Problematic+Situation

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Motivations for planning organizational improvement.

Visual Communication
According to Martin Rayala, art, media and design consultant for the Department of Public Instruction (2004), “There are seven ways to communicate information, and words and numbers are only two of them. The other five are: movement, sound, images, objects, and spaces.” (p. 2)

While traditionally in higher educational settings learning is conducted through instructionalism, a curriculum based on a single means of communication; there are cognitive benefits to learning through a visual interactive medium.

James S. Catterall’s essay, The Arts and the Transfer of Learning (2002), states that how we experience information is directly proportional to how we learn information. Thus by learning through the five other methods of communication, one can stimulate other parts of the brain that coincide with how we learn other information.

For example hearing a single musical note for the first time has substantial impact on the brain. It can cause multiple reactions such as memory, linguistic and rational responses and/or autonomous reactions (Catterall, 2002, p. 152).

Within higher educational settings students today have access to a vast array of multimedia technologies that can assist in communication through a visual medium. Multimedia technologies like video, blogs, and websites, offer students countless resources for both learning and creation.

Problem Statement
__﻿Unfortunately higher education (specifically FYE) is not adequately preparing students in visual communication with the multimedia technological tools and awareness that can let them take full advantage of the tools that technology offers. Traditionally both educators and students have been slow to incorporate new technologies into the classrooms.__ Educators seem content with using technology for administrative purposes as opposed to actual integration that helps facilitate the process of learning, while students don’t seem to realize any other means of presenting a project than through boring mundane slide presentations.

Pamela Harris Lawton recognizes that traditional learning and success has been associated with the logical analytical thinking associated with the left-brain is no longer sufficient in a society that communicates through visual mediums. Rather the abilities associated with right-brain thinking, “artistry, empathy, seeing the big picture and pursuing the transcendent,” (p.10) is more relevant in today’s society.

One of the problems is that the higher educational setting is designed through a traditional means of students attending a lecture twice a week for a few hours, asked to read and memorize a textbook, then graded based on performance on a mid-term and final, leaving the student unengaged, bored, and not learning to their fullest potential.

Students want to be engaged and want to learn. But in order for them to do this they need to care about what they are learning. Visual communication through technology and creation enables students to care about what they are producing, thus having a stronger impact on the student’s understanding of content.

Technology Tools
There are many technologies available to students that can help enhance student learning. Some examples of these technologies and how they help student learning are as follows:
 * Blogs are online journals, or “news feeds,” that allow for instant publishing, which can include texts and graphics, and is readily available to the world. It allows for feedback, and is a unique way for individuals to represent themselves online. Additional benefits include student literacy, linguistic development, and creative expression
 * Digital Stories are the use of digital media that tells a story, usually through video. Students form a bond to what they are learning through the aspect of creation, changing a student’s mentality from having to learn, to wanting to learn.
 * Wikis are online documents that can be edited repeatedly and divided into sections based on content. Students learn collaboration, editing skills, organization skills, and exposure to the idea of never having a finished product.

Interactive Media
[|Interactive Media] is a small but growing minor that works well as an example of successful multimedia incorporation. This minor gives students a method of thinking that relies heavily through communications utilizing contemporary media. Though there is a strong emphasis on web design and video production, The ultimate goal of this minor is to educate students how to keep their content and designs current with the ever evolving fashions of “contemporary media.”


 * 1) Buffington, M.L. (2008) Creating and consuming web 2.0 in art education. Computers in the Schools, 25, 303-313
 * 2) Candy, L. (2007) New media arts and the future of technologies. Communications of the ACM, 50, 30-31
 * 3) Catterall, J.S. (2002). The arts and the transfer of learning. Learning in the Arts and Student Academic and Social Development, 151-157.
 * 4) Collins, A., & Halverson R. (2009). Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology: The Digital Revolution and Schooling in America. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
 * 5) Huffaker, D. (2008). Let them blog: using weblogs to promote literacy in the classroom. AACE Journal, 13, 91-98.
 * 6) Hurly, Ryan. (2004). Cuts in arts program leaves sour notes in schools. Wisconson Education Association Council, Retrieved from http://www.weac.orgnews_and_publications/at_the_capitol/archives/2003-2004/arts.aspx
 * 7) Jamelske, E. (2009). Measuring the impact of a university first year experience program on student gpa and retention. Higher Education: The International Journal of Higher Education and Educational Planning, 57, 373-391.
 * 8) Kennedy, G.E., Judd, T.S., Churchwald, A., Gray, K., & Krause, K. (2008). First year students’ experience with technology: are they really digital natives? Australian Journal of Educational Technology, 24, 108-102
 * 9) Lawton, P.H. (2007). Balancing act: bridging the traditional and technological aspects of culture through art education. Forum on Public Policy: A Journal of the Oxford Round Table, p.NA.
 * 10) MacEachren, Z. (2005). Examining art and technology: determining why craft making is fundamental to outdoor education. Australian Journal of Outdoor Education, 9, p.23.
 * 11) ======Schrader, P.G.,& Brown, S.W. (2008). Evaluating the first year experience: students’ knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. Journal of Advanced Academics, 19, 310-343.======