Student Alexandra Lienhard, left, receives help from Allison de Fren, a doctoral student in critical studies who is co-teaching the multimedia lab portion of Ed McCann's philosophy class. Photo credit: Phil Channing

A New Kind of Literacy (Continued)

Elizabeth M. Daley, dean of the School of Cinematic Arts and executive director of the IML, recalled her conversation with filmmaker George Lucas, who emphasized the importance of literacy in multiple forms of media. She credits Lucas — who said that given today’s multimedia environment, college students unversed in the language of the screen were not truly literate — as the inspiration behind creating the IML in 1998.

Lucas, a USC alumnus, shied away from taking too much credit.

“That’s a bit like saying the Beatles invented the music of the '60s,” said Lucas, who in September donated $175 million to the School of Cinematic Arts — the largest single gift in USC’s history. “They were part of a huge cultural groundswell, or as John Lennon phrased it, ‘We were flags on top of a ship that was moving.’ ”

Daley had envisioned that the teaching of multimedia literacy would eventually reach the entire undergraduate community.

“I’ve always felt that in order to institutionalize this and accept multimedia literacy as a 21st century vernacular, we would have to incorporate and disseminate it within the university,” Daley said. “I’m just glad that the College has been courageous enough to jump in the water with us.”

USC College Dean Peter Starr was first to take the plunge. As dean of undergraduate programs last year, Starr worked closely with faculty, the Provost’s office and other schools to establish the new program. Starr dismissed fears that a multimedia approach would somehow replace text. He elaborated on McCann’s comment.

“Go way back to Plato and the fears that writing would replace memory, that writing was dangerous because people would no longer remember,” Starr began. “Or a related fear, that writing would replace oral persuasion and dialogue. Well, it didn’t happen that way. Writing came along and it became a technical tool that complements oral persuasion.”

Starr said that the College remains “absolutely committed to affirming the importance of being able to communicate well in writing.

“These new technologies,” he said, “are only going to enrich the traditional form of communication.”

The courses, in fact, require considerable writing. Creativity is coupled with an equally rigorous interpretive component.

In addition to computer narratives, McCann’s students analyze the images in written essays: What makes the image work? What attitudes does it convey? Do you accept the attitudes or question them? What is the historical, cultural and social context of the image?

McCann wants his students to understand the power of the language of the screen, a language that most have been speaking since childhood.

“There is a misconception that students brought up in a multimedia-saturated world somehow are more sophisticated about it than older generations,” McCann said. “But what’s true is that they have never really stepped back and analyzed what they’ve been viewing all these years.”

Daley stressed the importance for students to analyze and deconstruct their projects. In the 21st century, the truly literate read, write and understand the language of the screen, she said, echoing Lucas.

“Multimedia literacy is not revolutionary,” Daley said. “It’s fundamentally evolutionary. It’s the way in which communication is moving.”

Lucas hoped that the teaching of multimedia would evolve “to a point when we talk about the literacy rate, it’s understood that means literacy in all forms of expression, not just text.”

Since its inception, the institute has trained more than 50 professors and 2,500 students to integrate multimedia into their teaching, learning and research. But until now, only honors students and those in select programs benefited.

"I see multimedia as a powerful research tool for [students in] the sciences," said earth scientist James Dolan, left, with colleague Charles Sammis. Both are teaching an earthquake course as part of the Multimedia in the Core pilot program. Photo credit: Brian Morri

Getting the academy to accept the language of multimedia as an equal to text has not been easy, Daley said.

“You are asking people to make some pretty radical changes,” she said. “There has been suspicion in the academic community. The academy has embraced the visual. But we’ve been very slow to accept the fact that text, picture and sound constitute the current vernacular.”

Multimedia course instructor Charles Sammis, professor of earth sciences, was initially skeptical.

“I did have reservations,” said Sammis, who has taught geology and earthquake courses at the College for 30 years.

“Learning math and science isn’t easy,” said Sammis, emphasizing the value of working out equations on paper. “It’s hard to have a rigorous science course that’s project oriented. Students miss the experience of quantitative problem solving and the intuition that comes from working with numbers.”

In the end, Sammis realized that multimedia could enhance his course without diluting quantitative content.

“I view it as a skill students can use,” said Sammis, who is among the seasoned faculty participating in the pilot program. “They can become more familiar with ways to present information. It’s motivational, certainly. It’s a way to develop enthusiasm for the sciences.”