Visual Literacy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Visual Literacy - Essay Example Despite the high level of novelty of newly emerging media like Youtube, which first appeared in 2005, it cannot be denied that its characteristics still follow the pattern of older forms of motion picture technology. Media, indeed was to some extent, merely renewed or reintroduced in familiar forms (Peters as cited in Snelson & Ross, 2009, p. 2). Thus, as the authors assert, online videos found on the Web like those from Youtube, are undeniably part of the ever-changing educational motion picture technologies or in simple terms, Virtual Learning. Virtual learning particularly permeated the education sector mainly through sites and channels such as Youtube â„ ¢ EDU, a central hub for videos featuring the collaboration of leading colleges and universities. Moreover, other sites like SciVee--site containing video and audio for a community of scientists--and Teachertube--designed for K12 students--exist to specially cater academic institutions. In the midst of these arising motion picture technologies in the academe, the authors found it useful to demonstrate how such technologies aid in the learning process of users. Firstly, motion picture technologies provided teachers a ‘dynamic representational format’ that enabled them to bring the world closer to their students. As Thomas Edison (as cited in Snelson & Ross, 2009, p. 4) puts it, it is similar to taking the object before the student or taking the student to the object. Second, it sparks excitement among students in the classroom setting, bridging the gap of abstract ideas to reality (Amsden as cited in Snelson & Ross, 2009, p. 5). Thirdly, since videos have the ability to capture and preserve the past, they become the key archives of significant historical events. Next, as the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (as cited in Snelson & Ross, 2009, p. 6) puts it, film captures what are considered to be too slow or too fast to be caught by the human eye. Fifth, with the