The Visual Turn and the Transformation of the Textbook

James A. LaSpina

$252

Hardback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We then advise you accordingly. If the time taken to get any book is too long for you, you can let us know and we will cancel or adjust your order, and refund as required.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

Routledge
01 April 1998

Educational psychology; Educational equipment & technology, computer-aided learning (CAL); Impact of science & technology on society; Ethical & social aspects of computing

"Most of the important work which has appeared in the past two decades in the curriculum field has been about the culture of the text. A rich literature has evolved around this, the traditional object of instructional activity. However, even the best of this work has largely focused on the textbook after it has been produced, adopted and entered the classroom. In this work, the social studies textbook in particular has held a special symbolic place. More often than not, it has been looked upon as a cultural commodity maintaining various discourses of power, ideology and social reproduction. An addition to the literature, this book does not look at the text-content of the printed matter. It focuses on the actual making of a textbook and how the design process which constructs the visible form of the book not only shapes textual content, but also suggests new paradigms of learning and instruction appropriate to the emerging digital culture of visual communication. ""The Visual Turn"" focuses on the most innovative social studies textbook programme of the last decade - the Houghton Mifflin K-8 series - and positions the information design of these books as a path-breaking marker dealing with pedagogical issues beyond the textbook. LaSpina questions whether the emerging digital multimedia culture of the Internet is transforming the textbook or forever displacing it. He discusses how this new medium of transmission has entered the classroom and is radically changing the instructional balance. The textbook is now caught up in a dialogue with the electronic presence of the computer interface. LaSpina then explains how this dialogue is reshaping the textual boundaries of the book, and with it the traditional modes of cognition and learning that are bound more to language than visual form. With the computer, traditional textbook content enters an expanded electronic field in which text content is but one component in a multi-dimensional information space. This book, then, is an exploration along the borders of this new learning space. Twelve full and half-page charts, diagrams and tables, and 45 black-and-white full and half-page illustrations and photographs in this volume reconstruct the making of a textbook and demonstrate how the graphic design of visual information structures and informs textual content."

By: James A. LaSpina
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 24mm
Weight: 612g
ISBN: 9780805827019
ISBN 10: 0805827013
Pages: 280
Publication Date: 01 April 1998
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

"Contents: Introduction: Turning a Textbook Controversy on Its Head. Social Studies for the 21st Century. When Images Meet Words. Making the Beautiful Book. A Beautiful Book or ""Considerate"" Text. A Different Model of Reading. History as Our Best Guess. A Window in the Text. Face-to-Face or Interface: Social Studies in Cyberspace."

LaSpina, James A.

Reviews for The Visual Turn and the Transformation of the Textbook

"""...this is a thought-provoking book, and the questions it rises merit careful consideration and further research attention."" —British Journal of Educational Psychology ""The first book I know of that tries to show the transition from the modern to the postmodern textbook. The basic idea of going at how the computer is transforming the textbook and our modes of literacy is very interesting and important."" —Eugene F. Provenzo, Jr. University of Miami ""...Interesting on several levels. The [Houghton Mifflin K-8 social studies textbook series] around which the author wraps his book has generated a good deal of drama....LaSpina recognizes these aspects of the text's publication and selection in California and the subsequent controversy, then shifts the reader's focus away from the politics of publication to the 'visual turn' of the text....A one-of-a-kind book..."" —Linda S. Levstik University of Kentucky"