Debating media arts
Rich Wells and Marcia McCaffrey
My colleague from NH, Marcia McCaffrey, is co-chairing the National Core Arts Standards work and today she did a marvelous job facilitating the conversation. With representatives from NAEA, NAfME, the dance, theater, and college board, along with my colleagues from 28 states a great deal was accomplished. Marcia was a master at keeping the day moving and it was a fascinating day. (Talk about trusting the process!)
Part of the morning was spent in debate about whether we should have “media arts” as a separate discipline or have media arts standards incorporated in the other 4 arts disciplines. Thanks to all of you who contributed your opinion on the topic.
Here’s a bit of the conversation which you can also follow, listen to on what was streamed from the all-day meeting today.You can access the archived stream at http://nccas.wikispaces.com/NCCAS+Phoenix+Meeting+11-1-2011. The presentations for the debate were well researched and in the end the state arts specialists had two votes. One for the state and the other for us personally. 32 voites were in favorite of a 5th and separate discipline along with standards for media arts embedded in the other four disciplines.
Jane’s opening statement
- it is premature to include media arts as a 5th discipline
- what is media arts, it needs to be defined – what’s constitute media arts in K12
- what makes it different – why not write them into the 4 disciplines
- media arts can write their own and then the 4 others can embed them into
- first and foremost needs to be taught from an arts aesthetic and not from the tools
- we’re already struggling with art and music to keep them in place in schools, let alone dance and theater
We w0uld have to deal with the following:
- licensure
- professional development systems
- support
- curriculum and assessments
- HQT
Amy’s opening statement
- when I started teaching I was deeply influenced by the national standards (that were just released) and the forward thinking of the writers
- 1895 – Lemure Brothers, film was presented of the train coming down the track. people ran out of the theater. The same thing was happening to my family this morning. Age 10, daughter, reading email, other daughter reading a book on line, husband reading his email, dog has a gps. They have the media but we need to provide students with opportunities to create and innovate. Americans view 60 films a year, tv, online, email combined – 4 months out of our year. It is shaping our lives, our cultures, our society. multi-disciplinary art form.
Need to look at two components:
time based media – movies, animation, theater, etc.
interactivity – video games, computational arts, etc.
- students can produce works of art that students need to have the opportunity to fully flesh out stand alone standards. Media arts – artform with expression, different than the other artform
- kids are already doing it so they need support systems to mirror what they are doing in their world
- have conversation in their global society
Mike’s opening statement
- Media arts need to be part of it.
- Narrow the definition – so we can get a handle on it. show what is necessary, to separate from the other arts. electronic arts intermix – leading resource – preservation of media arts
- Film institute from Great Brittain – media education in 1986, created a document – films, video, and television. came out with a bluepring for teaching and learning in the moving image – NYC. 5 strands
One important point: We can not have a media arts program in place and have them be in service to the other four disciplines – cross disciplinary works better for teachers!
So, there you have it in a nutshell from what I recorded. What’s next? The leadership team who is the governing group of the work, will make the final decision. I will keep you posted.
me arts ed 