Martin Scorsese on Visual Literacy

Edutopia, which serves to "spread the word about ideal, interactive learning environments and enable others to adapt these successes locally," has this 11-minute video of Martin Scorsese speaking about visual literacy.

It doesn't get real technical in terms of educational or film jargon, which I found nice.

I did leave it wondering why I don't have kids documenting their learning with (or learning through) videos more often; I have yet to even try. Today's kids could churn out some really great videos in a relatively short amount of time.

And making short videos are great opportunities to let our 21st century learners create rather than absorb.

Watch or read the interview on Edutopia. Screenshots and quotes below.

I was a sickly child. I had very severe asthma, and I couldn't play sports, so I was taken to the movie theater and the church. Along with the films, I saw a lot of television shows. I was acquiring visual literacy at that time, though I did not understand that it was happening.

I was beginning to understand that there are certain tools you use and those tools you use become part of a vocabulary that is just as valid as that vocabulary that is used in literature, in our language.

The world is now at the point where [kids] are exposed to the visual language sooner than the verbal.

  

So much in today's society is communicated visually and even subliminally. Young people have to know that this way of communicating is a very, very powerful tool.

You have to make room for film in curriculum.