Sue Hum, University of Texas–San Antonio

Many believe that we are preparing students to read and write in a world that may not yet exist, using technologies that have yet to be invented, developing skills that surpass today’s pedagogical approaches. This future requires of educators an expanded approach to effective communication if they hope to cultivate in their students a creative, intellectual flexibility. Visual rhetoric, or the use of images in combination with words to persuade, can offer effective strategies for understanding, reflecting, and influencing. These strategies, harnessed in reading and writing pedagogy, may offer today’s students the flexible mindset necessary to thrive and succeed in the future.