Digital Image Interview Series (November 2006)
Ann C. Burke, Associate Professor of Biology, Wesleyan University

Ann Burke teaches evolutionary and developmental biology at Wesleyan University. Her image-intensive classes now also use animations and she looks forward to using 3-D images in the near-future. In 2005, she developed, with the Wesleyan University Learning Object Studio, an animation of the Body Wall Formation of the Chick Embryo, which has provided a useful link between her teaching and research.

Academic Commons: What would you say the chief impact has been in using digital images?
Burke: Because what I teach (anatomy, embryology, evolution) is extremely visual, I have always used a lot of images. Searching for images on the web, mostly using Google Images, really has changed things for me. Things that I wouldn't have done before because it was too much work, like digging out the exact picture I thought I wanted from the library but then might not use, is now no problem. Literally you can sit and Google just about anything you want and come up with an image and import it into PowerPoint and that's a tremendous boon. I used to have big books of slides accumulated at great expense of time and money and now they're in the closet. So I don't know whether it fundamentally changes anything, but it just makes it much easier, so I can do more.