The document discusses using digital images to motivate language exploration and awareness in education. It calls for a national dialogue on incorporating images into curricula and notes research showing images combined with text offer more than text alone. The document presents a framework for teaching with digital images, including acquiring, analyzing, and creating instructional activities and products with images. Some examples of how digital images can be used in English language arts are provided, such as photo essays and stories. The document encourages teachers to think of students as composers and expand contexts to include more than just writing. It connects the use of digital images to addressing challenges of integrating technology, content, and pedagogy.

1. NLI Beijing, China
Beijing Royal School
November 5-6, 2010
Carl A. Young
NC State University
carl_young@ncsu.edu
Using Digital Images to Motivate
Language Exploration & Awareness

2. Call for a National Dialogue
 …on the use of digital images in the curriculum from
leaders in technology education and teacher
education
 “Arguably, images combined with text offer more than
text alone. This is an important factor in the extensive
use of images for scientific visualization, in popular
media and culture, in museum exhibits, and all
aspects of life outside of schools.”
-- Thompson, A., Bull, G., Shrum, L., &
Johnson, L., 2008
Question by Katinka Matson,
2008

3. Expanding the
English Language Arts…
 In her 2008 presidential address to NCTE members,
Kathleen Blake Yancey encouraged us to expand
beyond our thinking of students as merely writers,
but instead to think of them as composers.
 “Sometimes a picture—or an audio clip of a speaker,
or a sound effect, or a few seconds of video—is
worth a thousand words, ones that do not
necessarily need to be written.”
o Troy Hicks (2009) The Digital Writing Workshop
 Still teach craft, but expand the context to include

4. Teaching with Digital Images:
A Framework
from Bull, G. L., & Bell, L., Eds., (2005).
Teaching with Digital Images

5. Acquire Images

6. Analyze Images

7. Create Instructional Activities &
Products with Digital Images
English Language
Arts
 Photo-Essays
 Photo-Stories
 Photo-Interpretations
 Visual Read-Alouds
 Vocabulary Pictures
 Add your ideas as
well…

8. Communicate and Disseminate
Products and Outcomes
 Wikis
 Blogs
 Flickr
o Tell A Story in 5
Frames Group
 Picasa
 PhotoVoice.org

9. TPACK Connection
 Technology poses a
“wicked problem” for us as
teachers to solve in terms
of content and pedagogy.
 Mishra & Koehler suggest
that we need to be creative
in solving it…
 Repurpose existing tools
and technologies in
creative and innovative
ways is one solution!
 Digital Images can be
repurposed to…
o help readers envision text
o offer a unique bridge to writing
o allow students to communicate
meaning visually
o help students explore language
and meaning while developing a
stronger awareness of the word
and the world
So let’s try it out!