Primary Source Strategies: Visuals



Visuals

Visual communication is the art of passing information to people by the use of gestures, images, signs, posters and short films advertisement among others. Hardware solutionseffective curriculum ideas preschool. Visual communication is the most effective way of passing information because the human mind processes things in images. The majority of people respond quickly to visual images instead of texts. Any business needs to understand the cognitive functions to maintain customers. Any form of advertisement should use images and graphics because it will have a great impact on boosting your business.

Enhancing School Success with Mnemonic Strategies. Mastropieri and Thomas E. A few years ago, we revisited an inner-city middle school where-about a year before-we had conducted an investigation on the effectiveness of mnemonic techniques in helping students with mild cognitive disabilities remember U.S. States and capitals. Use this simple critical-viewing strategy to guide students’ analysis of any visual media. By prompting students to slow down their thinking and simply observe before drawing conclusions and asking questions, you can help them engage more deeply with and analyze more thoughtfully the media they are viewing. Visual Learning Strategies If you're a visual learner, try these techniques to improve your comprehension, retention, and concentration while studying: Ask for a demonstration. Visual learners need to see how something is done.

Why Visual Communication Is Important?

The use of visual communication is massively growing among business. Over 84% of all marketing
strategies use images, popular GIFs, graphics, animations, and signs among others to pass information. Visual communication has more impact in passing information to people. The following are reasons as to why visual communication is important.

1. It saves time

It is easier to process a visual signal quickly than to read a sentence of a paragraph full of text. An image will pass a lot of information within a short a time because one image can have a thousand words. Research shows that the brain processes images 60,000 times faster than texts. With this background information, it will save you time when using visuals to communicate to people. Rather than loading an advertisement with words, it is highly beneficial to utilize visuals to effectively pass a message within a short time.

2. It is clear

Visual communication improves the clarity of information. You easily fall in love with a book of a movie because of the graphics used on the front cover or trailer respectively. This is the same way customers fall in love with products and services depending on how they are advertised by using images and graphics. When using images for business advertisements, use simple and clear graphics that will pass the same message to the targeted audience to avoid confusion.

Visual assessment and critical thinking in students: Simple teaching strategies to boost observational skills In the last post I wrote, I shared a thinking puzzle that involved numbers. The purpose of this problem is to warm up the brains of our learners, and to focus thinking. Use visuals integrated into symbols in order to access the visual cortex (totally powerful and effective for most children and always for visual/spatial learners). Visuals with symbols embedded in them are ' snapped ' like a photo and are recalled intact later. Here is an example of a sight word embedded in a visual.

3. It helps in achieving consistency

This is mainly achieved by using same colors of the original product or company to advertise. The use of logos and consistent colors boost the brand image of the business. The company’s colors should be used in all form of marketing and advertisements. Also, using consistent images, logo and colors make it easy for people to identify a product with the company. Build brand awareness of your company or organization by using visual communication.

4. Gives better retention of information

Since the human brain processes information in image form, a person will be able to retain visual information for long. People easily forget what they hear or read easily but retain images for long. This is because images are stored in long-term memory, and words and texts are stored in short term memory. A study conducted on active learning showed that 10-20% of the participants were able to remember spoken and written information while over 50% of visuals and images was remembered. It is important to aim at retention of information when passing marketing products
and services.

5. It is simple

The illiterate can understand visual communication hence makes it an effective communication method to all. Its simplicity makes it easy for people to understand the information. Coming with an appropriate image for an advertisement may take time, but the end result is usually simple and understandable to all groups of people. The main reason as to why you still remember road signs is because they are simple, clear, and memorable.

6. It is flexible

Flexibility in visual communication makes it better than verbal communication. For instance, if you are looking forward to advertising a product to millions of people across different cultures, you may consider using images and graphics. This is because they are flexible and can be understood by different people. Verbal communication will be limited to language, and some terminologies may not be similarly understood by different cultures. Images are more flexible than words.

