About Dr. Michelle Tillander, Associate Professor
Dr. Tillander joined the University of Florida (UF), College of the Arts (COTA) School of Art and Art History (SA&AH) in 2006 as Assistant Professor . Michelle and her colleague, Craig Roland, initiated an online MA in Art Education at the University of Florida in 2010. Her research activities include engaging art education, technology, and culture as integrated processes and approaches to expand art educational technology practice. Tillander published a chapter entitled Digital Visual Culture: The Paradox of the [In]visible in Intersection/Interaction: Digital Visual Culture (Sweeny, 2011) published by the National Art Education Association. She presents at state and national conferences, most recently the 2012 International Conference City Aesthetics in Taiwan. Prior to coming to the University of Florida, Tillander attended Pennsylvania State University where she completed her doctorate in Art Education, which included managing the Zoller Gallery. From 1985 to 1991, Michelle assisted with the implementation of Virginia’s first Governor\’s School for the Arts, a regional program for artistically talented high school students. where she served as Chair of the Visual Arts Department from 1998 to 2002. Michelle also taught and chaired the Old Donation Center for Gifted and Talented, a 3-8th grade art program, from 1991 to 1998.
Research Interests
Dr. Tillander’s research explores digital media technologies and contemporary learning. Teaching and learning have changed as sensory-rich media transforms the infrastructure of connectivity, networking, and dynamic information and alter our consumption and production of visual information. My research in the area of digital media-including the exploration of digital medias’ possibilities and limitations to pedagogy. It acknowledges the emerging vernacular of today’s youth who are ubiquitously engaged with digital media through the writing, thinking, and visual processes of the digital age. Tillander’s scholarship in digital media in art education examines digital media artworks (art and technology), culture (values, beliefs, and assumptions), and everyday experiences (lives of students and teachers) to examine how art works in the 21st century and the importance of the visual arts in understand our place and role in a rapidly changing world.