From the 11th to 13th of June, Lancaster University hosted the 8th AVP Conference, led by the Educational Research team under the leadership of Natasa Lackovic, Senior Lecturer in Educational Research. SIME was a partner in the event and several of our members participated in the conference. This was my first time being on the organizing committee of a conference and one of my first times at an educational conference, and I am excited to share my experience with this!

Day 1: First impressions

I will be very honest and admit that I went to this conference not being completely sure what it would be like. I naively thought that it would be about “how people are using videos in their teaching practice” however I was pleasantly surprised to find that this was not the case, and it was instead about the role of visual media and how it can be used to tackle issues in the world. The first day was a little overwhelming trying to get into this mindset, however those who were there were incredibly supportive to help me with this and answer questions I had, however basic they may be. Overall, day one was spent learning about the basics of video pedagogy and appreciating its value in connecting learning with lived experiences.

Day 2 and 3: Getting into the swing of things

After a busy night trying to get a bit more familiar with visual media and its use in teaching, we return for the second and third day of the conference. We learnt about the public pedagogy, and how art and other visual media can be used outside the classroom to encourage lifelong learning. We saw how visual media, arts and general creativity can be used to engage young children with difficult topics and make them care about stuff such as the environment. We also learnt a lot about how visual media can be used to get an understanding of other people’s perspectives and what different visuals can mean to different people and the impact they can have in the local community. The rest of the conference was significantly easier to get into than the first day. It highlighted some challenging issues with visual media (especially with the rise of AI) and how we can use visuals to help with engagement with challenging issues, and its power to communicate ideas.

Some lasting impressions and looking forward

Overall, I would say that this conference was an eye-opening experience about just how important visual media is to our learning and our day-to-day lives From my perspective, it has highlighted the importance of multimodal teaching and its value to the student learning experience. This conference has changed my perspective on the value of visual media and how I will use it in my practice going forward. I have learnt there is much more that I can do than just graphs in economics! More importantly, it was a great opportunity to meet a variety of educators from many different disciplines and learn about their practice and the value of visual media in different fields.

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