WHY?

Students of Media Arts can:

• Produce and design anything they can imagine, including photos, graphics, animations, movies, documentaries, news broadcasts, special effects, motion graphics, video games, 3D designs, virtual worlds, interactive apps, multimedia presentations, transmedia promotions, intercultural exchanges, 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 (particularly 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 real world production activities

• Exhibit their productions in “multimedia events” that integrate all arts disciplines for the school and local community, including: digital 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 apps for the enhancement and universal access of learning

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 integration in cultural and community projects

• Empower student voice and civic engagement.

• Foster essential literacies in media, arts and technology to develop critical thinking about media messages and the use of 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 a unique space for 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.

Students of Media Arts can master 21st Century and 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

Media Arts Standards-based 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, Americans for the Arts, and 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”, called for by California’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tom Torlakson.

Media Arts Education needs the strong and continued support of a broad-based community to become established in California K12 schools. Please go to the SUPPORT page to add your name to the effort!