Visual literacy shown through a magnifying lens by high school students

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study is to evaluate student visual literacy skills using the newly designed visual literacy framework and visual literacy (VL) scale. Design/methodology/approach It includes a newly designed framework, a self-reporting questionnaire and a scale to evaluate an individual's VL skills and overall competency. The self-reporting questionnaire consists of 13 items with a five-point Likert scale. Findings The newly developed VL skill scale assessed the Fiji students’ competency (i.e. identify, understand, evaluate and communicate using visuals). The mean for the 13 items on VL skills showed average results, but 46.33% recorded high visual literacy competencies. The multiple linear regression analysis outcomes showed all 13 skills demonstrated significant contributions to becoming visually literate. Research limitations/implications The limitation of this study is that the questionnaire is self-reporting, so the evaluation can be highly rated. The implications are that relevant stakeholders will be able to devise strategies and content to improve visual literacy in Fiji. Practical implications Images are playing an important role today, especially after COVID-19, which forced the education system to go online. Online learning involves a lot of visuals, and as such, visual literacy is important to students so that they can successfully learn online. This paper brings out the important aspects of visual literacy, which needs to be understood by the students. Social implications In society, everything involves visuals. This paper introduces a visual literacy scale and a visual literacy tool to measure the visual competencies of individuals. If people understand the components of visual literacy, then visual competencies of the people will also improve. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first one on evaluating visual literacy competencies in Fiji and also in the South Pacific. The visual literacy tool is also new to the world.

Cultural background in digital literacy of elementary and middle school students: Self‐appraisal versus actual performance

“…Some DL competences are prerequisites for other DL competences. Eventually, almost everyone should develop the entire complex of them at a certain age, with or without the assistance of the education system, in order to learn and work successfully in technology‐enhanced environments (Jin et al, 2020; Reddy et al, 2022d). Our findings showed a very low actual performance of both age groups with a relatively small increase in the performance of middle school students.…”

“…In Porat et al's (2018) study, which examined Hebrew‐speaking students, medium correlation was found between branching and information literacies, suggesting that students who navigate effectively in digital environments are successful in finding relevant digital information and evaluating its credibility. The photo‐visual skill helps users to intuitively and freely ‘read’ and understand instructions and messages (Eshet‐Alkalai, 2012; Opperman, 2002; Reddy et al, 2022d). These differences between the findings of previous studies and the current one can be explained by Hofstede's dimensional paradigm (Hofstede, 1980, 2001, 2011) regarding the difference between cultures which related to the power distance dimension.…”

The characteristics and role of digital literacy in an effective health protection

“…This deficit impedes their ability to utilize digital technologies for everyday tasks and access online services [ 6 ]. As digital technologies transform textual information more and more into visual media so traditional skills like visual literacy are changing and becoming crucial part of digital literacy [ 7 ], but all other related literacies are changing as well The realm of digital literacy becomes increasingly challenging to definitively define with the continuous emergence of new digital technologies, tools, and literacies. The concept of digital literacy has roots dating back to the 1960s, and it has evolved over time.…”

Enhancing digital literacy in education: educational directions

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“…Therefore, it is considered as an essential skill in the 21st century, to help one lead their personal lives “from carrying out personal tasks to education to being employed” (Reddy et al. , 2021, p. 5536; Reddy et al. , 2022c).…”