This week in the Program for Online Teaching, there is a discussion about images.  I was thinking about images in course materials last weekend.  I was reading a child development text and started to think about the images.  On one of the pages, there was a photo of a child.  That’s it… just a child.  There was really no relevant connection between the image and the material I was reading.  I started to think about how the image was just there for the sake of having an image of a child.  It was almost a space filler.  I think it would have been just as easy to put in a photo that was connected to the information I was reading and it would have brought more meaning to the text.

This experience made me think about the use of images.  I think the same thing can happen with audio and video, too.  There could be a point where the audio or the video is not really relevant or necessary.  I think that images can be very powerful if used in a purposeful way.  I am eager to hear what others have to say about the subject this week.