Week 3 Reading: Multimodal Literacy: An Introduction

What is the main argument presented in this article?

The main idea of this article is that the definition of literacy has changed.  Literacy is no longer simply associated with how well a person reads and writes.  Messages are now carried through multiple modes (written language, visual representations, music, and digital means).  Being literate has thus evolved to understanding how all these modes intertwine to carry ideas to the masses. 

 

Why is it imperative that teachers and educational policy makers recognize the role multimodality plays in redefining literacy in the 21st century?

 

Literacy has been redefined to include multimodal aspects.  In order to keep up with the demands of an increasingly growing global community, teachers and educational policy makers must embrace multimodal instruction to prepare our students for the workforce qualifications needed to thrive in this ever-changing world.

 

What is the fundamental philosophical orientation of educators who engage in multimodal literacy instruction?

 

According to Lankshear and Knobel (2007), educators must be willing to adapt and take on new ethos when engaging in multimodal literacy instruction.  It is not enough just to use technology to adapt old teaching practices but instead, we must “develop new ways of being when working with new technologies: sharing, experimenting, innovating, and creative rule-breaking (video podcasts, photo editing, and morphing of images, for example)” (Sanders & Albers, pg. 11). 

 

What is the rational for engaging children in learning through the arts promoted by  educational philosophers like Maine Green and Elliot Eisner? Do you share this philosophical orientation? Why? Why not?

 

Philosophers such as Maxine Greene have “long argued that the arts in education enable a person to become different and look through the lenses of various ways of knowing, seeing, and feeling in a conscious endeavor to change one’s perspective on the world” (Sanders & Albers, pg. 6).  I agree with this philosophical orientation because all of our senses must work together to help us understand the world around us.  To further illustrate this point, check out this video on the McGurk Effect:

 

 

 

 

Name three benefits of multimodal reading and writing for students.

 

Multimodal instruction teaches students to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate text.  When students create PowerPoints, WebPages, or digital films, they must learn to analyze images for qualityto determine which will best represent their text and intended message.  “In creating such texts, the textmaker considers how each of these elements interrelates and how this relationship will inform a viewer’s interpretation” (Sanders & Albers, pg. 8).  Furthermore, when students design multimodal presentations, they learn to synthesize, or build a structure from many materials and resources, in order to create representations within their presentations.  Finally, with the creation of their product or presentation, students are taught to evaluate, for “within multimodality inherently lies a critical perspective enacted when examining the textmaker’s choices regarding the materials used, how those materials are framed and designed, and how such decisions are realized and situated within the creator’s beliefs “ (Sanders & Albers, pg. 9). 

 

Give an example of how blogging supports the four aspects of multimodal theory proposed by Kress and Jewitt.

When creating a blog, the author must first consider materiality (What materials are available to convey meaning?  Are they affordable?  Are they useful?).  Next the author must frame the chosen materials in a way that will best represent the message he/she is communicating.  Text layout, images, written word, and music all have an important role when conveying meaning.  Next the creator of the blog must take into consideration the design of the blog.  How does each resource play together to support the blog’s message?  When the blog is ready to be published, production factors in.  The author must evaluate how his/her beliefs have contributed to the materials used in his/her posting.  Were these decisions effective in conveying the intended message?

 

What can teachers learn about their students from their image productions? Why is this important?

Image production allows students to think abstractly, imaginatively, and descriptively.  Through artwork, literacy is engaging, supportive, and may allow for more informed, precise, and descriptive talk (Sanders & Albers, pg. 7).    This is important because images allow children to be more engaged critical thinkers about ideas they may not be ready or unable to express in written word alone.  As one student stated, “Pictures paint the words on paper for you so your words are much better“(Sanders & Albers, pg. 7). 

According to this article, why should teachers use technology in their teaching?

