One of the most important missions of the department of teaching of visual and plastic arts is to introduce trainees to the world of the visual image, audiovisuals and multimedia, and to improve their observational and creative skills.

Until recently the department was formed by a group of teachers who trained future kindergarten and primary school teachers of visual and plastic arts and also carried out research of their own. The group's activities have now broadened to include the area of audiovisual communication, and the department now trains prospective teachers of this new field. The interaction between the two missions has been extremely positive for all concerned.

For many years we have felt that the initial training of primary school teachers should provide an artistic, scientific and pedagogical preparation to enable them to carry out their teaching to the best of their ability inside the school environment. For some time now we have led the campaign to change the existing program into a specialized area of training. This is a goal that we have not yet attained. We feel that the postgraduate courses that the department has been organising since 1992 are well suited to the recycling of kindergarten and primary school teachers in employment and graduates interested in the field, with. In the 1997-98 academic year these postgraduate courses were offered as the UB's first master's program in artistic education.

The in-service seminar in the teaching of plastic arts has been run since 1995, and provides continued training for teachers in employment. The seminar was set up by Marta Balada, who acts as coordinator.

The Interactive Media Laboratory (LMI) was established in 1988, and is run by DR. Antonio Bartolomé. The laboratory is staffed by students and teachers from the department cooperate, as well as from other departments and universities.
At the Laboratory - a place of exchange and interaction between creation,
ideas and technology - new ways of communication in the field of education
are created and produced by trained and motivated teams. It is a centre of
research and development specialised in the design of multimedia and
audiovisual programmes for training and education. Its action field is the
interactive media, the so-called new ICT ('Information and Communication
Technologies').

Members of the department have also carried out research projects which have been reported in specialist journals and presented at conferences and exhibitions.

The department encourages members to attend and symposia related to the two areas; it organises workshops and a range of activities and establishes cooperation with other departments.