources based on authority, and point of view or bias
    b.      Makes judgments about image sources based on evaluations of image and information quality
    c.       Critiques how an image source may create a new context for an image and thereby change its meaning

VL Standards at ARLIS + VRA

Will you be attending the ARLIS + VRA joint conference in Minneapolis this week? The ARLIS Academic Libraries Division will be discussing the draft Standards, led by Patti Kosco Cossard, VL Standards Advisory Group. If you’re at the conference, this would be a great way to provide feedback!

Event: ARLIS Academic Libraries Division meeting
Date: Sunday, March 27
Time: 11:15-12:15
Place: Marquette I-II

Update!

The Standards are also on the agenda for discussion at the ARLIS Reference and Information Services (RISS) meeting, with Moderator Virginia Allison and Co-Moderator Amy Ballmer.

Event: ARLIS Reference and Information Services (RISS) meeting
Date: Sunday, March 27
Time: 12:30-1:30
Place: Marquette III

Standard Three – interpret and analyze

Please comment on Standard Three. Thanks!

Standard Three

The visually literate student interprets and analyzes the meaning of images and visual media.

Performance indicators:

1. The visually literate student identifies information relevant to an image’s meaning.

Learning Outcomes:

    a. Looks carefully at an image and observes details
    b. Reads captions, metadata, and accompanying text to learn about an image
    c. Identifies the subject of an image
    d. Examines the relationships of images to each other, and uses related images to inform interpretation
    e. Recognizes when more information about an image is needed, develops questions for further research, and conducts additional research as appropriate

2. The visually literate student situates an image in its cultural, social, and historical contexts.

Learning Outcomes:

    a. Describes cultural and historical factors relevant to the production of an image (e.g., time period, geography, economic conditions, political structures, social practices)
    b. Examines the purpose and meaning of an image in its original context
    c. Describes the intended audience for an image
    d. Explores representations of gender, ethnicity, and other cultural identifiers in images
    e. Investigates how the audience, context, and interpretation of an image may have changed over time

3. The visually literate student identifies the physical, technical, and design components of an image.

Learning Outcomes:

    a. Describes pictorial, graphic, and aesthetic elements of an image (e.g., color, composition, line, shape, contrast, repetition, style)
    b. Identifies materials, technologies, and techniques used in the production of an image
    c. Determines whether an image is an original or a reproduction
    d. Examines image for signs of editing, alteration, or manipulation (e.g., cropping, color correction, image replacement)

4. The visually literate student validates interpretation and analysis of images through discourse with others.

Learning Outcomes:

    a. Participates in classroom and other discussions about images
    b. Seeks expert and scholarly opinion about images
    c. Informs analysis with discipline-specific perspectives and approaches

    Standard Two – find and access

    Please discuss Standard Two.

    Standard Two

    The visually literate student finds and accesses needed images and visual media effectively and efficiently.

    Performance indicators:

    1.       The visually literate student selects the most appropriate sources and retrieval systems for finding and accessing needed images and visual media.

    Learning Outcomes:

      a.       Identifies interdisciplinary and discipline-specific image sources
      b.      Articulates the advantages and disadvantages of various types of image sources and retrieval systems
      c.       Describes how the image search process is affected by image rights and use restrictions
      d.      Uses specialized online or in-person services to select image sources (e.g., online research guides, image and reference librarians, curators, archivists, disciplinary experts)
      e.      Selects the most appropriate image sources for the current project

    2.       The visually literate student conducts effective image searches.

    Learning Outcomes:

      a.       Develops a search strategy appropriate to the image need and aligned with available resources
      b.      Recognizes the role of textual information in providing access to image content, and identifies types of textual information and metadata typically associated with images (e.g., captions or other descriptions, personal or user-generated tags, creator information, repository names, title keywords, descriptions of visual content)
      c.       Recognizes that images are often organized differently than text-based information and that this affects the way images can be accessed (e.g., absence of full-text search, variations in controlled vocabularies, lack of subject terms)
      d.      Identifies keywords, synonyms, and related terms for the image needed, and maps those terms to the vocabulary used in the image source
      e.      Performs image and topical research concurrently, with each informing the other in an iterative resource-gathering process
      f.        Assesses the quality, quantity, and appropriateness of images retrieved, and revises the search strategy as necessary

