Interview with Joe Parente- Contractor with Sacramento County Office of Education and Professor of Communications at CSU, former San Juan District Media Specialist.

Paul (PM) I call the field digital media arts. Is that a good phrase to use?

(JP) Oh yes, it's the only one that makes sense. We have to get used to the term because we must look at communication as an art in the sense of vocational art. The funny thing is that when we call the field digital technology or new technology everyone focuses on the hardware or platforms. It's not about technology.

(P) You seem adamant on that point.

(JP) Oh I am. The thing is you can look at media technology at any given moment and all you really know for sure is that technology will not be in vogue ten years from now.

(P) Do you mean to say film and video will not be around?

(JP) No, film and video as we know it will not be around. The point is when we had this fantastic state of the art facility in the early nineties at San Juan; we all thought this is the real deal. Funny thing is that by digitizing everything the technology changes. The point I am making is the technology is just a tool; it's like a paintbrush. We don't characterize visual art by saying that it is made by brushes. Art is art. Good art is good art.

(P) What are the big changes you think schools should deal with?

(JP) Well first, I would say you can tell how serious a system is about technology by seeing what technology the "grown-ups" are using. Our generation and those say a decade or two younger are not digital natives. We are transplants. We don't necessarily think digitally. So, when you ask what should schools do the first thing is to use the technology that is available to them. That means have teachers get blackberries, and I-pods and Mac books. Most teachers in secondary school could use more technology than they do. Science, social science, art.

(P) Even language arts.

(JP) Yeah even language arts. What I see however is that assignments, projects, lessons, accountability measures, all use analog based stuff. The kids don't do as well as they might because for them the world is digital. For example, I use the I-pod all the time as a means to keep in touch with my students and for measuring their progress.

(P) How so?

(JP) I will design a lesson that might be a video piece or other project and then I put it on the web as a pod-cast. They download the material on their I-pod. I can also send them video assignments that can be done. Then they put them on the web for the class to see.

(P) How do they do that?

(JP) They could use a web site, my class web site or they can use You-Tube.

(P) Wow.

(JP) Yeah, why not? The class can use You-tube as a learning center. They don't have to muck around in all the trivial stuff, they can use their I-pod to get the assignment, go to You-tube watch a film. In some cases I can put up a video to work on and they can download the film and use whatever software to redesign or modify the work. I might say how can you make this better?

(P) Okay I can hear a lot of educators already getting their hackles up. They might say "It sounds like you are confusing entertainment with education."

(JP) I know, I know. But here's the thing, the kids know how to use I-pods and web-cast and pro-tools for sound or final cut pro for film. They can do anything we could do in the fancy studio with a good computer and access to the right tools. It is the responsibility of educators to be conversant in all of these tools and use them. If they do the kids will do great work. The tools can be used anyway we ask that they be used. If the only thing kids get exposed to is Myspace then will waste their time on that.

(P) Is that what we should be doing? Getting kids to use tools Better?

(JP) Sure. The world today is all about communications, the jobs are in digital media, that's why I like the phrase you started with digital media because that's what the students need to be conversant in, moving information around.

(P) The "knowledge revolution"

(JP) That's right. The best jobs in the coming years will be all about information and knowledge, organizing it, collecting it, interpreting it, jointly solving problems, disseminating it. Think about what the world will be like in ten years. Google opens a whole world of information to everyone, and we can get overwhelmed if we don't know how to access, use or discard information. And the mode of the information will not be paper documents, it will all digitized. It will be animated, or in digital sound. The next few years will see a revolutuion in sound, there will be interviews on pod-casts. The teachers of the world might actually be coming out of industry. Students might be able to get access to the best minds directly through the web.

(P) So what should schools be doing?

(JP) First they should spend money wisely. They need to use mobile technology. Think of the future phone as a video, photo camera, web access device as well as communications. If you can use a phone to broadcast simple streaming video then you can ask students to consider ideas and concepts through that means. Think of the Blackberry, PDAs or MIT (mobile information technology) as an editor, mixer, and distribution center not just a fancy calendar.

