Digital images in education: an overview
| Date | 01 September 2002 |
| Pages | 2-4 |
| Published date | 01 September 2002 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/03055720210734795 |
| Author | Paul Sandford |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
Digital images in
education: an
overview
by Paul Sandford, Faculty of the Built
Environment, South Bank University
Introduction
The themed papers in this issue of VINE focus on
studies relevant to the use of digital images in
education. They take forward the theme of VINE,
No. 107 (1997) ``Digital images in libraries,'' this
time with a more specific focus on learning and
teaching. With the growing use of Virtual
Learning Environments (VLEs) in higher and
further education and the growth of distance and
lifelong learning, educators are increasingly
seeking to make effective and pedagogically
sound use of multimedia resources online. Some
disciplines such as medical science, geology and
geography, and art and design are traditionally
image-rich; in other disciplines intensive usage
of images is new. In both cases digital images and
image databases give educators new opportunities
to enhance thestudent experience.The cost in staff
time and resources required to create online
teaching materials has resulted in slower progress
than anticipated. However, these papers show the
value of overcoming the obstacles, and help to
shed light on some solutions.
As the papers amply illustrate, the range of
learning objectives that can be supported using
images is very wide: they can do a lot more than
simply enliven presentations. Nevertheless there
are a rather large number of technical issues that
have to be overcome first, in particular during the
digitisation process, and this short introduction will
concentrate on presenting these issues briefly, with
guidance on where to seek support in their solution.
Digital imaging issues
In digitising images and then designing image-
rich course material, practitioners have to
confront a plethora of issues:
.Funding a digitisation project ... how
to attract the appropriate level of funding
(http://ahds.ac.uk/britain.pdf)
.Project management ... matching
resources to the scale of the task (http://
www.tasi.ac.uk/advice/managing/
manage.html, http://heds.herts.ac.uk/
resources/papers/
Planning_HEDS_JUGL.pdf)
.Digital imaging costs ... a major
consideration (http://www.rlg.org/preserv/
diginews/diginews3-5.html#feature)
.Software and hardware ... to buy or
not to buy? (http://www.tasi.ac.uk/
advice/creating/hwandsw.html)
.Outsource or insource digitisation ...
one-off or ongoing requirement? (http://
litc.sbu.ac.uk/imaging/
HCSOutsourceOrInsource.ppt)
.Selection criteria and preparation ...
whose responsibility? (http://
www.library.cornell.edu/preservation/
tutorial/selection/selection-03.html)
.Workflow in digitisation ... avoiding
expensive hold-ups? (http://www.rlg.org/
visguides/visguide1.html#4.3)
.Formats and file management ... is
``proprietary'' a dirty word? (http://
www.tasi.ac.uk/advice/creating/
fformat.html)
.Copyright ... are embedded images in
text a problem? ± and a host of other
complex issues. (http://www.hud.ac.uk/
tlc/e-copyright/22.htm)
.Standards ... which are the relevant
standards, what is the appropriate level
of compliance? (http://www.tasi.ac.uk/
advice/managing/jidi_model.html#jm6)
.Image database ... necessary to manage
resources? (http://litc.sbu.ac.uk/imaging/
SnipeiBaseSettingupaDatabase.ppt)
.Cataloguing and indexing ... is there a
retrieval requirement for multilevel
metadata associated with images? (http://
www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/inside/
projects/diap/paper.html)
#MCB UP Limited, ISSN 0305-5728
2 Ð VINE, Volume 32 Number 3 2002, Issue 128
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