Visual Learning Conference

Saturday, September 29, 2012
10:30 AM-12:00 PM, WCC 236

Looking and Learning: Teaching with Visuals across the Curriculum
Deandra Little, Associate Professor and Assistant Director, Teaching Resource Center, University of Virginia
Chad Berry, Academic Vice President and Dean of the Faculty, Goode Professor of Appalachian Studies, Professor of History, Berea College

Looking and Learning PowerPoint Presentation

The sheer volume of images they encounter can lead students to believe they are proficient in visual interpretation, but research shows that visual literacy does not develop unless these skills are identified and taught. So how do we teach our students to look and learn, in a variety of teaching contexts? This interactive session will focus on key questions regarding teaching and learning with images, including—Why teach with images? What impact can images make on student learning?

The first portion briefly explored theories informing visual learning from a variety of disciplines, including art history and media studies. Next, the presenters demonstrated innovative techniques that connect these theories to classroom practice across the curriculum. The presenters shared how they have used these techniques in a variety of courses, from introductory surveys to upper-level courses.

Deandra Little joined the Teaching Resource Center faculty in August 2003. Deandra also regularly teaches courses on American literature. Her teaching interests focus on 19th- and 20th-century US literature & culture, specifically representations of science & technology and intersections of science, gender & identity in the 19th-C and autobiographical writings by 20th-century women writers. Degrees: Samford University, B.A.; Vanderbilt University, Ph.D. in English.

As an Assistant Director, Deandra administers the Professors as Writers Program and co-administers theTomorrow’s Professor Today Program and edits the TRC newsletter, Teaching Concerns. Other responsibilities include presenting and conducting workshops, consulting individually with faculty and graduate students about teaching & learning and a variety of other tasks designed to enhance UVa’s teaching mission.

Her educational development research focuses on effective mentoring & coaching, graduate student professional development, assessing and responding to student writing, and teaching with images & visualizations across the curriculum. She has presented on these topics in a number of venues, including as co-facilitator of NEH/American History Project summer institutes, Learning to Look: Teaching with Images in the Humanities.

Chad Berry came to the office of the Academic Vice President and Dean of the Faculty after serving five years as Director of the Loyal Jones Appalachian Center and also serving one year as Director of the Center for Excellence in Learning through Service. He is the author of Southern Migrants, Northern Exiles, published by the University of Illinois Press, which examines the migration of millions of white southerners to the Midwest during the twentieth century. He is the editor of and a contributor to The Hayloft Gang: The Story of the National Barn Dance (Illinois, 2008), an important radio program from Chicago that was instrumental in the development of country music. He is published widely in the area of Appalachian studies and international education. In 2005, the East Tennessee Historical Society awarded him its Teaching Excellence Award. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, he was the 2006-2007 president of the Appalachian Studies Association. He is currently working on a project that explores the development of Appalachian Studies after World War II as well as another project analyzing maps that Berea students drew of their home communities between 1948 and the late 1960s for a general studies class; work on the latter can be viewed at www.mappalachia.org. Degrees: University of Notre Dame, B.A.; Western Kentucky University, M.A.; Indiana University, Bloomington, Ph.D.

Related blog post:

Highlights from Carleton College's Visual Learning Conference (Part 2)
Agile Learning, Derek Bruff, Director of the Center for Learning, Vanderbilt University

Visual Literacy Across the Liberal Arts: New Standards and New Opportunities for Collaboration
Kaila Bussert, Visual Resources Outreach Librarian, Cornell University

Visual Literacy Across the Liberal Arts Presentation

Digital access to images and the growing use of visual content across the liberal arts is transforming what it means to be literate in the 21st century higher education environment. Students are now expected to critically engage and communicate with visual materials in their course work, yet they are not necessarily learning the skills to meet these evolving expectations. To provide faculty, librarians, and other educators with tools to support visual learning, the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) recently developed Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education.

The ACRL Standards are the first to provide a comprehensive framework for student visual literacy learning in seven discrete areas: defining the need, finding and accessing, interpreting and analyzing, evaluating, using, creating, and understanding relevant ethical and legal issues. This presentation outlined the ACRL Standards, discussed the role of libraries in supporting visual learning, and provided examples of ways to develop partnerships between faculty and librarians that integrate visual literacy across the liberal arts curriculum.

Kaila Bussert is Visual Resources Outreach Librarian in Olin & Uris Libraries at Cornell University. Her research focus is on visual literacy and the use of images and visual media in teaching and learning in the humanities and social sciences. She co-authored the ACRL Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education as a member of the ACRL Visual Literacy Standards Task Force. Degrees: University of Arizona, M.A., M.L.I.S.She has an M.A. in Middle East Studies and an M.L.I.S. from the University of Arizona.

Moderator: 

Heidi Eyestone
Curator of the Visual Resources Collection, Art/Art History, Carleton College