Second, the administrators ought to lead by example, that means the superintendent and principals should use the technology to deliver their message. Instead of ponderous in-service, they should use smaller even weekly pod-cast and web-casts to keep information flowing. The leaders ought to set the standard. They should demand that teachers use technology to gather information or evaluate progress.

(P) Sounds a little like portfolio assessment.

(JP) Yes, that's because the work of the future has to be in the use of information. I mean in the past the students were expected to memorize facts. Okay, but the human brain is a better synthesizer of information than memory storage unit. The computer can do that for you. Having information will not be enough. Everyone will have information. A student in 9th grade today has access to as much information instantly as graduate students had in more laborious ways twenty years ago. If you know how to evaluate information and understand relevance of it you have knowledge. Knowledge is the coin of the realm, not information. The smartest person in the world will never be as good as Google in terms of accessing facts.

Third the curriculum of all content areas should utilize digital media arts. In one sense digital media arts is the core of all curriculum. Those people who master it will succeed and those that don't will fail to reach their potential.

Fourth, we should always remember that whenever we tell a story we are using esthetic principles. The better you get aesthetic principles the better the story will be and the bigger the impact will be. So, art is absolutely essential for education. Everything is about design or story telling. How will companies market in the future? Well we know. The Blackberry you have will have global positioning and through your use of the web, marketers will be able to say, hey it's 11 AM have you had your coffee? Did you know there is a coffee shop fifty feet from where you are? No one will be able to market effectively if they do not know how to use aesthetics. Now those are pedestrian uses. But everything from selling cars to houses will depend on your ability to use art. If there is a business selling experiences, let's say vacations then you will have to know how to make the buyer feel the experience. The people who do that well will succeed.

There are more advanced uses that are even more important like the use of the internet to have doctors actually perform surgery through robots and the very least through consultation. Medical charting will all be digital. Designing buildings will be done using digital models. Presentations will include sound or video from experts that are available on the web and you need only cut-and-paste. These are just the uses we can conceive of today. And of course there is media and entertainment. There is the whole new world of virtual life.

(P) Tell me more.

(JP)Well, there are these virtual worlds that are as real as real life. You can even start a virtual business, build buildings, make money, in short have a life.

(P) Is that just for entertainment?

(JP) No, not really, sure it's fun and people spend a lot of time in virtual world but companies are now using virtual life to design and try out marketing schemes, new products.

(P) Yeah, I saw an article which was called something like "Second Life, Training Wheels for Corporate America."

(JP) Right. Well, who is going to teach you about making and designed these models? Why shouldn't students learn how to do that in school? I mean learn really well using sound aesthetic principles.

(P) What other interesting stuff is around the corner?

(JP) I am working on a project called Matrix. I encourage you to go to the site at www.matrixlearning.org. The project is an offshoot of the STARS project. Essentially, this is a project that uses games to teach kids middle school mathematics. Things like proportion, ratios, etc. The whole idea is based on the school being a twelve-hour virtual place rather than a six-hour per day place. The project will use after-school time to get kids interested in using game technology, which they are good at to teach them difficult math ideas.

(P) That's interesting, I thing we should say a little about extended school days.

(JP) Yes, right. Perhaps the biggest thing about the use of digital media arts is that we can extend the learning day, even learning years, I could go on about life-long learning. The point is why be bound by the limitations of space when we have all the virtual space and classes we want. We have not talked about distance learning, but that really is what we should focus on because that's where all learning is headed, from content training, to in-service training. So, you can see where I am going. If the schools do well in developing digital learning and literacy then the student can go anywhere. The student will be gaining valuable marketable skills.

By the way this does not mean a lessening of rigor. You can keep high standards in virtual learning.

I will leave you with this. In the pursuit of happiness, people are going more and more toward virtual interactions. There are whole communities they grow in hyperspace. I work with some. Some of my friends from New Mexico in the Matrix project have designed a whole community, built buildings, sold things we made and marketed in a virtual life. How valuable would it be if we could teach kids life lessons in a virtual life, things like good work habits, creativity, showing up, being polite, working in teams. If we could develop these tools using digital media technology we will be doing our jobs.