Strands and Themes

What are the educational implications of our rapidly changing media world? What possibilities are new media technologies giving students who are – increasingly – content creators and participatory audiences? What are the key issues faced by twenty-first century educators in teaching media in 2016 and beyond?

The summit will explore these ideas and many more through keynotes, sessions and workshops. Screen Futures will investigate media concepts and understandings as well as skills in the the production process of new and traditional media such as print, film, animation, game design, photography, and audio production.

For primary teachers, this summit will provide:

• practical resources for engaging learners through digital storytelling;
• opportunities to learn more about screen literacy and multimodal texts;
• ideas for how Media Arts can integrate across your curriculum;
• a place to network with other Media Arts teachers.

For secondary teachers, the summit will:

• provide an opportunity to hear from screen practitioners and high-profile media personalities;
• update your knowledge of screen and media concepts and theories from global leaders in the field;
• develop new skills in creating media across platforms;
• inspire you to think differently about the core media concepts – representation, languages, technologies, institutions, audience – and how your students participate in the global media sphere;
• offer a place to connect with expert media teachers and academics;
• push the scope of what you plan to teach and gather resources for the year ahead.

For tertiary teachers and students, summit themes will include:

• Where the future is going in relation to screens and the online media space;
• Innovations in pedagogy & practice: do new technologies enhance the student experience?;
• Shifts in media formats, ownership, power and control;
• Is the concept of the ‘national’ still relevant in terms of screen identity and industry?;
• Implications of changing consumer behaviour and patterns of consumption;
• Changes to industry employment brought by new technologies.

Investigates our relationship to new technology by taking a deeper look at how we can harness value from the new opportunities that digital platforms and technologies enable.

• Games: The uptake in education is increasing. How can game design advance students’ systems thinking skills? Research now shows games can make players more sympathetic, but are the aims of games writers and developers changing?
• Technology: Drones, AR and VR have (re)entered our entertainment space. How are they transforming narrative? New tools that you will know about before your students do.
• Transmedia: How do writers and directors create whole story worlds and keep up with content supply?
• Networked Distribution: YouTube stars and web series now have huge audiences. What does this mean for quality screen content? Cinema on Demand – will audiences soon dictate to cinema chains what they see, where they see it and when?
• Educational Products: Inside the online and digital Education space – who’s doing what in edu-software and apps? Which tools are students choosing to tell their stories?

Will provide a forum for educators to connect with screen professionals to assess what is changing in the Australian production and distribution landscape by specifically addressing some of the key questions about what is happening in our digital ecosystem.

• Australian broadcasting: Do streaming and VOD spell the end for scheduled content in this country? What is happening to Australian content and cultural representation in the global market place? Is there still an audience for Australian live-action children’s television?
• Networked investment: What alternate pathways are industry practitioners taking to get their projects up? What are the pitfalls of crowdfunding and exactly how can social media boost them?
• The Australian Game and Interactive Entertainment Industry: How can the games industry support educators to leverage engagement for meaningful learning? What constitutes ‘educational value’ in a game, who are the big players in educational games in Australia?
• Screen publishing and content ownership: How can screenwriters and publishers access revenue from the global education market? What are teachers looking for when implementing the Media Arts curriculum? Visual literature, transmedia and multimodal texts: which e-reading trends are here to stay? What are peak bodies in Copyright and IP about how the screen industry is adapting and provide tools for the classroom.

For the first time ever, the festival will be programmed in collaboration with prominent Melbourne youth media organisations Youthworx Media, Syn Media and ACMI’s Intermix program. This one-day event will be a festival of ideas and collaboration between students and young content makers from all over Australia.

• Live Media Event: a chance to crew on a unique, professional media production;
• Seminars: Hear about the latest developments in digital story creation and exhibition from successful practitioners;
• Workshops: Develop skills and knowledge in media production (television, radio, animation and games);
• Media career expo: a chance to connect with established screen professionals, universities and training organisations to find out exactly how to break into a career in screen media.

Summit delegates will also have a chance to see what the Youth Media Festival participants are up to and to hear from the leading creative producers in youth media.