    3.       The visually literate student acquires and organizes images and source information.

    Learning Outcomes:

      a.       Uses  appropriate technologies to retrieve or reproduce the needed image (e.g., download functions, copy and paste, scanners, cameras)
      b.      Organizes images and the information that accompanies them for personal retrieval, reuse, and scholarly citation

    Standard One – determine the need

    What are your thoughts on Standard One? Please let us know!

    Standard One

    The visually literate student determines the nature and extent of the visual materials needed.

    Performance Indicators:

    1.       The visually literate student defines and articulates the need for an image.

    Learning Outcomes:

      a.       Defines the purpose of the image within the project (e.g., illustration, evidence, primary source, focus of analysis, critique or commentary)
      b.      Defines the scope (e.g., reach, audience) and environment of the planned image use (e.g., academic environment, open web)
      c.       Articulates criteria that need to be met by the image (e.g., subject, pictorial content, color, resolution, specific item)
      d.      Identifies key concepts and terms that describe the needed image
      e.      Identifies discipline-specific conventions for image use

    2.       The visually literate student identifies a variety of image sources, materials, and types.

    Learning Outcomes:

      a.       Explores image sources to increase familiarity with available images and generate ideas for relevant image content
      b.      Investigates the scope, content, and potential usefulness of a range of image sources and formats (e.g., digital, print, subscription databases, open web, books or articles, repositories, personal creations)
      c.       Identifies different image and visual media types and materials (e.g., paintings, prints, photographs, born-digital images, data models)
      d.      Articulates ways images can be used to communicate data and information (e.g., charts, graphs, maps, diagrams, models, renderings, elevations)
      e.      Recognizes that existing images can be modified or repurposed to produce new visual content

    Standards Introduction

    Over the coming weeks, we’ll be posting each Standard individually for comment and discussion, starting here with the Introduction. Please let us know what you think – general feedback and detailed suggestions welcome. The open comment period on the draft Standards is now through March 31. See the side bar for a link to the complete draft Standards document. Thank you for your interest and participation!

    Introduction

    The increasing dominance of images and visual media in contemporary culture is changing what it means to be literate in the 21st century. Today’s society is highly visual, and visual imagery is no longer supplemental to other forms of information. New digital technologies have made it possible for almost anyone to create and share visual media. Yet the pervasiveness of images and visual media does not necessarily mean that individuals are able to critically view, use, and produce visual content. Individuals must develop these essential skills in order to engage capably in a visually-oriented society. Visual literacy empowers individuals to participate fully in a visual culture.

    Visual Literacy Defined

    Visual literacy is a set of abilities that enables an individual to effectively find, interpret, evaluate, use, and create images and visual media. Visual literacy skills equip a learner to understand and analyze the contextual, cultural, ethical, aesthetic, intellectual, and technical components involved in the production and use of visual materials. A visually literate individual is both a critical consumer of visual media and a competent contributor to a body of shared knowledge and culture.

    In an interdisciplinary, higher education environment, a visually literate individual is able to:

    • Determine the nature and extent of the visual materials needed
    • Find and access needed images and visual media effectively and efficiently
    • Interpret and analyze the meaning of images and visual media
    • Critically evaluate images and their sources
    • Use images and visual media effectively
    • Design and create meaningful images and visual media
    • Understand many of the ethical, legal, social, and economic issues surrounding the creation and use of images and visual media, and access and use visual materials ethically

    Visual Literacy and Higher Education

    Across disciplines, students engage with images and visual materials throughout the course of their education. Although students are expected to understand, use, and create images in academic work, they are not always prepared to do so. Scholarly work with images requires research, analysis, and evaluation skills specific to visual materials. These abilities cannot be taken for granted, and need to be taught, supported, and integrated into the curriculum.

