Visual Literacy and the Internet

The internet has opened up a huge can of worms for teaching using visual literacy.  Students see and experience so much now through the internet and interactions they have online.  While there are some drawbacks to the internet, there is an increasing amount of positives.
The amount of visual information on the internet has an amazing impact on our students.  We are able to show them abstract concepts that they would not have understood previously from reading about it.  They can experience so much more and get a deeper understanding by watching something happen or seeing a picture of it.  When I taught a class a English Language Learners, we were reading a story that mentioned the White House and a student raised their hand and said that they didn't know what it looked like.  It took me about 10 seconds to Google the image and put it on my projector.  In turn, the class was able to understand the story more now that they knew what the story was describing.

There are so many strategies that visual literacy entails that you can use in your classroom.  You could find a very detailed picture and have the students write paragraphs to describe it.  That could easily be turned into a very indepth adjective lesson. You could also use visuals the other way.  Students could have a writing assignment or an assignment for other subjects that they need to find a picture to help describe what they are thinking. 
I want to continue to incorporate more and more uses of the internet in my teaching.  I want to give the students webquests, let them explore, and learn about things that interest them.  I want to give them more outlets to express themselves and desmonstrate their learning.