Visual Education: in the interlocutory space of visual culture, digital media and knowledge building

The intrinsic breadth of various types of images creates new possibilities and challenges for visual education. The digital media have moved the boundaries between images and other kinds of modalities (e.g. writing, speech and sound) and have augmented the possibilities for integrating the functions of the images and visuality in new forms of knowledge-building beyond traditional boundaries of school subjects. New learning cultures emerge and place the visual skills of decoding and meaning-making in the centre of future competences for citizens in a globalised world.  
This paper discusses the learning potential of images and visuality from two perspectives: 1) The perspective of digital media which are assumed to form an increasing part of experience and communication from the use of internet, tv and mobile devices. 2) The perspective of culture where images and visualisations are assumed to emerge in the interlocutory space of a global visual repertoire and diverse local interpretations. The two perspectives represent challenges for future visual education which require visual competences, not only within the arts but also within the subjects of natural sciences, social sciences, languages and the crafts.