    Notably, some K-12 and higher education standards include visual literacy as one of several key literacies needed for success in contemporary society.1 Many discussions of transliteracy, metaliteracy, and multimodal literacy also include visual literacy among the literacies important for today’s learners. A diverse body of literature on visual literacy and visual studies also exists. Yet standards outlining student learning goals around interdisciplinary visual literacy in higher education have not been articulated. The Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education address this gap in the literature, and provide tools for educators seeking to pursue visual literacy with college and university students.

    The Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education establish an intellectual framework and structure to facilitate the development of skills and competencies required for students to engage with images in an academic environment, and critically use and produce visual media throughout their professional lives. The Standards articulate observable learning outcomes that can be taught and assessed, supporting efforts to develop measurable improvements in student visual literacy. In addition to providing tools for educators across disciplines, the Standards offer a common language for discussing student use of visual materials in academic work and beyond.

    Visual Literacy and Information Literacy

    The Visual Literacy Standards were developed in the context of the Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education, and are intended to complement the Information Literacy Standards. The Visual Literacy Standards address some of the unique issues presented by visual materials. Images often function as information, but they are also aesthetic and creative objects that require additional levels of interpretation and analysis. Finding visual materials in text-based environments requires specific types of research skills. The use, sharing, and reproduction of visual materials also raise particular ethical or legal considerations. The Standards address these distinct characteristics of images and visual media and challenge students to develop a combination of abilities related to information literacy, visual communication, interpretation, and technology and digital media use.

    Implementation and Use of the Standards

    The Standards may be used as a whole, or in part, depending on curricular needs and overall learning goals of a program or institution. A visual studies course or a year-long series of courses involving visual materials may be an appropriate context for full implementation of the Standards. In other circumstances, the individual Standards may be more useful as stand-alone tools for teaching and assessing specific sets of learning outcomes. Depending on the assignment or project, it is possible that two or three of the standards would be applicable and useful, but the remaining standards would not be relevant. Implementation of the Standards may also vary across disciplines, depending on how visual materials are used in that discipline. Individual disciplines may choose to articulate additional discipline-specific visual literacy learning outcomes.

    Visual literacy education is typically a collaborative endeavor, involving faculty, librarians, curators, archivists, and learning technologists. Integrating visual literacy into the curriculum requires partnerships and shared implementation strategies across academic departments and units. Libraries play an important role in this process by selecting and providing quality image resources, developing research and subject guides for images, teaching image research strategies, and raising awareness of the ethical use of visual media.  Libraries are also established partners in working with students to develop the critical thinking and evaluation skills essential to participation in visual culture.

    Standards Development Process

    The Visual Literacy Competency Standards were collaboratively written by the members of the Visual Literacy Standards Task Force (VLTF), using the Information Literacy Competency Standards as a foundational document. In March 2010, the ACRL Information Literacy Standards Committee gave support to the ACRL Image Resources Interest Group’s (IRIG) proposal to develop Visual Literacy Competency Standards. The ACRL/IRIG Visual Literacy Standards Task Force reviewed the visual literacy and standards literature and developed a public bibliography in Zotero; appointed an Advisory Group comprised of librarians, technologists, curators, and administrators; created a blog for communication and community engagement; conducted open meetings and discussion groups; and engaged in outreach with multiple organizations. The first public draft of the Standards was distributed in February 2011.

    Notes

    1. Two of these standards are Standards for the 21st-Century Learner, American Association of School Librarians, 2007, http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/guidelinesandstandards/learningstandards/AASL_LearningStandards.pdf; and NCTE Framework for 21st Century Curriculum and Assessment, National Council of Teachers of English, 2008, http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Positions/Framework_21stCent_Curr_Assessment.pdf.