Fake Hurricane Sandy Photos Stresses the Need For Visual & Information Literacy

In a short piece I posted today I said:
Already, dozens of images, purported to be of Hurricane Sandy descending on New York City, have made their way onto the Internet. And because of Twitter and retweeting the photos are quickly going viral.

The problem: most of them are fake. Read more here.

 

The Art of Creating The Presidential Campaign Ad

How are presidential campaign ads created?  Frank Baker looks at the process and explains some of the tricks used to create these highly persuasive messages.

New York Times Unveils New "Visual Literacy" Feature

The New York Times has announced, on its Learning Network site for educators, a new feature which invites readers/students to consider what's going in the picture (with caption and accompanying context missing). It will invite comments/responses/reactions moderated by pros from the Visual Thinking Strategies organization.

Teaching critical literacies for 21st century learning

In today’s technological age children are surrounded by popular culture texts in the mediasphere – on TV, on the radio, in books, newspapers and magazines, on the web. Children are bringing to school a range of literacies developed through interacting with the mediasphere as both consumers and produces. As educators we need to find a way to bridge the literacies children are bringing to school with them and the literacies they will need for living in the 21^st century. Read more here.