Program Outline

The Media Communication Arts Program is intended to teach students media literacy skills using the fourth stage of media literacy, Create (where students create their own media). It is hoped that throughout the program students will learn and be engaged in the first three stages of media literacy as well: Learning to Access the media, critically Analyse media and Evaluate media.

 
 

Secondary I - Media Arts Exploration

In Year 1, students will experiment in each of the four areas in which they will focus on the four years to come: Graphic Arts, Web Design Arts, Print/Audio Arts Production, and Video Arts Production. Software they will use will include:
 
  • Adobe Photoshop Elements
  • Microsoft Publisher
  • Audacity Digital Audio Editor
  • Windows Movie Maker
 

Secondary II - Graphic Arts

In Year 2, students will focus on Graphic Design Arts.

Graphic design is a creative process that combines art and technology to communicate ideas. The designer works with a variety of communication tools in order to convey a message from a client to a particular audience. The main tools are image and typography. (From AIGA Career Guide).

The software students will focus on this year will be Adobe Photoshop CS2. This software is an industry standard with a steep learning curve. There are many different facets to learn which will take up most of the year. Students will learn to manipulate images and typography to create their own messages.
 
 

Secondary III - Web Design Arts

In Year 3, students will make use of their prior Graphic Arts knowledge and expand into Web Design Arts. Students will learn the basis of Web Design language which is HTML coding. They will design using this as well as the following software:
 
 
  • Microsoft Publisher
  • Dreamweaver
  • Adobe Flash (Lite)
  • Ulead Gif Animator
 

Secondary IV - Print/Audio Arts Production

In Year 4, students will expand into both Print and Audio Production.

For Print Production, they will expand on their Graphic Arts knowledge and learn layout and written composition for different formats, i.e. pamphlet, newspaper, magazine, etc. They will make use of different software including: Microsoft Word and Publisher as well as Adobe InDesign.

For Audio Production, students will learn a different medium. They will learn skills such as scriptwriting, announcing, marketing, as well as digital audio editing. The software they will us will include: Audacity Digital Audio Editor and Adobe Audition 3.
 
   

Secondary V - Video Arts Production

In Year 5, students will make use of much of their previous learning and focus on Video Production. The skills they will learn include:
 
  • scriptwriting
  • storyboarding
  • camera techniques
  • lighting techniques
  • chromakey filming
  • digital as well as HD digital video editing
  • DVD layout and production
Students will learn video editing using Pinnacle Video Studio and Avid Express Pro.
   

Student Selection

Selection for the program is based on student requests. It is the goal of the program to interest a varied cross-section of the student population whatever their needs. For this reason, there are no entrance requirements, such as exams. We believe that students who find a passion in a certain subject, will be motivated to come to school and do well in other subjects as well.

Students in Cycle One who choose Visual Arts as their art option will be introduced to Media Arts Exploration as part of Visual Arts in accordance with the competencies.

In Secondary 3, students in the Applied Science Pathway will take POP and Media as their options, 2 credits for each. Students in the General Science Pathway can choose Media as a 4 credit option.

In Secondary 4, students will have the opportunity to explore media through music in an option course exploring the history of hip hop and other contemporary music. This is a pilot course to ascertain how we can successfully combine music and media.

In Secondary 5, there is a Media option in place already. We are exploring the addition of other media options in Secondary 5 such as journalism, script writing and more film production in 2009-10.

In accordance with MELS competencies in cycle one, students who take Visual Arts as their art option will be introduced to media techniques as they pertain to art and to the competencies.

Media is an incentive for cycle teams when planning broad areas of learning and cross-curricular competencies.