In this article, the author describes utilizing Instagram as a reading response activity in an undergraduate English course to increase student engagement with challenging texts. Using a shared class account, students created a menu of prompts that they then chose from to create posts after reading fictional, theoretical, and philosophical texts;…

The purpose of this article is to introduce two easy-to-use analytical tools--OPTIC (Overview; Parts; Title; Interrelationships; and Conclusion) and SCRAP (Spatial-Temporal; Conditions, Connections, or Comparisons; Region; Aura, Association, or Analog; Pattern or Exceptions)--that can help teachers guide student learning with maps and photos.…

In the field of communication studies, an understanding of the relationship between form and genre is essential for mastering both practical skills and theoretical concepts in core courses such as public speaking, communication theory, and rhetorical criticism. Building on scholarship on the visual politics of presidential portraiture, this…

The Instagram Activism Slideshow helps undergraduate students bridge theory and practice by connecting the media arguments they see in their daily lives to the principles of policy argument they learn in argumentation courses. Students use a relevant argumentation theory or concept to argue for a public policy in a concise and palatable Instagram…

Citizen science is a research collaboration between scientists and volunteers who provide data for education, conservation, and environmental protection. Volunteers, often the locals in the area, provide data on species occurrence while researchers perform distribution mapping or other data analysis. Social networking sites including Facebook,…

In this paper, we present a physical modeling activity whose objective is to allow students to determine the differences between a disk and a sphere using pure scientific criteria. Thereunto, we reproduce the Sun-Earth-Moon system with low-cost materials and compare the illumination effects on the Moon considering two possible shapes for it (a…

Inclusive preschool classrooms have become increasingly common in recent decades, affording opportunities for children with and without disabilities opportunities to interact and develop positive relationships. Children with disabilities may be unintentionally excluded from these interactions due to communication differences. This paper discusses…

This lesson plan describes the application of a photo essay technique for landscape interpretation in an interdisciplinary instructor-led international field course. This lesson is, in practice, a field-based exercise or learning activity that asks students to engage in three foundational approaches to place-based landscape reading:…

Photovoice is a technique in which a facilitator guides a participant to produce a photograph and accompanying caption that reflects the participant's unique views regarding a topic. The photovoice process is designed to be used with a wide range of audiences. This article describes ways Extension educators can incorporate photovoice into the…

Courses: Visual Rhetoric, Visual Communication, Multiplatform Journalism, Advertising, Journalism, Public Relations. Objective: This unit activity requires that students analyze and produce imagery with the help of semiotic theory. Students will: (1) learn to connect theory with practice holistically by simultaneously practicing visual analysis…

Discerning the intent of the author of a historical document is critical as we seek to interpret it. Disciplinary literacy uses specialized skills that seek to maximize student engagement and achievement within specified subject areas. In social studies, one of these critical skills is "sourcing." Sourcing involves exploring who produced…

Photographs offer teachers a way to collect and explore student work that might other wise go unnoticed or minimally examined. A teacher might use photographs to analyze students' strategies and work to promote future instructional practices that result in higher student achievement. As a tool, photographs document student understanding and…

Your body is not a point particle. The nature and direction of the forces counteracting gravity influence your experience of uniform rectilinear motion--as does your own orientation in relation to the force of gravity. Sensors in smartphones or other devices can capture these forces, and help establish a connection between the personal experience…

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. The fight was a protracted one, lasting over 70 years, and it did not result in equity for diverse women. Voting and citizenship came to women of color differently depending on region, class, race, and ethnicity. For example,…

This guide provides ideas for class and personal exercises using the research findings from the second report in the two-part series, "Visual Messaging of the Coronavirus News Story." The ideas and prompts in the guide are for different steps of inquiry and were designed to build news literacy and strengthen information agency using the…