First of all I think the beginning of this article was difficult to understand. It confused me a lot and did not care for it. It was not until page 70 that things started to make sense. "The main sentence that stood out to me on that page is where it states "This emphasis on the visual presentation of information is manifested broadly in our culture and represents an important "turn to the visual". This makes me think of how now days we rely and learn from visual representations like the t.v. or the internet. Also makes me think about how our culture is more about learning visually and hands-on rather than just lecture like in the past.
"When English composition teachers have thought to bring visual forms into their classes - a practice which they have practiced for @ least 40 yrs. - they have typically presented them as 2nd-class text: either as "dumbed down" communications that serve as "stimuli for writing but [...] no substitute for the complexity of language" or as texts related to, but certainly not on an equal footing with, the "real work of the course". I can definitely see this because when I was younger my teachers used videos, computer games, and even tape players at times when teaching the class a new concept. The teachers usually used the media text as a tool for what she was teaching us that day or what we had already read in our textbooks. It's kind of surprising to realize that teachers have been using visual forms into the classes for the past 40 yrs. but not really using it to introduce a new concept.
If teachers become more comfortable and confident about using visual media texts to teach or use in the classroom than obviously it will be a more common tool used. There are a variety of approaches listed started on page 73 which teachers can use to provide media texts in the classroom and incorporate them frequently. The activity stated on the visual essay as a classroom activity and the one as a homework activity seem pretty cool. I think it is neat that the article gives examples, especially on a topic that teachers may not be comfortable with.
