Letramento visual: entre imagens geradas por inteligência artificial e sentidos.

Abstract

Images are part of our daily lives and are present in a wide range of environments. With the dissemination of technologies and digital devices, interaction through language has expanded, and the multiplicity of texts has reached all individuals, including children. In light of the multiple modalities of language (written text, sound, gestures, images), the school, as an institution responsible for forming literate citizens to meet the diverse demands of society, needs to develop skills related to visual literacy, recognizing its value, as social life increasingly requires the ability to interpret various kinds of texts. The general objective of this research is to investigate how the use of images created by 5th-grade elementary students, with the assistance of generative artificial intelligence, contributes — or not — to the development of visual literacy, fostering the expansion of cultural awareness and the improvement of students’ critical interpretation skills of images. To achieve this aim, we established the following specific objectives: to provide students with opportunities to create their own images using generative AI as a form of personal expression and visual storytelling; and to relate the images created to their cultural contexts, identifying representations of cultural diversity and the role of images in shaping students’ cultural identities. The discussion is grounded in the following theoretical frameworks: visual literacy (Dondis, 2015), visual reading (Belmiro, 2014; Xavier, 2015), social semiotics (Hodge & Kress, 1988; Kress, 2014; Marcuschi, 2008; Cavalcante et al., 2019, 2022), and Artificial Intelligence (Santaella, 2023; Caiado, 2021, forthcoming 2025). The methodology employed in this study is qualitative, based on action research. Data were collected in a public school in the municipality of Caucaia, Ceará, with 5th-grade elementary students, through a Visual Literacy Project supported by the following pedagogical strategies: Visual Literacy Workshops: (i) Exploring the Visual World, (ii) Working with Colors and Emotions, (iii) Understanding Artificial Intelligence, (iv) Creating with Artificial Intelligence, and (v) the final activity. The Visual Literacy Workshops were conducted through the production of images generated with the assistance of Generative Artificial Intelligence, more specifically, using ChatGPT. For this purpose, students needed to learn how to create operative prompts, using various text types, in order to generate more complex images connected to sociocultural issues. At the end of the research, it was possible to affirm the relevance of visual literacy in the students’ critical and cultural development, highlighting how the Visual Literacy Workshops, combined with the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence, enhanced their skills in interpreting and producing images.