7. It is effective

Visual communication is one of the most effective ways of sending information. Train your brain with dr. kawashima 2.0.3.7 for mac os. The main reason lies in the cognitive function of the human brain. Nowadays, images and graphics have flooded the advertising field because of the effectiveness of visual communication. The mind remembers images faster than words or texts.

8. It is popular

People love watching images, GIFs, graphic videos rather than listening to words or an advertisement. If you are running a business, you will easily catch the attention of potential customers by using visuals, images, GIFs in advertising. Social media platforms like Facebook encourage ads to have fewer words and more graphics. Also, visuals stimulate the emotions of the people making them respond quickly to an advertisement.

Conclusion

The above is about the main importance of visual communication. Visual communication is important just like using the ezTalks Meetings for communication. People pay more attention when communicating with people they can see rather than just using a telephone or emails. Visual communications have a positive impact in boosting your business. Start applying visual communication techniques on your business and you will get positive results.

Check Out Related Articles

Source: Using Visual Materials as Historical Sources:A model for Studying State and Local History, Randall G. Felton, Rodney F. Allen, The Social Studies, March/April 1990, pp. 84-87. Reprinted with permission of The Helen Dwight Reid Educational Foundation. Published by Heldref Publications, 1319 18th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20036-1802. Copyright 1990. Subscriptions: 1-800-365-9753.

Using Visual Materials as Historical Sources:

A model for Studying State and Local History

The Social Studies, March/April 1990, pp 84-87

CONTENTS

'A picture is worth a thousand words.' The sentence seems trite and is too often readily dismissed. But consider that the picture is an oft-overlooked source for the study of state and local history. When the teacher carefully selects the right painting, engraving, or photograph that is rich in information, that historical resource is of high interest to students. With visual historical source materials, poor readers are not quickly eliminated from the learning experience. Good reading skills are not necessary for successful learning from visual historical sources. The use of historical visual materials opens an avenue for students to develop a new range of skills—the skills of visual literacy—'reading' pictures to find data, make inferences, and locate meaning.

Too often, the use of pictures in social studies is confined to illustrating textbooks. Their use is usually cosmetic. Each picture is carefully captioned, so that any time a student is perplexed by a visual display the eyes immediately drop to find the 'right answer' in the caption. When the text is perplexing, the eyes seek out the picture. Thus the visual display is handmaiden to the explication of the text, rather than a creative, intellectual opportunity to develop and use skills appropriate to the historian and the well-educated citizen.

The way to overcome these deficiencies of the textbooks' captioned photography is to select rich, high-interest pictures and use them as raw historical source materials. Historical paintings, engravings, or photographs can be offered to social studies students just as the historians most often find them—unlabeled, uncaptioned, and without text or manual.

Once the teacher has selected a picture appropriate to the historical topic or era under study, he or she introduces the picture and displays it for student reflection. A slide or color transparency projecting the picture on a large screen at the front of the room is the best medium. The students may get out of their seats and move closer to the screen to exanine details and to talk quietly. Once the students have looked carefully at the picture, the teacher can use the following eight-phase model to pose questions, aiding students as they develop their historical investigation skills (see Figure 1).

The best kinds of questions for analyzing a historical engraving, painting, or photograph are narrowly focused questions. A focused question to begin the lesson offers students a target so that they can offer and capitalize on their original hunches as tentative answers. As the teacher and class work through the lesson, narrowly focused questions get students to build specific skills and a process of thinking. The process of asking these questions follows a series of steps.

FIGURE 1 — Questioning Model

Step 1: Introduction of the Photograph

Tell students the context of the photograph in the state or local history course.

Step 2:Pose the Key Question

Write students' hunches (hypotheses) on the chalkboard for later reference.

Step 3:Ask Students to Identify the Persons and Objects

Students should make observations and label those things that they see.

