Multimodal and 21st Century Literacies

I am currently working on my second class and it is about curriculum design for the art classroom. Being that I do not just teach art but a variety of classes I am interested in how to integrate art across the curriculum and then by also integrating technology. I recently read an article titled "Learning Through New Eyes: Rethinking Media, Popular Culture and Art Education" by David Darts of New York University. He advocates that through using media and popular culture (in art education) teachers can raise issues that students are already connected to and teach them to think more critically about the media that is ingrained within society. This got me thinking about the subject of 21st century literacies and the question of engagement that keeps coming up in my school and in my district. I Googled the term "21st century literacies" and found this video of Howard Rheingold. He has some interesting things to say that also support Dart's views, that don't simply support integration of media skills in art education, but in all education.