Digital Tool 7 - Images for Learning

The Water Cycle

Images can assist students, especially the visual learners, to engage with and make sense of information. The abundance of visual images available on the internet allows learning managers and students to access images that support and enhance the learning process.

Some KLAs are more incorporating of visual dimensions and images than others. Pictures/images are generally more useful when illustrating scientific concepts than they would be for algebra. Some concepts require images for students to make sense of the ‘big picture’. Take the water cycle for example, can you imagine how difficult it would be for a student to construct a comprehensive understanding of the water cycle without the use of any images?

As mentioned previously, the internet offers an abundance of images which benefit learning managers and students alike, but students must be explicitly taught how to critically analyse images for appropriate uses as well as have an understanding of copyright limitations for the incorporation of images into ICT’s and learning experiences to be successful.

Using your own images with ICT’s can be made easy by programs such as mobaPhoto which allows you to crop, edit and resize your own images for uploading to the internet. This program has limited editing capabilities but is lightweight and very easy to use for beginners. In an educational context students could take photos to demonstrate their learning and then upload them to their blogs, wikis and websites.

Water Cycle image retrieved from http://www.commwater.com/water_cycle.htm