Today’s youth are immersed in popular culture and digital media.  Matching the power of the tools with the imagination and minds of creative people of today is another dimension of creativity to be considered, especially with the explosive development of information and communication technologies as one of the most powerful means to produce, preserve and communicate the fruits of human creativity.  It is important to understand and engage such renewed daily experiences and practices into learning practises to stimulate the creative impulses.  Thus, a more positive approach to popular culture and the use of digital media opens up new perspectives for arts education and requests new roles for educators in the 21st century.  On the other hand, some commentators find that while the use of popular media and digital technology undeniably elicits a more eager engagement in arts education, such an approach often results in a devaluation of both the process and product of creation.  This session would like to open a space for lively exchange between academics, educators and fieldworkers to further discuss and explore the insights on the effects of such an expanding field in arts education.

Moderator: Andras Szanto  (Hungary/USA)

Presentations
- Demeulenaere Brecht, Ine Vos, Dirk Terryn (Belgium) Turning the Switch (No Rewinding Possible) multimedia Challenges for Culture Education (Full paper)
- Dejana Prnjat (Serbia) How much can arts education affect the decision-making process when choosing classical or pop music? (Full paper)
- Tetsuya Hasegawa (Japan) Digital media, Popular culture and Arts education: Idea of arts education in our society of mass consumption (Full paper) 
- Nina Czegledy and Daniela Reimann (Canada) Media Arts & Science, and Technology challenging Responsive Art Education
 (Full paper)
- Irina Bykhovskaya (Russia) Searching for the new motivation of arts education in the context of popular culture and digital media: the Russian example  

Written contributions
- Jean-Marc Lauret (France) Education artistique et culturelle et pratiques numériques (French only)
- Benoit Machuel (France) Musiques, Nouvelles Technologies et Education (French only)