NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
for
MEDIA ARTS EDUCATION
Embedded Files
Course Description: Teaching Multimedia 101
June 22 - 26, 2026
Explore and Master the Exciting and Dynamic Discipline of Digital Media Arts!
Photo - Imaging - Graphics - Animation - Sound - Video - Code - AI
Step into the dynamic world of media arts with this fast-paced, hands-on course designed for middle and high school educators across subject areas and experience levels. Master engaging, project-based approaches that center student voice, media literacy, and real-world relevance. Whether you are a beginner or veteran in multimedia production, you will gain inspiration, ideas, skills and resources to expand your practice.
Led by a master media arts educator, artist, and author with over 40 years of classroom experience and higher education instruction, this course provides a full year of standards-aligned lessons, projects, and instructional resources. Educators learn effective strategies for teaching concept sketching, storytelling, and iterative design; strengthening composition, multimedia integration, and aesthetic expression; and supporting students in analyzing media critically to refine their work and become empowered producers.
The course addresses pedagogy, curriculum, and program development, including unit sequencing to build proficiency, assessment strategies, classroom management, and informed decisions around facilities, equipment, and programming. Participants explore practical ways to sustain engagement and momentum throughout the school year while supporting diverse learners.
Interdisciplinary connections are considered across all subjects, STEM, computer science, and the arts, as well as reinforcing transferable skills such as creative problem-solving, communication, and design thinking.
Ideal for educators launching or expanding media arts offerings, this course empowers teachers to cultivate creativity, integrate emerging technologies effectively, and design inclusive, future-ready learning experiences aligned with Pathfinders’ commitment to innovation and impact.
Daily Schedule:
Afternoons: Synchronous Daily Sessions via Zoom - 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET
Mornings: Independent Work and Support Time - 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. ET
Evenings: Independent Work and Support Time - by APPOINTMENT
Sign-up NOW for Registration Alerts and Ongoing Course Information
Enrollees will receive information to sign-up at Pathfinders Online Institute in early March.
This course is entirely free, including all resources, for Public Gr. 6 - 12 teachers!
The course will consist of lessons and units across multimedia forms that can be integrated into any subject area gr. 6- 12 classroom,
or serve for a self-standing media arts course.
Space Suits in Progress: Sewable Electronics!
40-hour Professional Development - FREE Materials!
July 20 - 24, 2026
Daily Schedule:
Afternoons: Synchronous Daily Sessions via Zoom - 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET
Mornings: Independent Work and Support Time - 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. ET
Evenings: Independent Work and Support Time - by APPOINTMENT
Facilitator:
Barbara Liedahl, BJLfeltclaymaker LLC
Course Description
Discover the Intersection of Fashion, Technology, and Space Exploration!
Did you know every astronaut's space suit combines sewing with cutting-edge technology? These incredible suits—designed for lunar missions, spacewalks, and beyond—combine the art of sewing, fashion, and textile design with electrical engineering, coding, and hardware skills. In this immersive 40-hour course, you'll explore the exciting world of sewable electronics and unlock endless possibilities for creating e-textiles, smart garments, and innovative fashion designs.
E-textiles are revolutionizing space exploration! They’re lightweight, flexible, and perfect for integrating technology and sensors into space suits and gear to monitor astronauts’ health and performance. From designing personalized mission patches that symbolize crew unity to creating programmable, wearable tech, e-textiles open the door to limitless innovation. You’ll see firsthand how these skills can empower students to dream big and invent solutions for the future of technology and exploration.
This course dives deep into the history of NASA’s space suits and the talented seamstresses who created them. You’ll design your own mission patch inspired by NASA’s iconic designs and learn hands-on how to integrate technology using Adafruit’s Circuit Playground Express. This powerful, beginner-friendly microcontroller is packed with features like built-in sensors, RGB NeoPixels, and compatibility with programming platforms like MakeCode, CircuitPython, and Arduino. It’s the ultimate tool for teaching coding, electronics, and physical computing—no extra hardware needed!
As part of the program, you'll receive a Circuit Playground Express ADVANCED Pack, including additional materials valued at over $150.00, access to high-quality lesson plans, and resources aligned with Media Arts, CSTA, and NGSS Standards. These tools will empower you to bring the excitement of e-textiles and wearable technology into your grades 5–12 classroom, inspiring your students to combine creativity and STEAM like never before. Let’s bring the future of fashion and space exploration to life for your learners!
