My Vision on VC&VKB

I took some topics from the theory of Visual Knowledge Building and Visual Communication and tried to reflect on those topics and give my own opinion on it.


My Vision on Knowledge Building

I have multiple ways to interpret this topic on the one hand I encourage the way of knowledge building because I think it is really useful. Having common goals in a group in achieving knowledge I really believe that the twelve principles of knowledge building can empower the way of gaining knowledge.
On the other hand, because I am more of an individualistic person, I rather prefer the traditional way of gaining knowledge.
Since elementary school I am accustomed to the idea of a teacher in front of the class explaining something and me listening. All you had to do was pay attention and listen well and later on you had to make a test or an exam. And since the minor of VKB was also mainly built on the knowledge building principle I had trouble to cope with it. To me it makes more sense if the teacher explains the content of todays class, rather than trying to bring it up in a group discussion, For me personally I don’t gain more knowledge this way. Because im not used to this way of learning. I think that if you use this kind of method knowledge building in the beginning on small children on elementary then it will be a useful new kind of way of teaching.

My Vision on E-learning and blending learning

In an age where technology rains and is aiding us in our daily lives it is no wonder that, that technology also will influence in the way our educational system works. So electronic learning is something that we see much more now. For me it is only logical that we use computers to enhance our learning. The computer or electronic tools that we use as a tool in our knowledge seeking or learning are widespread unconsciously. Online learning tools like blackboard, students that use laptops instead of pen and paper. They are quite common nowadays. For me personally I would not rely to much on this e-learning principle, because it still has many disadvantages. One is that you are completely dependent on the technology and other external factors. A good example is that we tried to have an online consultation hour a few weeks ago. This wasn’t really a big success, because of the connection that wasn’t very good.
A personal reason for me also is the distraction that it brings. When im studying some texts on my laptop or I have to come up with something for the project that I’m working on, a device as a laptop can be very much a distraction because of the access to other things, like surfing on the web, or playing videogames or hanging out at social network sites.
And if E-learning was really that great of a success then why are we not all applying for a LOI course, this all indicates that some people including myself still have the need for some human contact, real live face-to-face.
That is why I think the form of blended learning is a great solution, because of the fact that I personally prefer the traditional way of learning, a teacher that explains something and I listen, in combination with computer enhanced tools like blackboard for example.

 

My Vision on Digital Natives vs Digital Immigrants 

I agree with the fact that digital natives do know their way around computers and modern tools better then digital immigrants. Especially the kids that grow up nowadays, an example is my younger brother who is 14 years. He does everything with his laptop for school, where as I was 14 I did everything with pen and paper. But Prensky’s gives an impression that everybody who is born in the modern age only uses and prefers computers and modern tools and techniques. I disagree with him, I myself should belong to the digital native generation, but I found out that I surprisingly have a lot of resemblances with a digital immigrant. I’d rather use a book to learn of then using an e-learning tool like blackboard where I can download and learn from sheets. For me learning out of a book and make a written exam is still the right way of gaining knowledge. So not everyone who was born after 1970 is automatically a digital native. So that means that Im more text oriented then visual oriented like a digital native is supposed to be.

 

My Vision on Visual Communication

Despite the fact that Im more textoriented instead of graphics or visually oriented. I am aware of the ever growing impact of visuals they have today in our society. Almost everywhere we go nowadays we see visuals. Those visuals and images are being used to convey a message to the person who looks at a visual. So instead of only words and text communication now happens more through visuals.  Visuals can also empower texts or words, for instance in the newspapers. An article in a newspaper always have pictures or visuals included to give the reader a better idea of the topic of the article.
A visual on itself can convey a very clear message, but  I think the combination between a visual and text is a more powerful one. A visual on itself can be interpreted in many ways by different people, I think that if you include text or words a context is added to the visual. And with this context the visual has more chance of getting across the intended message.

Example is a picture of just an apple, if you see it you can interpret it in different ways because there is no exact context. The second picture is a combination of the apple and words, now context is included, the context in this case is health , so you know that an apple is healthy.

           

Now a days visuals surround us in our every day lifes

 

 

Visuals that are enforced with text

 

My vision on Visual Literacy

Because of the fact that today visuals are becoming more and more imminent, the question is raised on how we should give meaning to these visuals. Just as we know how to read and write down words we are literate. But with the evergrowing presence of visuals the question is raised if we also should learn how to be visual literates. Should we learn how visuals are to be seen? Is it something that needs to be learned, or is it something that we all do unconsciously, interpret visuals, and give meaning to them.
I think that visual literacy is something that we all unconsciously are. We already do it every day. We trained it and developed it so that we sometimes instantly can give meaning to certain visuals. I think that some people may be more visual literate then others but we all can perceive a certain message out of a visual. I said before that I'm more text oriented but that doesn’t mean I can’t  derive meaning from certain visuals and images. If we look it up from the perspective of Gardner and his theory of multiple intelligences then we see a particular intelligence; one that is focused on the visual and spatial intelligence that a person has. I can imagine when a person has a high visual and spatial intelligence level that person can perceive images better.

Visuals like pictograms we instantly recognize

 

End Conclusion

Based on the multiple visions that I have about the topics I reflected on, this is my end conclusion on the Visual Knowledge Building Minor: 

I have come to the conclusion that VKB & VC isn’t that much about visuals only as I initially thought it would be. A lot of theory on how people gain knowledge is just as important as the visual know how.
If im honest there is still one big question that I have; what has Knowledge Building to do with Visual Communication. I still haven’t figured out what the exact connection between the two is. What is the link between them?
Maybe in order to convey a message through a visual it is important how to know how people perceive them depending on their way of gaining knowledge.