Step 4:Ask Students to Describe What They See in the Photograph

Students are asked to describe what they observe, comparing and contrasting.

Step 5: Ask Students Questions That Will Lead Them to Draw Inferences

Students should use their observations as clues to go beyond the data and to put what they see together and make educated guesses.

Step 6:Ask Students If They Need to Change, Abandon, or Confirm Their Original Statements

Students use their observations to make educated guesses (inferences), which support or change earlier hunches.

Step 7:Use the Textbook and Other Study materials to Confirm the Hunches of Phase 6

Students gather more information to support or modify their conclusions.

Step 8:Thinking Review

The teacher leads students in a review of the process, and they focus upon questions and thinking skills.

Step one involves orienting students to the context in which the photograph was taken and its use at the specific period of time that they are studying in the state or local history course.

At step two, the teacher poses key questions. Who are these people and what are they doing? Where do you think this photograph was taken? What does this photograph tell you about life at this time? Students respond with their hunches (or hypotheses), which the teacher writes on the chalkboard.

In step three, the teacher asks students to identify or label each person, group, or object in the photograph.

During step four, the students describe the relationships between people and objects, comparing and contrasting what they see. The teacher prods with questions such as: How are these folks dressed? How is their dress different from ours? What tools do you see? Do we use these tools today?

In step five, the teacher asks students to draw inferences from their observations. What clues tell you about the place where the men are working? What clues suggest what kind of work these women are doing? What kind of building is this? What can you tell about the temperature and about the place where this house is being built?

In step six, the teacher guides students in using their observations and their inferences to revise, abandon, or confirm their original hunches (hypotheses) on the chalkboard. From what we have seen and said about these people, do you want to change any of these hunches on the chalkboard? Why?

With step seven, students do further study in their textbook or in the school media center to gain more information to support or change their hunches. At some point, the students' hunches become conclusions that are supported by the evidence they can find. To include writing in this lesson, the teacher might supply a relevant address to which the students might write to raise unanswered questions or to discern the contemporary significance of the historical event or topic.

In step eight, the teacher leads a careful review of what the students said and did to interpret the historical picture. What did they miss, at first glance? What lead them to unfruitful hunches or inferences? What reasoning led to the best data gathering? This review of the thinking process is most important for effective skill development.

Two sample Florida history lessons using historical photographs are reprinted here. The photographs, from the collections of the Florida State Photographic Archives, Tallahassee, are appropriate for either state or local history in Florida. Similar high-interest photographs are available to all teachers from historical societies, museums, antiquarians, art galleries, and parents in any North American community. When all else fails, teachers can clip pictures, without captions, from newspapers and magazines or outdated textbooks that are on the school's discard list.

Objective(s): To analyze a historical photograph, making observations and inferences to draw conclusions; and to enrich students' knowledge of the historical development of Florida's important sugar cane industry.

Teacher's Introduction: Today we are going to look carefully at an old picture that was taken years ago in Florida. The picture is about one hundred years old! Study it carefully and then answer the key question.

Key Question(s): What are the people doing in this picture? (Write students' hunches on the chalkboard.)

Identification: The teacher suggests that students list everything they can see in this picture. Students name all people and objects in the picture.

Description: The teacher should phrase questions in such a way that they will elicit descriptions that tell about relationships among persons, animals, and objects. How are the people dressed? What do you see them doing? What is the horse or mule doing? Can you describe the equipment about the horse or mule. Will you now describe the equipment in front of the men?

Strategies

Inferences: The teacher's next question should guide the students to making inferences. What clues do you have to suggest what the equipment is and what is happening? What is the chimney for? Why are the tools hanging on the tree? The horse seems harnessed to go around in circles. Why? To make accurate inferences, students need to distinguish smoke from steam to infer a boiling-down process of cane juice to cane syrup.

Conclusion(s): At this point, the group should return to the students' hunches on the chalkboard. Are the students willing to discard any of those original hunches? Are they willing to change others? The teacher should ask several students to share their conclusions, with evidence or reasons, with the class.

