This article sets forth a conceptual, philosophical and social agenda for art and design education in the twenty-first century, considering how a set of beliefs articulated within US art education discourse interfaces with conceptualisations about emerging global digital media and technologies. Discussion highlights selected writings in the USA primarily, writings about art education technology orientations; and then describes the professional experiences and insights of the writer as she embraced, implemented and made sense of technology in terms of her own multicultural educational orientation in a US university. Based on these insights, this writer proposes that technology pedagogy is not actually about digital technologies per se, but about what we intend to do with new technologies in the twenty-first century. Old notions of art as an embodiment of things that matter and a testament to the human condition are now connected to contemporary ideas about citizenship, caring and public engagement. In this trajectory, citizenship education is then posed as central to a future vision of art education in the digitally connected classroom. Caveats and limitations of the educational and transformative power of new global electronic media being set forth in this article are also noted, including paradoxical self-contradictions within the orientation itself.