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Largest-ever gathering of visual literacy professionals held at Penn State
Robert E. Griffin, instructional specialist with The Mary Jean and Frank P. Smeal College of Business Administration at Penn State, co-chaired the 29th annual conference of the International Visual Literacy Association held at Penn State. Dr. Ladislaus Semali, assistant professor of education at Penn State, co-chaired the International Visual Literacy Association conference. Dr. Shirley S. Hendrick, associate dean for continuing and distance education in The Smeal College, welcomes participants to the International Visual Literacy Association conference. Richard Couch, president of the International Visual Literacy Association, says the association’s 1997 conference was the largest since its founding in 1968.	The International Visual Literacy Association (IVLA) held its largest annual conference in history at Penn State in the fall, attracting more than 150 participants from around the world to The Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel.   “This conference is a terrific model for all of us on how to plan such an event,” Richard Couch, IVLA president, said. “We received 144 proposals for papers, the most we have ever received, and the number of IVLA members presenting papers (129) is the largest since we began holding conferences in 1968.”   Couch added that presenters’ technology needs for the conference also were greater than usual, illustrating the advances made in this field in the last few years. Presenters asked for 49 Macintosh computers, 19 personal computers, 32 slide projectors, 36 television/VCR units and four Internet connections. He praised Penn State’s Conferences and Institutes staff for accommodating presenters’ technology requests.   The theme of the 29th annual IVLA conference was Connecting with the Community: Exploring Resources for Visual Learning and Expression. Penn State’s Mary Jean and Frank P. Smeal College of Business Administration and the College of Education sponsored the event.   Past venues have spanned the whole country, including Cheyenne, Wyo., Tempe, Ariz., and Rochester, N.Y., to name a few. In 1998, IVLA will convene at Athens, Ga. Typically at IVLA annual meetings, members demonstrate state-of-the-art and emerging technologies in industrial and academic settings and explore ways educators can help students understand how visuals are used to communicate effectively in a variety of situations.   IVLA, incorporated in 1968, is a nonprofit association providing a multidisciplinary forum for the exploration, presentation and discussion of all aspects of visual communication and their applications through visual images, visual literacy and literacies in general. Association members include fine and graphic artists, photographers, researchers, scientists, filmmakers, TV producers, graphic and computer-graphic designers, educators, print and electronic journalists, visual anthropologists, photojournalists, educational technologists, visual studies professionals, teachers, school administrators, business communication personnel and phototherapists.   Dr. Shirley S. Hendrick, associate dean for continuing and distance education in The Smeal College, welcomed IVLA members to Penn State and invited them to exchange ideas and build networks with colleagues.   Robert E. Griffin, instructional specialist in The Smeal College, and Dr. Ladislaus Semali, assistant professor of education in the College of Education, co-chaired the conference. They conceived the idea for hosting the annual IVLA conference and worked with Conferences and Institutes to plan the event.   With the success of its 1997 conference, IVLA has committed to returning to Penn State for its 2000 conference, Griffin noted. an outreach program of the college of Education and The Mary Jean and Frank P. Smeal College of Business Administration