Abstract
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A b s t r a c t
The aim of the present study is to give a theoretical and practical basis for teaching "Visual Literacy" in the framework of media education with emphasis on computer animation.
Because of the technical possibility of reproduction and diffusion of pictures, the visual media have gained a stronger influence on our everyday life. The pictures diffused by the media do not directly reflect external reality, they rather create a fictive and simulated reality. These pictures may have a direct influence on the perception and behavior of the children and young persons of today. Hence it is necessary to analyze the effects of these pictures in the framework of media education. "Visual Literacy" offers a new approach for competent dealing with visual media. An intentional promotion of "Visual Literacy" in the framework of media education has up to now been not explicitly taken into consideration.
In the present study, a special field of "Visual Literacy", namely computer animation, has been chosen for investigation because digital moving pictures play an increasing role in our media environment today and in the future.
The didactic research into computer animation as a special field of "Visual Literacy" has been carried out during art lessons because art is the only school subject which uses pictures for gestalt purposes.
The hypothesis for the empirical investigation has been evolved on the basis of the various fields of "Visual Literacy" with special reference to computer animation. The hypothesis was formulated as follows: As a result of practical dealing with computer animation, the schoolchildren involved in the study may acquire or improve their capacity for conscious perception, critical reception, adequate and meaningful use and of self-reliant and creative shaping during art lessons.
The results of the study show that the practical media work during art lessons in the test period promoted the development and the improvement of "Visual Literacy" in schoolchildren involved in the study. On the basis of this investigation the hypotheses should however be tested with a larger sample of students. The present study is a successful contribution to the integration of "Visual Literacy" in the media education field and to further development of media education oriented towards art and aesthetics. Shaping and aesthetically dealing with computer animation during art lessons, as has been investigated in the present study, offers a theoretical and practical new media-didactical approach which may stimulate further research.
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