The Six Pillars of Character

As part of educating about character, I present to you the six pillars of character. This blog is not to present these components to you formally, but to get your viewpoint on these pillars. Look at the chart below detailing the six pillars and as we have mentioned in our color unit and previous blog on visual literacy, the colors that they are depicted by.

Upon viewing these pillars, their significance, and their color indicators, answer the following as a comment:

Write a brief description of a time when you displayed one of the pillars of character at DHS or in the community, and tell about the impact that it had on the person or persons involved, and how it was of value to you. 

Visual Literacy

Visual literacy is the ability to interpret, negotiate, and make meaning from information presented in the form of an image, extending the meaning of literacy, which commonly signifies interpretation of a written or printed text. Visual literacy is based on the idea that pictures can be “read” and that meaning can be through a process of reading.

The notion of visual literacy has been transforming the age of digital learning and reflecting the transformation of datagogies for quite some time. Classical and Medieval theories of memory and learning, for instance, placed a strong emphases on how the visual format of words and lines affected the ordering of information in the mind. During the Enlightenment new emphasis was placed on training the senses through print and graphic technologies in a way that benefited the rising middle class. By the nineteenth century visual literacy was a core component of the national educations systems that were emerging in Europe and North America, with educational reformers like Sir John Lubbock arguing for visual tools like diagrams and models to be used in the classroom.

Visual literacy is the ability to evaluate, apply, or create conceptual visual representations. Skills include the evaluation of advantages and disadvantages of visual representations, to improve shortcomings, to use them to create and communicate knowledge, or to devise new ways of representing insights. The purpose of linking visualization with literacy is to  give the necessary critical attitude, principles, tools and feedback for students to develop their own high-quality visualization formats for specific problems (problem-based learning). 

How do you personally use visual literacy to resolve or solve problems that you are presented on a daily basis (think of your use of the cell phone, computer, school, your job, driving, work, etc.)

Financial Literacy

"The financial literacy statistics are a crystal ball into the future. Seeing that the majority of college students don’t understand the importance of paying bills on time is a financial literacy statistic that says to me that a lot of those students will have credit problems. Seeing the financial education statistic that states that most do not have a set savings plan shows me that there will probably be a lot of people not able to retire."

"I think it’s obvious, that, unless we change these negative financial literacy statistics into positive financial education statistics that many people will still suffer from money problems."

Erin Mitchell, Student Intern from the National Financial Educators' Council

So You Want to be Wealthy?
If I were to do an informal class poll on who wants to be wealthy, a majority, if not all, hands of the class will be up in the air. However, the sad reality is that the majority of high school-aged students do not have the most basic training in how to approach their finances upon the imminent reality of living on their own.

The National Financial Educator's Council (NFEC)

The National Financial Educator's Council (NFEC) states that the lack of financial knowledge results in hardships of debt, lack of retirement funds, and no savings to address financial emergencies. Groups like the NFEC seek to address this lack of knowledge with training and awareness of potential problems that may arise for future generations.

What is Financial Literacy?

For the thirteen digital literacies that will be addressed in the Dudley SciVis blog, you will need to understand what it means to be literate. Literacy is simply competence (ability to do something well) or knowledge in a specific subject, especially the ability to read and write. Financial literacy would then be the ability to read, write, and gain knowledge of or about financial (money-related) matters. Areas that would be under the umbrella of financial literacy include, but are not limited to, budgeting, paying bills, having and maintaining a savings and/or checking account, buying and selling products, marketing products for sale, and laws which govern how finances work. These areas require more than just reading and writing, and, as it is a 21st century skill, you must apply this and the other literacy types in order to be considered literate in this and other areas.

Applying Financial Literacy

The chart below is an example of someone's utility bill with Duke Energy. It shows the gas and electricity usage for a particular home. Using your understanding of how to read charts, answer the question below the chart.

Based on the presented answer the following,
(1) What can you understand about the peak times of electric usage in comparison to the gas usage at the same time and what could be the reason for the similarity or difference in gas to electricity usage that you see detailed on the chart?
(2) How would these changes affect your family budget if rates are adjusted higher for kWh (kilowatts per hour) during peak times of electric usage, but not for hundreds of cubic feet (CCF)?
(3) What are your personal thoughts on financial literacy and how prepared you are to take on financial responsibilities?