MultiMedia Class

This class is designed for students who like art and are interested in applying their artistic and creative skills in a technological environment. Art 1A is a prerequisite. Students will use the elements and principles of art as a design basis for multimedia projects that include clay animation, analog and digital video, web page production, and computer graphics. Students will work both independently and collaboratively in a project based learning situation and will need to be self directed, keeping logs of their progress and writing reflective journals on their learning. Projects will be ongoing, frequently taking more than a month to complete. Grades will be determined on consistent effort, quality and creativity of project, ability to share knowledge with others, timely completion, ability to combine artistic principles and technology, and finally the use of multimedia tools and software applications. Students will be involved in designing the rubrics for the grading process.

Key Concepts for the Class:

All media are Constructions.

They are carefully manufactured constructs with nothing left to chance. They are not, by definition, "real," although they attempt to imitate reality. The success of these manufactured constructs lies in their apparent naturalness.

All media construct Reality.

Although media are not real they can shape our attitudes, behavior and ideas about the world. If we haven't had a first hand experience with a person, place, or thing and yet we know something about it based on media information, then media has created "a picture in our heads" that we may use for future decision making.

Audiences negotiate meaning.

They are not passive entities. We may look passive as we sit motionless in front of a book or a tv, but our minds are working to make sense of the information. An audience tries to make sense of a media message. What is the purpose of the media? How do we involve the audience? Make them laugh? Persuade them? Please them? Impress them? Confuse them? Sell them something?

Aesthetic Forms are closely related to Content.

People derive great pleasure form their use of media, and media literacy skills can heighten that pleasure. A clay animation, video, computer graphic, and web page will benefit from good aesthetic (art) judgement, creative thought, and technical skill.