The grammar of visual design

The ability to interpret information from any source, and increasingly visual sources, is a vital skill for all graduates in contemporary culture. The development of the skills to read visual texts and communicate that understanding requires a certain level of critical thinking and reflection, skills which can only be developed over time, through practice and dialogue. This paper reflects on the evaluation of two websites. These resources support students in two units of study which aim, amongst other things, to develop visual literacy and critical thinking skills using the functional systemic concepts developed by Kress and van Leeuwen (1990, 1996). The challenge for the authors was to create two online resources for distance students that exemplified the theory itself and scaffolded learning as students developed their own level of skills in this area.

在当代文化中，从任何来源（且越来越多地从视觉来源）解读信息的能力对所有毕业生来说都是一项至关重要的技能。培养解读视觉文本并传达这种理解的技能需要一定程度的批判性思维和反思能力，而这些技能只能通过实践和对话随着时间推移逐步培养。本文对两个网站进行了评估反思。这些资源为两个学习单元的学生提供支持，这些单元的目标之一是利用克雷斯和范·莱文（1990年，1996年）提出的功能系统概念来培养视觉素养和批判性思维技能。作者面临的挑战是为远程学生创建两个在线资源，这些资源要能体现理论本身，并在学生培养自身在该领域的技能水平时为学习提供支撑。