Learning and Teaching Through Media Arts

Introduction

Media arts is the newest arts discipline to have emerged over the last century, and in that short time, it has undergone numerous technological and conceptual shifts. Media arts employs the elements of time, space, sound, color, light, and motion and includes the areas of animation, film, video, audio, graphic/digital arts, photography, and interactive media. The discipline offers students excellent ways to engage in project-based learning, creative expression, and critical media analysis. Giving students opportunities to creatively express themselves through media arts opens avenues to explore their identities, add their voice to the dominant discourse, and develop their sense of self, which can be particularly powerful for those who struggle to see themselves equitably represented in twenty-first century culture.

A strong, comprehensive, equitable media arts education should be offered to all young people as a crucial component of a twenty-first century education. Media...