What role does visual literacy play in learning?

"A picture is worth a thousand words." An infamous proverb that I immediately thought of while reflecting about visual literacy. Visual literacy, by defintion, is the ability to understand, read, or interpret information presented in a variety of graphic/visual formats. Humans have been communicating with graphics since the beginning of time. Some cultures' alphabets are derived from picture icons. Graphics are appealing to the eyes and promotes various thought processes. When we view a picture we might ask ourselves: What am I looking at? What is happening in the picture? What does it mean to me? What will I remember/take away/learn from this image?
Research has shown that visuals enhance learning by allowing the learner to access prior knowledge. If prior knowledge is low, visuals help the learner to formulate ideas better than if information is presented in text alone.
"Visualization helps make sense of data that may have seemed previously unintelligible." (Electronic Journal for the Integration of Technology in Education, vol.1, no.1)

Day 1

Well I felt overwhelmed the first day. There was a lot of information thrown our way and not a whole lot of time to let it all sink in.
I really enjoyed Jason Ohler's presentation and appreciated the way he broke down the basic steps of digital storytelling. The one thing I took away from the first day was that students are still learning the writing/research process as they work on their digital story. I love it when we can get students excited about learning without them even knowing it!