Teachers should use technology in their teaching to prepare students for the digital literacy skills needed in the 21^st Century.  Also, by including technology in the classroom, we are given the opportunity to examine and incorporate the everyday digital literacies students bring into the classroom so that we can make literacy more relevant to them.  If students see a task as relevant, they will become more motivated and engaged to the learning task.

 

How does multimodal literacy relate to 21st century literacy?

The use of digital tools (blogs, Webpages, Facebook, YouTube, etc.) has “allowed for greater participation collaboration, and distribution of knowledge that has not been possible with our previous uses of technology (Sanders & Albers, pg. 11).  These tools go hand in hand with the 21^st Century Literacy Goals: Effective Communication, Digital-Age Literacy, Inventive Thinking, and High Productivity.  By using multimodal literacy instruction, students will learn how to navigate the digital world and use technology to communicate globally.  By creating presentations with digital tools, students will demonstrate productivity and inventive thinking as they search for ways to best illustrate the messages they wish to exemplify.

 

What project described intrigued you the most?

I found many of the projects listed interesting, however, the one that caught my eye the most was “Inventing a Drama World as a Place to Learn.”  Second graders are dramatic by nature and, while the Holocaust would not be appropriate subject matter for this grade level, this project could easily be adapted to picture book or another social studies concept more suited to 2^nd graders.  The dramatic reenactments could then be videotaped and edited by students to include a musical soundtrack.  A multimodal, dramatic retelling of a story would likely increase reading motivation with my students.

 

What challenges to integrating multimodal reading and writing into schools do you most identify with?

My school is very fortunate to have technology resources available to us.  Each classroom has five computers and the school shares two computer labs and two mobile labs.  While I realize we are luckier than most, even with this technology, we still have twenty-seven general education rooms trying to compete for only four class-wide sets of computers.  The day I had students working on Photo Story, I had only four computers at our disposal (the fifth computer refused to download the program).  This project ended up taking two days to complete.  While I felt this was a worthwhile activity and the other students worked on other activities while they waited, I also felt that a lot of instructional time was lost with its implementation.  If it had not been near the end-of-the-year, I may have been more reluctant to invest the time into this activity.  Thus, the biggest challenges I see in integrating multimodal reading and writing is the availability of technology and time restraints.

 

Why is mulitmodal literacy essential in preparing students for work, play and democratic participation in the 21st century?

 

Collaboration through technology has become a global enterprise.  Students already collaborate with their peers, and complete strangers, when they play video and computer games online.  Not only do their characters work together but often they can text back and forth while playing.  They also share videos and comments with their friends using cell phones and social media sites.  When they join the workforce, they will likely be required to connect with their coworkers using multiple formats (email, texts, presentation software, etc.)  As citizens of our country, they will also have to decipher and evaluate digital and written material presented to them by party candidates in order to make informed voting choices that will determine how our government is run.  Therefore, multimodal literacy instruction is essential so that students may develop the necessary skills that will enable them to think critically, produce efficiently, and communicate effectively in the outside world.

 

 

Multimodal Literacy Image

 

 

Resources:

 

Brainrulesbook.  (2008, March 6).  McGurk effect (with explanation).  Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtsfidRq2tw&feature=related

Sanders, J. and Albers, P.  (n.d.)  Multimodal literacies: An introduction.  Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:ZnRBedCgj_IJ:https://secure.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Books/Sample/32142Intro_x.pdf+are+literacies+and+Discourses+used+interchanably&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESjE9pBd2JmN_g_xuDVosAj01ImYkr6u-oyjriG0tREXG8fzwbyeuhcmDw0rrbTA1rug-bgizHwuiUlocJcQwdvcCiPOxZYWVExNgQ8BmulksyeRUcUX4LJmfxLlw7e8UTdG2TuT&sig=AHIEtbSZ7RHTNL_Rfe2bglUQRg9zzCD2JA

Tangient LLC.  (2013).  Multimodal text.  Retrieved from http://ccr733.wikispaces.com/Multimedia