This course is part of the Pathfinders Summer Institute 2026 (Registration will open early to mid-March 2026). It is designed to be 40 hours of synchronous and asynchronous learning per the course details below. K-12 public school teachers who are eligible will receive a full scholarship to participate. As part of the registration process, all applicants must complete an acceptance letter signed by you and your principal/administrator. This is a mandatory requirement. BJLFELTCLAYMAKER will manage this entire process on behalf of the Foundation and will share the letter once you have been accepted into the course.
SUPPORT STUDENT VOICE!
EVERY SCHOOL NEEDS A DIGITAL CREATIVITY LAB!
ALL STUDENTS SHOULD BE ABLE TO PRODUCE AND ANALYZE MULTIMEDIA!
It's how we communicate, design, interact with, and understand our world!
MAE brings academic content to life in multimedia, animation and interactivity!
Media arts' multi-literacies deliver creative and academic empowerment and are critical to 21st century preparation.
Less than 2% of US students currently access media arts!
Media arts education forms a futuristic creative laboratory and makerspace, empowering all students’ voices and visions, and infusing the educational system with multimodal versatility.
TRANSFORMING LEARNING AND EDUCATION THROUGH MEDIA ARTS
Media arts is an emergent K-12 arts content area, now initiated through standards adopted in 40 states, which supports student production across photo, video, animation, sound, graphics, 3D design, AI, and XR. These forms are creatively unlimited in capacity, so that students are able to design, construct and simulate any product, presentation or experience imaginable, and which can incorporate all arts and core contents in engaging, dynamic projects.
We are working to make media arts available to all students in the U.S., so that they can express themselves, tell their stories, design their ideal worlds, and fulfill their potential in the 21st C creative workforce!
Imagine a media arts laboratory where students are designing their ideal future city.
Using 3D design software and 3D printing for actual scale models, they tackle urban renewal and design, sustainability principles, and the real-world application of mathematics, engineering and construction concepts.
Media arts' versatile, multimodal (multi-sensory, multimedia, arts) tools support students to interact creatively with the educational curriculum and to apply it to real world experiences. For example, they can create interactive, 3D animated models that demonstrate science concepts, such as cell division, the digestive system, or weather systems. Students are then able to manipulate, construct, and play with these multimedia models until they fully and tangibly understand those concepts, and then transfer them to varied applications and situations.
In an augmented reality (AR) project, student groups design an interactive historical scavenger hunt for their neighborhood. Layered over their real-world environment, they mark significant points of interest and community resources, along with linked information, socially relevant murals and sculptures, and local stories and interviews.
Students produce a transmedia mental health campaign, which supports students to produce, share and interact in socially beneficial and empowering ways. Students produce diverse events, broadcasts, and interactions for varied outputs and audiences. They apply statistical analysis to measure algorithmic processes and their impacts on the school and community. All students gain critical media literacies for verifying, analyzing and evaluating multimedia information, and collaboratively nurturing a civil digital society.
Media arts students design a video game based on a popular sci-fi novel, integrating complex physics simulations and lively, science-based narratives. The project also integrates advanced mathematics, English in project narratives, texts, and scripts, and engineering through game mechanics.
BENEFITS FOR STUDENTS AND SCHOOLS INCLUDE:
Creatively unlimited physical/virtual multimodal laboratories and tools – the ultimate makerspace
A hub discipline that dissolves silos between subjects, for integrated, transdisciplinary learning
Comprehensive range of 21st century skill sets and competencies
Critical literacies across media, technology and digital culture
Increased access for all learners to core academic content and processes (e.g. Special Education, English Language Learners, socio-economically disadvantaged)
Increased outreach and interactions between learners, schools and communities
Real world learning, school to work connections and pathways, and creative workforce preparation
An accessible, democratizing art form that reflects and expresses contemporary ideas, capacities and culture
Increased learner engagement, self-direction, deeper learning, and cultural empowerment
NAMAE is seeking to create an alliance of associated members and organizations who support the inclusion of media arts as a core component of 21st century education for the benefit of all students.
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