Although it is a requisite skill for success in industry, visual literacy in graphics is intimidating to computer science and art students. Computer science majors are uneasy about using their eyes to examine images while art students may not have much background in the technical terminology. This column is the second in a two-part series that discusses an interdisciplinary teaching technique that overcomes these obstacles. Part one was published in
Computer Graphics
34(1) February 2000, pp. 24-26. With this approach students become more familiar with the limits and possibilities of the medium of computer graphics, learn how to analyze and talk about what visual images might mean and develop a deeper understanding of time constraints. In addition, they gain confidence with technological terminology and the idea of suggesting alternative algorithms to create a desired visual "look." As a result both computer science and art students become more able to communicate effectively about and with visual imagery.
CGEMS, the Computer Graphics Educational Materials Source, aims at supporting a worldwide community of Computer Graphics educators. Our goal in developing this service is to provide a means for educators' work to be appraised and disseminated to other members of the community through an online server for refereed educational content. Since it was presented last year at SIGGRAPH in San Diego, CGEMS has evolved into a fullfledged peer-reviewed medium. This paper presents the current state of the server, reports on work developed and dissemination activities, but most importantly describes how and why educators should submit content.
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