Blog #4 Brumberger: Visual Literacy and the Digital Native

  Brumberger, Eva. “Visual Literacy and the Digital Native: An Examination of the Millennial Learner.” Journal of Visual Literacy. 30.1(2011): 19-46. Web.         

Brumberger begins the article by explaining the debate (via a literature review) over visual literacy as it relates to the digital native. It has been suggested (Prensky) that those born into the digital world we live in will become visually literate through exposure throughout their life-time. She then supplies a working definition that includes both an interpretive and a productive component. The study conducted consisted of a survey given to students in several types of writing classes at Virginia Tech. They received 485 responses that could be used and asked questions pertaining to students’ experiences with entertainment and navigational technologies, cameras, student use of personal technology, evaluation of video and images, the interpretation of images, and interpreting tone.     

The results suggest that students are far from being able to analyze and produce visual communication, which contradicts the digital native argument. Their self-perception of their visual communication skills was limited. They then give examples of what could be done in future studies. She claims in the end that the question is not only how proficient are students, but how proficient do they need to be? The data set from this study does not show that “digital natives” are able to “translate” visual images naturally. In fact, it is claimed that their ability to do this is weak. It is suggested that the study may show a stronger visual literacy than the age group actually has because the sample represents a more affluent group that has access to the technology. This study ultimately argues against the idea that repeated exposure will translate to understanding of visual images (as suggested by the digital natives argument). She argues for teaching students to be visually literate because we cannot assume that exposure to images and experience using technology translates into visual literacy skills.   

The strengths in the article were the survey questions themselves, the limitations and the future research section. While the study itself was limited, the data was surprising and convincing (while I suppose it would be easier to convince someone that already agrees with you). This article is important because it begins to take the theories about visual literacy and a specific group of people and work toward investigating them. Giving the reader a good sense of the limits and possible directions for the future opens the investigation up to the rest of the field. In addition, it’s important because we, as a field, need to know what has to be taught. If it’s assumed that students know something that they in fact are not proficient in, we’re doing them a disservice.