Pixeled Multimedia Teachers Association

I've had quite a bit of interest from the teachers in ATOM in the workshops that are running over the next few months on interactive digital comics and creating Manga in Flash. There is a crossover between the two subjects of Media and Multimedia that could be beneficial for the teaching of both areas. Whereas Media focuses quite a bit on theory to the detriment of the subject at year 11 and 12 because I think they don't need to learn half that stuff till they go to University. Topics like Media Influence and Representations are really interesting but I found a lot of students struggled with any sort of intellecutal evaluation that was required. Whereas in Multimedia they tend to struggle with the topics like Components of Multimedia, not because its hard but because it is a bit boring and something they really don't need to know at this level. However, it will be interesting to see how much more crossover happens in these two subjects, particularly since many students also want to make comics as their final product in Media 3/4 and students in Multimedia do animation which could also be used in Media.

It does worry me though that because we all tend to have multiple degrees in subjects that we are more educated that teachers of previous generations and thus are expecting too much. By this I mean, students who are only 16 or 17 years old are required to have knowledge that really was the domain of Media courses at Uni when you were 19 or 20 and have more ability for conceptual and analytical thinking. What we should be doing for high school students is giving them lots of practical work to do so that they can go and experiment with filmaking or multimedia and then make a decision whether they wish to pursue more theoretical based studies at a later date. However, even VET, a practical subject has had more theoretical components snuck into it and kids have to cope with this stuff too soon. What do other people think?