MEDIA ARTS CAN MAKE EDUCATION MULTIMODAL!

Dain Olsen

President & CEO, NAMAE

Author: "Media Arts Education: 

Multimodal Cognition, Holistic Learning, and the Techno-Embodiement of Education" 

Publisher: Routledge (forthcoming)

Human cognition Is Multimodal

Not ‘text-based’!

Sound familiar?

 

That’s because AI is now ‘multimodal’, and moving beyond text-based!

AI is now trained on media arts: images, text, video, speech, graphics, sound, etc.

'Multimodality' has caused a quantum leap in AI’s ability to mimic human thinking,

Resulting in greater capacities for empathy, generative multimedia, and generalizing intelligence.

 

Similar to the 'old' AI, our educational system is text and language-based, not multimodal.

Students learn indirectly, through the code of academic language, and book study,

Which makes the learning less interesting and engaging, and more abstract and hard to understand.

Because our cognition is multimodal, all students learn better through multimodality.

Media Arts Education (MAE)

Is highly multimodal, multisensory,  direct, interactive, and embodied

Across all of these forms: photo, video, sound, animation, graphics, web design, social media, 3D design,

AI supported, game design, e-journalism, interactive and virtual design

Which makes MAE creatively unlimited!

Students can produce, construct, and design anything imaginable!

Furthermore, MAE is 'transparent' to all contents, across both arts and academics.

Which means, MAE can use these forms to translate, represent, 

and simulate text-based content in multimodal projects

Therefore, MAE can make all learning more multimodal, engaging, 

interactive, and understandable!

APPLIED TO MATHEMATICS, STUDENTS OF MAE CAN PRODUCE:

photos of math in the world: clock, sign, schedule, geometric shapes, money, etc.

Graphic designs for sales showing discounts

Cooking shows, measuring ingredients

Short dramatic videos enacting word problems

Digital game designs that exercise mathematics skills

Stock market analysis webcasts with percentages, graphs 

and analysis using algebra

3D physics animations using algebra to explain and predict angles of a thrown ball

3D bridge designs and engineering using geometry and calculus

3D animations showing space travel simulations of trajectories 

using calculus and trigonometry

Algebra and calculus in programming algorithms and UI design for app design

TRANSDISCIPLINARY EXAMPLES:

Video game designs that exercise programming, mathematics, design thinking, engineering, marketing, etc.

Interactive 3D animated models that exhibit 

understanding of scientific or historical concepts

Interdisciplinary projects that combine all arts and academic disciplines 

in live and multimedia presentations

This leads to a new MAE-centered model of education, 

which is more 21st century, student-centered, effective, engaging, flexible, and inclusive.