Visual Learning: Using Images to Focus Attention, Evoke Emotions, and Enrich Lives
Philadelphia's Clara Barton Elementary School is a multi-ethnic, multiracial K-4 school that, with the help of Olympus, introduced digital photography into its Mentally Gifted (MG) program. The benefits of visual learning have since become evident throughout the school's curricular activities, because once they learn how to photograph, the students take their knowledge much further.
The MG students use Olympus digital cameras in a curriculum initially developed by volunteer photography teacher Harris Sklar to learn about the art of photography. "The program uses photography to teach vital life skills," says Sklar. "The children practice writing and speaking about their photographs. They also learn to use photography as a means of documenting an event or location."
The children are also taught how to download the photographs to the computer, save, manipulate the photos using Adobe Photoshop elements, and print them. Using curricular activities similar to the lesson plans included in http://www.envisionyourworld.com, an Olympus-sponsored free online curricular program written in association with faculty at Columbia University's Teachers College, students document their family life, their school, and their community. These images are incorporated into PowerPoint presentations that are used to share learning in a visual format on multiple occasions-from parent teacher meetings to classroom sharing.
This article, written by Michael Lambert and Margaret Carpenter, appeared in the September 1st, 2005 publication of Multimedia and Internet@School.
Published Tuesday, Sep. 27, 2005