Using Visual Images to Teach Perceptions

Every person seems to have a running visual monologue going in their head as they listen and read.  These visual images are reinforced by Hollywood, TV, magazines, books etc.  I was doing a presentation for teachers last fall.  One of the questions I ask is if I say the words American Indian or Native American: What picture do you see in your mind?

I followed this up by using Montage-a-Google and typing in Native American.  We talked about how most of the images were of Native Americans from the past.  One of the issues we are working on within our schools is the need to change those perceptions. Creating an awareness that there are different tribes that are a living vibrant contemporary culture. The second mosaic shows contemporary tribal members.  We had an interesting discussion about perceptions.

This site would also work to introduce other topics in history and social studies, even biographies.  If you click on individual squares it will bring up the original picture so that you can examine it closer, allowing for further discussion.

There is a great article on Engadget : How to Make Your Own Photo Mosaic.  They list a couple of other sites that you can use to make your own mosaic from your own pictures: Andrea Mosaic for PCs  and MacOSaiX for Macs.  You can also make mosaics with Picasa.

Perceptions

Perceptions – most of us carry visual pictures that we associate with different words. If I say “dog”, most of us will pick a specific dog we know; or a breed of dog we like. This is true for flowers, music. It is also true when we hear the names of other cultures. We may either have a positive or negative connotation that we associate that culture with.

A few days ago I ran across a link for montage-a-google. This program collects images based on the term you type in. I typed Native Americans. (http://grant.robinson.name/projects/montage-a-google/app/#/native+americans) The image I got is shown in this link. Many Americans when they hear the words Native American or Indian will see similar visual images in their own minds. I found it interesting that the majority of the images are of Native leaders; clothing and images of the past. The subtle message that everyone hears and sees in most media and books is that Native Americans are from the past. It takes reprogramming are understanding to make our images current. Contemporary Native Americans are among us in all walks of life achieving dreams and goals like everyone else.