Application areas for Media Arts Technology skills exist in a broad number of professional disciplines. Students will have the opportunity to refine skills needed to qualify for employment in new technologies organizations already using digital tools like programming and 3D modeling to "build" presentations. Maui's Pacific Disaster Center or Maui High Performance Computing Center (MHPCC) are two such local organizations.  A look through a list of government organizations and private enterprises in the community offers many opportunities. Here are some application areas that support some of Maui's special needs:

·        Ocean Ecology; Models of Reef Ecology

·       Hawaiian Language Study; Models of Syntax and Application; Hawaiian Culture

·        Learning Environments for Geographically Disparate Participants

·        Futures Study and Community Planning

·        Library Interfaces; Virtual Entrance to the Worlds of Literature and Music

·        Sustainable Technologies; Models for Recycling, Alternative Energy, Agriculture

·        Resource Management; Water Management, Food supply, Land Use

·        Wildlife and Endangered Species Preservation

·        Human Services Agencies; Models for Vocational Rehabilitation

·        Organic Agriculture; Plant Technology; Alternative Agriculture

·        The Fine Arts, including Film

·        Tourism

·        Innovation and Historic Preservation; Models of Hawaii Past, Present, and Future

Application Example: A model of a reef ecology would involve building models, programming behaviors, including winds, currents, and behaviors of land inhabitants. By “tweaking” the behaviors, students can make observations of changes in the model in real time, in ways that would otherwise be hard to study. This is a field with great potential for penetrating research and development in the arts, sciences, and humanities.

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Creating Virtual Learning Environments (VLE) is much closer than we think

"From driving your car without at tune-up for one hundred thousand miles to the kind of things that yesterday's science fiction were made of such as genetic engineering, it’s not easy to imagine our world without the amenities of advanced computer technologies that improve our quality of living. But these technological advancements, and more, are not being utilized where we need them most; in the education of the world’s children.

The only part of the planet’s integration into advanced computer technologies that has not yet evolved is the process of education.

Imagine if a child didn’t just read about historical moments but could live them; ask the local people questions, discuss strategies with key historical figures, passively watch the activities or help change the shape of the future.

Imagine if our educators are scriptwriters, artists and engineers developing historical, mathematical, scientific and artistic interactive scenarios. Each country designs the interactive experience of their history. Students from around the world learn about their country histories as well as other cultures from highly recognized teachers who work together as 'creationists' of a renaissance in education.

Imagine a child as passionately involved in learning as they are when playing a video game.

If you can imagine an advanced education system utilizing interactive computer technologies uniting the children of the world, where all children are actively stimulated and involved in learning and growing together, it can be done."

Remington Scott
Performance Capture
Square USA, Honolulu Studio

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These types of models can also be used in the arts - in the study and creation of literature, visual arts including cinema, music, and other art forms. Building them is a potentially powerful way to learn about a language by putting its rules into action. In order for a character in a simulation to be able to speak, that character must be programmed within it the language's syntax, vocabulary, and concepts about idea representation such as figures of speech and facial expressions. It must also be able to link its 'experiences' in the simulation to these things.

Hawaiiana

Pacific Culture is an example of an area of study especially fitting for development on Maui and therefore for application of this program at Maui Community College.

Application Example: creating a virtual world involving characters of Hawaiian mythology using 3D modeling and image processing, programmed behaviors, sound recording, compositing and editing software. Participants would be able to immerse themselves into this environment and "experience" ancient Hawaii first hand.

·        Cultural Modeling

Hawaiian Artifacts
Written and Spoken Hawaiian Language Study
Mythology
Hawaiian Chant, Hula, and other art forms
Ocean Navigation
Tapa, Lei, Basketry
Social Structure and Customs

·        Ecological Modeling,

Endangered Plant and Animal Species Habitats
Ocean Ecology
Water Use

·        Geographic Modeling

Volcanism

·        Agriculture

Diversified Agriculture
Organic Agriculture