Why are images relevant in an educational backgroud?
Firstly , I would like to introduce this post with the next quote: Las imágenes visuales son “estímulos para la sensibilidad y la inteligencia”.Son “vectores visibles de ideas, emociones y relaciones entre los hombres”. Laura Malosetti Costa (2005)
Bearing this in mind, it is possible to consider the image not only as a tool to teach but also as an instrument to share and communicate messages with specific purposes, that implies a position or a view of the world, in that sense visual education and critical thinking is going to take a relevant place in the classroom. Also, it is important to mention the modern concern about easy and inmediately information in social networks and internet, which could need teachers and educaction work in the images approach and use.
On the other hand, the role of school and teeachers is also to develop an artistic , cultural and critical thought in students but how can we achieve this objective?
Thus, introducing images as a way to create, contemplate and critize artictic productions would improve the analytical and reflective thought in shools.
I must say I’m really into this topic. I think it is really important to become aware of the role the images have in our society that is why teachers, parents and all of us have to be ready to analyze and be criticize them when necessary. I would like to quote here, as I would not be able to express it in the same way, one of Susan Sontag’s ideas: “La manera de mirar moderna es ver fragmentos. Se tiene la impresión de que la realidad es en esencia ilimitada y el conocimiento no tiene fin. De ello se sigue que todos los límites, todas las ideas unificadoras han de ser engañosas, demagógicas; en el menor de los casos, provisionales; casi siempre, y a la larga, falsas. Mirar la realidad a la luz de determinadas ideas unificadoras tiene la ventaja innegable de dar contorno y forma a nuestras vivencias. Pero también –así nos instruye la manera de mirar moderna- niega la diversidad y la complejidad infinitas de lo real. Por lo tanto, reprime nuestra energía, nuestro derecho, en efecto, a refundar lo que deseamos refundar: nuestra sociedad o nosotros mismos. Lo que libera, se nos dice, es notar cada vez más cosas”. Thus, how should we conceive the image, the glance with which we apprehend the world? Can we change ourselves through the image, how? What is the real role of the image –the photographs, the illustrations and so on- in our daily lives, in the way we perceive the world, in the way we behave?
ResponderEliminarRevista el malpensante, n.48. La fotografía: breve suma por Susan Sontag, traducido por Aurelio Major.
Undoubtedly, we are surrounded by images everywhere we go. They have become a way to interpret, to understand and to answer some of the many issues that take place in our societies. The fact that the new generations are even more aware of the influence of the image on their daily actions and thoughts must become a sort of wake-up call for teachers who neglect this aspect in their classes. Probably more than ever before, we are living nowadays in an audiovisual culture and if the school is supposed develop everybody's skills/competences, if the school is supposed to encourage critical, creative and alternative thinking, therefore, what is taught and developed must have a connection with the things that are going on nowadays (f,,i : the influence of the image). As Jesús Barbero puts it in his text "Nuevos modos de leer": "pues si ya no se puede ver ni representar como antes, tampoco se puede escribir ni leer como antes." . The image has certainly something to do with this need shift in the actions of both teachers and institutions. The question -it seems to me- is utterly related to cultural issues.
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