Collaborative Ventures, Collaborative Gains - Organizer and Moderator: Karin Whalen, Reed College
Speakers: Stacy Brinkman and Diane Fellows, Miami University; Christina Updike and Mary Ann Chappell, James Madison University; Carolyn Caizzi and Barbara Rockenbach, Yale University
Abstract: Following the digital transition, image professionals, librarians, faculty and technologists are finding new, collaborative ways to support critical student skills in the areas of visual and information literacy, media literacy, and writing. At Yale University and James Madison University, such collaborations are used to support faculty in the area of visual pedagogy and technology-enhanced teaching. At Miami University, faculty-librarian collaborations have developed the incorporation of visual tools and methods to engage students in the research and writing process. These examples have enabled vital new dialogues across campus, and can be utilized to forge similar collaborations at your home institution.
At Yale, the Library, the Visual Resources Collection, and the Instructional Technology Group have worked together to support faculty in the area of visual pedagogy and technology-enhanced teaching through a partnership called the Collaborative Learning Center. The Center has responded to support faculty across various disciplines as they implement images, video, and creative student assignments into their classes. A representative from the Library and its Visual Resources Collection will discuss this collaboration and the creative outcomes that have happened at the intersection of technology, collections, and pedagogy at Yale.
At James Madison University, the Visual Resources Center and the Center for Instructional Technology have collaborated for more than a decade to support visual pedagogy. Their most important project is continued design and development of the Madison Digital Image Database, a web-based software system designed to bring visual images into the teaching and learning process. Its newest version, MDID3, incorporates several ubiquitous social media tools such as tagging, and seamlessly interacts with popular media tools such as Flickr, JMUtube, the University’s video delivery system, and Blackboard, the University’s course management system. These and other enhancements have broadened its appeal and usefulness beyond the School of Art & Art History and opens almost infinite possibilities for the integration of visual pedagogy into the teaching and learning experience.
At Miami University, a faculty-librarian collaboration explored the question: how can visual tools and methods encourage students to engage in not only finding topics and organizing ideas, but also in the entire research and writing process? This presentation describes pedagogical practices in a graduate architecture research methods class, where visual tools and methods familiar to the designer were used to introduce information literacy concepts such as audience, authority, methodology, and source evaluation. Through these methods, students were encouraged to make connections between visual thinking processes and the iterative nature of writing and research.