M3F

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M3F is the Mind, Media and the Message Festival (formerly the McLuhan Multimedia Festival).

Content

History
Educational Theory
Cultural Significance
International Digital Communities

M3F is a student run digital arts festival. Since its inception M3F has been structured so that students are responsible for all aspects of the festival. The unchanging belief of the teachers who have worked with the students to create M3F has been that the students are capable of amazing leadership, insight, responsibility, and creativity if given a real and high-stakes opportunity to demonstrate their ability.

The idea for M3F was first articulated in the late spring of 1999 by a group of digital arts students and teachers at Marshall McLuhan CSS in Toronto, Canada. The guiding principles that came out of that discussion were that students and teachers sharing their work would learn from each other and be inspired to do great things. The second principle was that the festival would include a broad range of digital arts. The team that put together that first festival established the basic foundation upon which the festival continues to grow.

In the fall of 1990 the festival began to take shape. The name was decided, a logo drawn, a student-centred management structure was put in place, the categories into which students could submit were decided, rules of submission were determined, and corporate partners invited to join the team. Although the festival now has more than a dozen partners and sponsors, our first five sponsors continue to sponsor the festival to this day – TCDSB, Warner Brothers Canada, Apple Canada, MIJO, and Videoscope Ltd.

The first festival event took place in May 2000 in Toronto, Canada.

The festival got started in the classrooms and hallways of Marshall McLuhan CSS. he founding steering committee consisted of about 18 grade eleven students two and teachers. Marshall McLuhan CSS had only come into existence two years previous and these 16 year old were the senior class.

The early years

M3F began its existence as the McLuhan Multimedia Festival, named for the school from which it was launched and, though the school, the icon of media theory, Marshall McLuhan. With two teachers, John D'Arcy and Sandra Mustacato, and 18 students at the helm, the festival began its life with 54 submissions, mainly from across Toronto. Over its second and third years, M3F acquired more sponsors and grew significantly in size. Decisions were made by the Committee, as the collective body of involved students was called, as a whole during weekly meetings. Though some attempts at forming sub-committees were made, these were exploratory forays into uncertain ground, and the Committee retained direct and centralized control over all aspects of the festival.

Year One Winners:

Year Two Winners:

Year Three Winners:

The fourth year

During the summer of 2003, John D'Arcy and Jake Babad, a student entering his final year at the school who had demonstrated significant leadership abilities through his previous involvement in the festival, in consultation with other involved students, helped reform the structure of M3F. Recognizing the importance of decentralization and development of students' abilities, a more formal system of guidance for the festival was put in place. The Committee, renamed the Steering Committee, retained central control over the direction of the festival, but subcommittees were put in place to focus on various aspects of the festival, such as PR, Art, and T3S- a new event designed to aid in the education of teachers in new-media software and culture. Membership in the Steering Committee was limited to the Chairpersons of each sub-committee, certain people who were willing to committ in a meaningful way to the festival, and Teacher-Advisors. In this year, the festival held its first media launch, held its first Training the Trainers Symposium (T3S), and most importantly, went national. M3F received nearly 1000 submissions from across Canada this year.

Winners:

Committee: John D'Arcy (Teacher-Director) Jake Babad (Senior Co-Director) Siobhan O'Sullivan (Junior Co-Director) Matias Marin Jamie Sarah Andrew Hume Kathryn May Scott Bedard Melissa Wong Jessica Croake Theresa Kelly (Teacher-Advisor) Vicky West (Teacher-Advisor) Cheryl Madeira (Teacher-Advisor)

The fifth year

During the 2004-2005 school year, John D'Arcy and Scott Bedard helped continue the structural changes to the festival. Refining the Steering Committee structure with the adoption of Executive Committee positions and the definition of Teacher-Director and Student-Director positions, adopting a Constitution and striking a Board of Directors were important steps in internal reform through this year, with the eventual goal of attaining Not-For-Profit status. Attempts at openness and outreach were key to fifth-year efforts for the festival- enhanced clarity and the inclusion, for the first time, of large bodies of students from outside Marshall McLuhan CSS (Namely from Don Mills CI) helped solidify the festival's future beyond the walls of its home institution. The Committee this year focused on enhancing the festival's reach beyond the borders of Ontario, as well as moving towards NFP status. Antoher milestone for the festival was breaking 1000 submissions from sea to sea for the first time.

Winners:

http://www.oct.ca/publications/professionally_speaking/march_2005/exemplary.asp
http://www.ontariosciencecentre.ca/calendar/default.asp?eventid=343
http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/resources/educational/recommended/web_sites/M3F.cfm
http://www.warnerbroscanada.com/wbcommunity/wbcommunity.asp
http://www.m3f.org.

Cultural institutions that recognize M3F (more to be added), http://www.culture.ca/explore-explorez-e.jsp?category=600&page=13