students need visual art

From: Phelps, Renata, Maddison, Carrie. (2008) ICT in the secondary Visual Arts classroom: A study of teachers' values, attitudes and beliefs. Australasion Journal of Education Technology. 2008. 24(1), 1-14. 'With an ever increasing emphasis on still and animated imagery, symbols and iconography in society, analysis, interpretation, extrapolation and evaluation of visual imagery has become just as important as art creation. Students need to be wise consumers, familiar with how the mass media operates (Hicks, 1993) and visual arts education has an important role to play in preparing students as visually literate and critical members of society (Brown, 2002; Schwartz, 1991). Furthermore, as the use of digital media has expanded, new career opportunities have opened up for visual artists. Students with knowledge, skills and proficiency in digital art and design are well situated to obtain employment in commercial visual arts contexts, such as advertising, film, animation and other computer graphic industries (Matthews, 1997; Taylor, 1999). Web 2.0 technologies such as Second Life and Flickr, together with the expanding games industry, represent environments in which digital visual art and design skills provide new opportunities for self expression, as well as enhanced commercial potential. ' (p.2)