IVLA 2026 Charleston: Full Schedule

arrow_back View All Dates

9:00am EDT

Campfire Stories: Seeing, Knowing, and Designing in the Age of AI

Wednesday October 7, 2026 9:00am - 10:00am EDT

This campfire session brings together Learning Designers (LDs), Learning Experience Designers (LXDs), Educational Technology Specialists, and educators to examine how Generative AI (GenAI), in combination with design thinking, can support the development of visually rich, learner-centered educational experiences. Grounded in key theoretical frameworks, including Visual Literacy Theory (Avgerinou & Pettersson, 2011; 2020), Design Thinking (Dam & Siang, 2020), ADDIE (Branch, 2009), and SAMR (Puentedura, 213), the session positions visual literacy as a core epistemic practice through which learners interpret, construct, and communicate meaning in increasingly AI-mediated environments. Participants will explore how GenAI can inform the design of learning scenarios that are not only engaging and effective, but also critically attuned to the role of visual and multimodal representations in knowledge construction. Emphasis is placed on both the interpretation and production of visuals, as well as on the affordances and limitations of AI-supported design processes. Through collaborative ideation, virtual prototyping, and critical reflection, participants will be encouraged to develop practical, visually grounded learning designs that foster engagement, creativity, and deeper conceptual understanding.

Campfire Session Goals

1. Conceptual Understanding

Recognize visual literacy as an epistemic practice in AI-mediated learning environments
Understand how GenAI intersects with visual literacy, learning design, and design thinking

2. Critical Awareness

Examine the role of AI-generated visuals in shaping meaning, interpretation, and knowledge construction
Critically reflect on issues of accuracy, bias, and pedagogical value in AI-supported visual representations

3. Design-Oriented Thinking

Explore how design thinking processes can inform the integration of visual literacy into learning design
Identify opportunities for using GenAI to support multimodal and visually grounded learning experiences

4. Collaborative Knowledge Building (Campfire Core)

Contribute experiences, examples, and challenges related to using visuals and/or AI in teaching and design
Engage in dialogue and idea exchange to co-develop approaches for integrating visual literacy in practice

5. Practical Takeaways

Articulate at least one actionable idea or design direction for incorporating visual literacy and GenAI into their own context

Speakers

Maria D. Avgerinou

Faculty and Director- MA in Learning Design and Technology, The American University of Greece- Global Campus

Dr. Avgerinou is the Program Director for the MA in Learning Design and Technology at the American University of Greece- Global Campus. She holds an MA and PhD in Education from the University of Bath (UK) and has over 25 years of experience as a certified online educator and academic... Read More →

Vassilia Stefanou

Associate Professor, The American University of Greece- Global Campus

With over 25 years of teaching experience, Dr. Stefanou is a seasoned educator and researcher whose work spans multiple interdisciplinary domains. Her primary research interests include Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), User Experience (UX), Interaction Design, Learning Experience... Read More →

Wednesday October 7, 2026 9:00am - 10:00am EDT
Circular Church

Campfire

9:00am EDT

Mapping What We Have: Community Asset Mapping as Visual Literacy and Place-Based Practice

Wednesday October 7, 2026 9:00am - 10:00am EDT

Studio

What does it mean to truly see the resources within a community? This session examines community asset mapping as a visual literacy practice, one that makes tangible the often-invisible networks of support that exist within places and communities.

Drawing on two distinct contexts, this presentation examines how the act of physically mapping community assets transforms the way people understand and engage with their environments. The first is a North Carolina statewide digital inclusion initiative, in which a public-facing tech resource finder enables residents to search for free wi-fi, computer access, and digital literacy training by location and resource type—transforming an abstract service landscape into a searchable, visual map. The second involves preservice teachers in a scholarship program designed to prepare future educators for high-needs districts in eastern North Carolina. As part of their preparation, teacher candidates research and map community assets in their future student teaching districts; they also collaboratively mapped their own university campus—identifying support offices, study spaces, dining spots, and more. The collaborative mapping process proved especially powerful: it helped candidates articulate what they already knew about their campus, sparked discussion around newly shared discoveries, and encouraged more intentional exploration of their environment.

Both cases illustrate how visual representation activates an asset-based mindset, helping users recognize resources they might otherwise overlook. In dialogue with the conference theme, Seeing Through Time, this session positions asset maps as place-bound mnemonic images, representations that encode community knowledge, reflect the positionality of their makers, and shape how groups understand and narrate their own resources.

Following a brief presentation, participants will engage in a hands-on mapping activity, creating a visual representation of their own support networks and reflecting on the power of asset-based, place-centered seeing.

Speakers

Samantha Duke

Doctoral Student, North Carolina State University

Samantha Duke is a Ph.D. candidate in Teacher Education and Learning Sciences: Literacy and English Language Arts Education at North Carolina State University. She studies preservice teacher preparation and support and aims to create spaces of belonging in which students are empowered... Read More →

Wednesday October 7, 2026 9:00am - 10:00am EDT
Studio

Campfire

9:00am EDT

The Memory Body: Where Awe, Symbolism, and the Body Meet in the Work of Healing-Centered Education

Wednesday October 7, 2026 9:00am - 10:00am EDT

Lecture Hall

What if images don't just represent memory? What if the body remembers through them?
This session introduces the concept of the "memory body": the proposition that visual symbols encountered in landscapes, natural environments, and daily life activate not only cognitive memory but somatic, emotional, and energetic memory and that this insight has direct implications for how we understand and sustain the well-being of educators and caregivers.

The presentation synthesizes two bodies of work previously presented at IVLA 2025: a self-study of emblematic symbolism using a Symbolic Field Guide methodology rooted in awe, nature-based encounter, and reflective journaling; and mixed-methods research on energy healing's impact on emotional resilience and nervous system regulation in caregiving professionals. Across both studies, an identical transformation arc emerged — Curiosity → Sensation → Reflection → Clarity → Renewal — revealing that visual encounter and embodied practice share the same living rhythm of meaning-making.

Grounded in scholarship on awe (Keltner, 2023), archetype (Campbell, 1949), and nature symbolism (Andrews, 1993/2021), and informed by participant narratives describing warmth, imagery, emotional release, and somatic recalibration, this session argues that visual literacy must expand to include the body as a site of memory rooted in place. A feather found on a trail, light through trees, a recurring pattern in a landscape. These are mnemonic anchors carrying forward personal narrative and embodied knowledge that the body knows before the mind names.

From this ground, the session pivots to practice, introducing the emerging shape of a healing-centered professional development framework for educators integrating visual journaling, symbolic encounter, awe practices, and somatic grounding. Participants engage in a brief dual-lens exercise (visual analysis + somatic practices) using a prototype reflection prompt, experiencing the "memory body" in real time and leaving with a tool they can adapt for their own practice.

Speakers

Dr. Karen F. Tardrew

Professor, Chair of Learning Sciences in Education, National Louis University

Dr. Karen F. Tardrew is a tenured Professor and Chair of Learning Sciences in Education at National Louis University, where she has served for over 33 years as a scholar, leader, and innovator in educator development. Her teaching and research explore the intersections of visual... Read More →

Wednesday October 7, 2026 9:00am - 10:00am EDT
Lecture Hall

Campfire