Curriculum Issues in Cultural Media Studies dealt with a number of issues that are important to education, particularly in our media saturated world. Because media and how we use, consume, and interact with it is so important to my practice as an educator, I likened it to the martial arts that a Samurai employs which underlies all other combat techniques. We may use the cutting blade of educational theories to achieve our objectives, but it is the body, honed by years of the martial arts of ubiquitous media, that swings the blade. Overextended metaphors aside, ETEC 531 was integral in my understanding of all facets of media that permeate education and the world. 

Artifact #1: Media Production
This video, Art in the Age of Creative Machines, is an exploration of a specific topic and a display of my ability to manipulate media to present my ideas. In it, I discuss how art-producing machines are testing the limits of our definitions of art. I explore the aesthetic, cultural, legal, and educational implications of advanced machines and programs that are making unprecedented strides into the creative landscape.
This media production required significant research and expanded my understanding of the way that media, and our definitions of it, can shape the way we interact with them. As more and more educational experiences are negotiated through media, this understanding will become increasingly relevant. 

Artifact #2: Media Study Guide
This guide is a ready-made activity complete with key concepts, focus questions, curriculum connections, activities, and extended resources. The time-crunched Grade 8 teacher can download this document and conduct an in-depth analysis of how our daily lives impact energy usage and our environment. 
This was my most concentrated foray into graphic design. Like the media production above, this media study guide allowed me to hone my media production skills while employing them for pedagogical outcomes. The result, I believe, is an eye-catching, commercially-viable, educationally sound lesson for high school students. This product is a good example of how games can be used in the classroom. Although the flash game is relatively simple, when guided by the right questions and activities, it becomes a powerful tool of instruction. 

Reflection:
​I did Curriculum Issues in Cultural Media Studies late in my MET program and it further extended my technical abilities. The study guide and media production are my most polished products, at least from a presentation point of view. But as this course taught me, sometimes the aesthetic of a product will affect how we interact with it. This is part of the reason that media literacy is more important than ever. Our student, and every citizen, need to be able to navigate and interpret the barrage of media inputs that have become a part of our daily lives. At the same time, educators can benefit from wielding the powerful educational potential of new media.
 
The topic of media production and manipulation came up frequently in this course. I grappled with the idea of the powerful tool that smartphones represent. A browse through an app store reveals hundreds of tools for taking photos, making videos, recording and producing sound, and editing it all together in an increasingly seamless manner. Contests like the iPhone movie festival exemplify the relatively low-tech threshold that exists for high-end production. Elsewhere, mobile media artists use the stripped down medium of Vine or Snapchat to create amazing content. The ways in which smartphones make media creation accessible is creating an industry for itself. Again the idea of new definitions of literacy arise, while concerns of the technology gap continue to present challenges. 

​ETEC 531 also tackled the prickly topic of using controversial topics. In the past it perhaps sufficed to simply remove the content from schools. That type of facile censorship is unrealistic in today's world. With the ubiquity of access and the unlimited range of content on the internet comes the dangers of inappropriate or malicious material. In light this we need guidance, not gatekeepers. If we are to lead students to fruitful and healthy lives, the content they will encounter must not be ignored. 
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At the end of this course I felt better prepared to approach controversial topics in a meaningful and productive way, I understood the subtle consequences that our choices of media create, and honed my media production skills for use in the classroom and beyond. 

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