George Lucas on Teaching Visual Literacy and Communications

An interview with the founder and chairman of Edutopia and The George Lucas Educational Foundation on how visual language should be an integrated part of teaching and learning literacy.
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© 2012 George Lucas Educational Foundation

[@edutopia]

Create a free account today to join the Edutopia community and subscribe to our weekly newsletter: edut.to/3wEVHUh

[@thereefshark]

Diss the Star Wars prequels all you want, but George Lucas has done so much good for the film community at large. This is a dude who's given BILLIONS to charity and advocates for an improved education system. What's there to hate on for this video?

[@fundhund62]

What´s there to hate on the prequels?? Amazing films!

[@glenpowell7154]

Vance B Absolutely! That's the truth.

[@norm3844]

I agree that I wished I had been inducted into visual literacy so I didn’t have to try and learn it myself, but I can also understand why schools prioritise language. Most jobs require intellectual discussions and socialising with words, and not the other forms of communication. Words are the most valuable.

[@Jorenanthony]

Yes, I agree. He didn't mention fashion though. Fashion is probably the most potent visual communication tool for young people -- where they discover early on the connection that the image has to territory, power and hierarchy. I think Lucas wants to ambitiously keep things in the humanities level playing field, which would be smart and good.

[@ThePsychicFish]

I suppose fashion contains multiple forms of communication

[@LordInvictus-yt]

He talks about costume design as communication in other videos

[@laurabenson815]

As a teacher educator, literacy specialist, and fellow learner, I absoluately agree - Let's focus on communication classes/learning. Helping students become literate in every vehicle of the 21st Century is crucial. Helping students see how they already use communication strategies is vital. George, please become our U.S. Education Secretary (A long held wish!).

[@NoName-jq7tj]

I absolutely agree with George Lucas . Very early on when I started working as a photojournalist I spent all my time trying to convince my immediate & surrounding family about the serious nature of what I do. They simply didn’t get it & didn’t want to. Visual literacy is so important not simply because you can possibly understand cinema or a photo but from a sight point of view. We see through eye first.

[@ZoriHristova-i7n]

The brilliance of this message can't even be communicated in words.

[@sawyerstone1316]

Oh my god this is so true. Lucas is a real genius. Such a shame he is widely hated by his fans and considered a hack. A tragedy it is, he is such a humble man.

[@kurtjenkins]

Clips like this are why George Lucas is my favorite filmmaker.

[@edutopia]

🧡

[@arricammarques1955]

Lucas observations about media literacy is spot on. Young students would benefit with an introduction of Norman McClaren animation from the NFB.

[@Cameron.Robert]

Reminds me of Greenaway's critique of modern cinema: that it is "stuck in the book shop" or made too much into a literary art instead of a visual one. Different points but interesting that each think of these categories in such a way.

[@TrevRomFilm]

The brilliance of this message can't even be communicated in words.

[@markparkinson6947]

Try communicating it in film. :)

[@crunkalac]

This guy is so smart it's ridiculous he should be running for president, I bet he knows about all the corruption in the federal system

[@mrpotatoguy1]

This man is ahead of his time

[@knurdyob]

can please someone tell me what do they teach about cinema in schools, I mean, if they don't teach this, what's more to teach?

[@turyboy]

Let’s remember Christopher Nolan majored in English, he is one of the best directors today, he is testimony of George Lucas wisdom

[@UMLB]

Hes so swag for that

[@moviemessenger5497]

😍

[@TERRAMOUNT]

love it :)

[@3DmeCreativeStudio]

We agree! Technology is in the hands of our children and visual literacy should be taught in every school!

[@dfg1999]

Truly a master

[@da47934]

He's basically saying we should bring rhetoric back into the classroom. Greek kids learned it. Shakespeare's generation was taught it. It was taught in American schools as late as the first part of the 1900s. How to communicate clearly and persuade an audience effectively. Sure, I learned about 5-paragraph essays in elementary school, but it wasn't taught as a way to teach and persuade. It was taught (in my classroom) as this thing you just need to do. Like writing in cursive. I wonder how many children would learn and appreciate rhetoric more if assignments were to create and deliver an argument on a topic of interest (eg, persuade your mother to let you buy a skateboard, teach the importance of Mario getting fireball power as early as possible in Super Mario Bros).

[@scottekim]

Totally agree. What I haven’t seen anybody do, and I will probably do it myself, is to make a video talking about design principles for communicating that apply across all media. There’s a connection right now with what’s happening in AI: systems when they look at language or at images, or at movies, learn what the rules of grammar are, for that medium. But it isn’t just the rules of grammar. It’s a all the rules about how things go together to make meaning.

[@jonweinraub]

Even though this is nine years old and George will never see this but back in high school English class we did study cinema and what imagery was being shown and being an 18 year old those 23 some odd years ago it finally clicked what he was doing. Rather than being frustrated with the film being paused every five minutes in a 44 minute class that’ll take a week to watch the entire thing; it now makes sense and wish I can repeat the course with what I now know thanks to Mr Lucas.