Primary Source Strategies: Visuals Definition

Further Study: Students can learn more about sugar production, then and now, in their Florida history textbook or in the school media center. They might write to the United States Sugar Corporation, P.O. Drawer 1207, Clewiston, Florida 33440, for information on sugar cane growing in Florida today. The Southern Sugar Company (later U.S. Sugar Corporation) introduced successful large-scale sugar farming in Florida in the 1920s.

Primary Source Strategies: Visuals

Thinking Review: The teacher should review the lesson with students, focusing upon their thought processes. What questions did they ask? Which hunches were best in directing data gathering? What should they look for in any photograph so that they arrive at accurate conclusions?

Objectives: To analyze a historical photograph for clues about the identity of a group of people, to make observations and inferences leading to conclusions, and to enrich students' knowledge of the impact of the Great Depression upon people in Florida.

Teacher's Introduction: Today we are going to begin our study of Florida in the 1930s. We will look first at a photograph that was taken during those years. (The teacher should give students time to reflect on the picture.)

Key Questions: Who are these people, and what were they doing here in Florida in the 1930s? (Students' replies should be written on the chalkboard.)

Identification: As the class looks at the photo, the teacher asks these questions: How many people do you see? What ages are they? What other items do you see in the picture?

Description: What are the people doing? How are they dressed? What is the setting for this picture? How are the people and objects arranged in this picture?

Inferences: What clues in the picture tell you whether these people are tourists or workers? What kind of work do they do? What are the people doing? What clues suggest that they are either rich or poor or middle income?

Conclusions: The class should now return to the students' hunches on the chalkboard. Do they have enough evidence to eliminate any hunches or to change any? Call upon several students to state their conclusions and give supporting evidence.

Primary Source Strategies: Visuals

Information about Photo: The picture shows poor white migrant workers or farm workers during the depression in Florida. Students should remember that the Florida land boom ended in 1926 and that in 1929 the Mediterranean fruit fly came. Consequently, citrus could not be shipped from 1,002 Florida groves. The depression hit Florida when things were already bad on farms. In 1931, seventeen of Florida's sixty-seven counties had public relief programs but little money. In 1932, federal relief money came to Florida, but little went to help rural farm workers. At that time, Florida, not unlike California, was trying to keep such people out of the state. Twenty-six percent of Florida's population was on public relief, one-third of them in rural areas.

Further Study: Students might turn to their Florida history textbook or to the school media center to learn more about Florida during the Depression. To learn more about migrant and farm workers today, students might write to the Florida Farm Bureau, 5700 S.W. 34th Street, Gainesville, Florida 32601, or to the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, The Capitol, Tallahassee, Florida 32301.

Thinking Review: The teacher should lead a discussion focused upon the students' thinking processes. Excel for mac formulas. They should determine which questions and hunches aided the data gathering. How did the hunches guide data collection? Why were hunches and a series of questions more useful than random guesses? Now that we know what the historical photograph shows, what evidence is obvious? Why was it not obvious earlier?

Allen, R. F., and R. G. Felton. 1985. Pioneer Florida photo study prints. Tampa: Second-Florida United, Ltd.

Primary Source Strategies

Halverson, L. 1929. Pictures in the teaching of geography. Journal of Geography, 28:357-58.

Hawkins, M. 1971. A model for effective use of picture in teaching social studies, Audio Visual Instruction, 16:46-48.

Woodward, A. 1989. Learning by pictures: Comments on learning, literacy, and culture, Social Education, 53:101.

*RANDALL G. FELTON is curriculum coordinator for the Leon County (Florida) Public Schools, Tallahassee, where he works with teachers on curriculum design and instructional development.

Primary Source Strategies: Visuals Inc

**RODNEY F. ALLEN is professor of social science education at Florida State University, Tallahassee, where he participates in teacher education and the design of instructional materials.

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