Recorded
human communication began with cave paintings and then grew into murals and
hieroglyphs before developing into written alphabets. In some ways, digital
technologies and social platforms are taking communication back toward its visual
origins.
In a commentary in T.H.E. Journal earlier
this year, Cathie Norris, a professor and chair in the School of Information at
the University of North Texas, and Elliot Soloway, a professor in the College
of Engineering at the University of Michigan, noted that K-12 students spend
far more time with text-based materials in school and far more time with
image-based materials outside the classroom.
With an
average of about 2.5 billion daily Snaps on Snapchat, and more than 400 million
daily users partaking of Instagram’s shared photos and videos, it’s no surprise
that today’s digitally savvy students are gravitating toward “picting,” the use
of images instead of words to convey information and ideas.
Picting
is an emergent form of literacy, but not one that many schools are embracing.
That presents a risk that students who aren’t able to access the same tools in
the classroom that they do outside of it may see schoolwork as irrelevant to
their lives.
The
solution, of course, is not to supplant written communication with picting, but
to make reading and writing as engaging as picting’s imagery, and to teach writing
as a way to support and improve visual communication.
“Schools
must teach written literary skills,” Soloway responded to comments on his and
Norris’ post. “This is a teachable moment. Educators can use the
Snapchat/Instagram story to help students craft good stories.”
A recent post on the EdSurge edtech news site offered suggestions for how to use
Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube, and Seesaw, The Learning Journal, to help give
students “ownership of their learning” and make the classroom more engaging for
digital natives.
However,
engagement can’t be the only metric. Because many complex ideas can’t be
communicated with images alone, effective reading and writing skills remain
paramount.
They’re
also a necessity for full participation in society. As recently as just a
century ago, illiteracy could prevent the poor from full participation in their
rights as voters and citizens. In an age of “fake news” and calculated
disinformation on social media, critical reading skills may be more crucial than ever.
