Media Arts Education - Learning Amplified

MEDIA ARTS EDUCATION: K12 Arts Education for the 21^st Century

We live in a “media arts” centered world. We know and learn about, and create our contemporary world through media arts tools, forms and processes. Our 21st C global culture has moved from text-based to multimedia-based modes of communication and interaction. Particularly in California, media arts has a long historic and cultural legacy, and accounts for a substantial and increasing portion of our  $375 billion “Creative Economy”.

It is essential that all students become versed in these new modes to become empowered citizens, effective communicators, and to develop innovative solutions to contemporary challenges.

"Media Arts Education" is a relatively new categorization of K12 arts education, alongside of the traditional disciplines of Dance, Music, Theatre, and Visual Arts. It encompasses the digital media arts of imaging, moving image, sound, interactive and virtual design.

Media Arts Students can:

• Produce and design anything they can imagine, including photos, graphics, animations, movies, special effects, motion graphics, video games, 3D designs, virtual worlds, interactive apps, etc.
• Design 3D models of sustainable communities on Mars, complete with agricultural and energy production, and designs for architecture, transportation, tools and clothing
• Investigate the local community for “hotspots” of interest, history, social engagement, or urban and environmental challenge, and then propose transformational designs, investigations and promotions of these hotspots
• Produce videos that present their vision for school change, submitted to their local school board for the (LCFF) district budget decision-making process
• Create 3D game designs addressing a social or environmental issue that exercise every level of mathematics, code, virtual physics, engineering, and game theory, as well as core content
• Design digital and physical 3D models of cities, mega spaces, and everyday objects, such as kitchen utensils and phones, while studying the omni-presence of design
• Analyze and debate presidential election advertising through media literacy methods  
• Exercise their language skills (especially English Language Learners) through producing videos such as news, cooking, travel, stories, talent, social issues, etc., by developing scripts, rehearsing segments, analyzing media, and collaborating in diverse production activities
• Exhibit their productions in “multimedia events” that integrate all arts disciplines for the school and local community, including: video yearbooks, streaming arts and news broadcasts, multimedia theatre, screen exhibitions, film festivals, video and DJ dance experiences, international cultural exchanges, etc.
• Evaluate and design multimedia tools and products for the enhancement and universal access of learning in English, Mathematics, Science, and History

These actual classroom projects demonstrate Media Arts Education’s capacity to:

• Cultivate 21^st Century Skills in Communication, Collaboration, Creativity and Critical Thinking
• Promote student-centered, inquiry-driven learning that is relevant and self-directed
• Engage students in real world activities and problem solving with purposeful results
• Advance core academic and arts achievement through their effective integration in cultural and community projects
• Empower student voice and civic engagement, and foster essential literacies in arts, media and technology
• Support all students towards academic success, including those with special needs, limited language proficiency, and at risk of academic failure

Media Arts Education in these various forms provides rich and rigorous arts content in the instruction of media production and design, and forms a unique space of innovation and invention for 21st C education. A “Media Arts Lab”, incorporating a variety of digital media and design tools and forms, can serve as a virtual “makerspace” within the school, where students can create any expression, production or design they can imagine.  

This virtual laboratory supports integrated and holistic forms of learning that can "dissolve the walls" of classrooms, supporting students to become the researchers, inventors, entrepreneurs, designers and artists of their own futures. By engaging in a broad range of processes and activities in sequenced study, students can master 21st Century and Media Arts Standards-based competencies that prepare them for both college and career:

Multimedia Communication                                Technical Production

Design Thinking                                                      Innovation and Adaptation

Inquiry/Research                                                    Organization/Development

Media, Tech, Arts Literacies                                  Critical Analysis/Evaluation

Self-agency/Community-Interaction                   Contextual Awareness

Synthesis/Metacognition                                      Learning about Learning

Currently, in California, media arts educators do not have specific standards for their instruction, so they have to turn to other sets of standards in order to meet district and school requirements for “standards-based instruction”. Nor do media arts educators have specific pre-service training, program support, or ongoing professional development. Also, media arts courses and teachers may fall under other categories in their districts and programs, such as computer, technical, visual arts, theatre, etc.

In order to move Media Arts Education towards educational establishment, the adoption of standards by the state allows any interested educators to form commonality in practice and outcome. Then, as the discipline gains recognition and support, districts and the state may begin forming specific courses and a credential for authorized instruction. Only with its complete institutional implementation can the promise of Media Arts Education be fulfilled.

Media Arts Education is endorsed by all national arts organizations and their affiliated partners in the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards, and is endorsed by: the National Association of Media Arts and Culture, the National Association of Media Literacy Education, the National Endowment for the Arts, the College Board, and is included as a core content in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). National Core Media Arts Standards are currently being adopted or adapted across the U.S. Media Arts is a key recommendation in the CREATE CA “Blueprint for Creative Schools”.

Media Arts Education is now forming a broad-based community of support of educators, parents, industry and community organizations, etc., seeking to formally establish the discipline in U.S. K12 schools. 
See the Media Arts Education Coalition website for more information.
SIGN-ON HERE TO SUPPORT THE FORMAL ESTABLISHMENT OF MEDIA ARTS EDUCATION IN CALIFORNIA K12 SCHOOLS