Visual digital literacy (VDL), the ability to understand computer-generated images and use them to communicate effectively, is increasingly essential for information technology (IT) technicians and other knowledge workers. Mesa Community College (MCC), in collaboration with Brown University, is creating, using, assessing, and disseminating a curriculum and comprehensive set of teaching modules on introductory VDL that is preparing students to meet this workforce requirement. The modules are being designed in conjunction with industrial partners for use in existing community-college curricula, particularly in IT literacy courses.
Intellectual merit. The curriculum and modules being developed through this project are helping to define the VDL field, and are contributing to the competencies and skills that define information literacy. The VDL curriculum and modules are providing resources unavailable elsewhere, both because of their wealth of original content (including written materials, interactive software, activities, assessment tools and rubrics, and teacher guidance) and because they consolidate and organize materials from many diverse fields.
Broader impact. The VDL materials are helping to integrate VDL into core IT curricula. The interdisciplinary modules are contributing to teaching in a broad range of IT-related courses, and are ideal for attracting women to IT fields, since research has shown that computer use in service of a goal is far more appealing to most women than the use of the computer for its own sake. In addition, the VDL modules are being packaged for use in e-learning systems, enabling easy adoption for distance-learning courses.
