Virginia Jones
Educational Technology Specialist
Vassar College
Rain Breaw
Multimedia Consultant
Vassar College
Kathleen Kurosman
Educational Technology Librarian
Vassar College
The result of a Mellon Foundation grant for “Librarianship and Teaching with New Media,” the Media Cloisters at Vassar College, is a state-of-the-art multimedia center located in the Vassar College Library. In keeping with the Vassar tradition of teaching by the seminar method and nurturing a community of scholars, the Cloisters provides a place where faculty, students, librarians, and instructional technology specialists can come together to work on curricular projects that utilize a wide range of technologies. The Cloisters also provides a setting for discussion of pedagogical issues related to the use of technology in teaching.
One key to the success of the Cloisters, and also one of its challenges, is its use of a model of collaborative management. The Cloisters is run by three co-curators — an educational technologist, a multimedia consultant, and a librarian — and a faculty director. In addition, a cadre of students with technical and graphic design expertise help faculty with the technical aspects of developing instructional resources. This session will describe both the vision and mission of the Cloisters and some of the experiences we have had in implementing that vision.