User:Hledbetter/sandbox

Howell, E.

(2017, November 07). Expanding Argument Instruction: Incorporating Multimodality and Digital Tools. Retrieved March 12, 2019, from https://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jaal.716

The article I have chosen focuses on multimodality in education by examining the use of technology, specifically tablets, in early childhood acquisition of literacy and language. It begins by defining literacy and expanding that definition to include multiliteracy, touching on our current emphasis of print literacy and how that emphasis disadvantages students in todays climate. The author goes on to talk about the necessity of being literate in a variety of multimodal contexts in order to gain “21st-century skills.” These are skills of creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration that are now considered foundational to operating in modern society. The study took place over the course of 4 years and examined 459 children age 2-12 and 27 educators. The goal was to examine how the implementation of tablets in education effected both the children’s learning and the educators teaching styles. In the end the data collected indicated three primary ways in which tablets can contribute to new learning 1.	The acquisition of foundational literacy (and numeracy) skills: Together with manipulatives, natural materials and other experiences, Apps could be used to introduce and practice the foundational skills that are inherent to literacy, and which children need to acquire in order to enable later, more complex investigations. 2.	Creating multimodal texts that were both creative and a documentation of learning processes. 3.	Rethinking pedagogies to incorporate using iPads to document learning, to provide explicit scaffolding, incorporating authentic activities and communicating ideas with real audiences. I think the article is especially germane to our topic because it deals with how technology can alter pedagogies of teaching, how we learn, and addresses the need for our education system to incorporate new technology. I think it would be interesting for our group to examine how technology has changed the way in which we prosses information and how a multimodal education can accommodate and better serve that shift.

Media Convergence: I think the points from Henry Jenkins video could be a useful lens through which we can view multimodality

1. Participatory culture: It’s an idea that is very similar to produsage. It is a platform the has low barriers for membership and engagement, has a sort of mentorship between more experienced members and newer members, a space that members feel their contributions matters, and where users care about the opinions of other members the example he gives is Wikipedia.

2. Remixable content: This is content that can be easily repurposed and altered to convey new meaning. His example is pictures taken from Toy Story being used to tell the story of Steven Kings “The Shining. It’s a practice that I see in social media constantly whether through gifs, videos, or comics.

3. Spreadable content: “If it doesn’t spread, it’s dead.” The idea is based in the logic of circulation i.e. content gains value as it spreads. His example is Kony 2012 which is pretty similar to the March For Our Lives movement. They are both small grass roots campaigns that through media circulation took off and became national and global notoriety. Important to note the difference between spreadable and sticky content. Sticky content is just eye grabbing, it gains attention but doesn't establish a worthwhile circulation, perhaps similar to his definition of viral.

4. Spreadable content: “If it doesn’t spread, it’s dead.” The idea is based in the logic of circulation i.e. content gains value as it spreads. His example is Kony 2012 which is pretty similar to the March For Our Lives movement. They are both small grass roots campaigns that through media circulation took off and became national and global notoriety

5. Content is independent: The idea here is that new technological platforms have undermined the traditional “gate keepers” of media and have allowed independent producers to connect with an audience. I see a strong correlation between global and independent content. They both rely upon the other

In my view these are all subcategories of transmedia. Which, based on his description, is essential another name for multimodal media. They're both a way of forming, circulating, and conversing over ideas and content that is aided by many modes of communication.

I see that you added your notes from Henry Jenkins' lecture to your sandbox. Do you think you will use any of these ideas in your entry?Cathygaborusf (talk) 18:13, 27 March 2019 (UTC)cathygaborusf - Yea I think i am the section that i've taken on is a good section to talk about the idea of media convergence and transmedia literacy. Through it I think i'll also be able to illustrate the idea of produsage.

Multiliteracy:

Multilteracy is the concept of understanding information through various methods of communication and being proficient in those methods. With the growth of technology, there are more ways to communicate than ever before, making it necessary for our definition of literacy to change in order to better accommodate these new technologies (add benefits). These new technologies consist of tools such as text messaging, social media, and blogs.[32] However, these modes of communication often employ multiple mediums simultaneously such as audio, video, pictures, and animation. Thus, making content multimodal.

The culmination of these different mediums are what’s called content convergence, which has become a cornerstone of multimodal theory. Within our modern digital discourse content has become accessible to many, remixable, and easily spreadable, allowing ideas and information to be consumed, edited, and improved by the general public. An example being Wikipedia, the platform allows free consumption and authorship of its’ work which in turn facilitates the spread of knowledge through the efforts of a large community. It creates a space in which authorship has become collaborative and the product of said authorship is improved by that collaboration. As distribution of information has grown through this process of content convergence it has become necessary for our understanding of literacy to evolve with it.

The culmination of these different mediums are what’s called content convergence, which has become a cornerstone of multimodal theory. Within our modern digital discourse content has become accessible to many, remixable, and easily spreadable, allowing ideas and information to be consumed, edited, and improved by the general public. An example being Wikipedia, the platform allows free consumption and authorship of its’ work which in turn facilitates the spread of knowledge through the efforts of a large community. It creates a space in which authorship has become collaborative and the product of said authorship is improved by that collaboration. As distribution of information has grown through this process of content convergence it has become necessary for our understanding of literacy to evolve with it.

The shift away from written text as the sole mode of nonverbal communication has caused the traditional definition of literacy to evolve.[30] While text and image may exist separately, digitally, or in print, their combination gives birth to new forms of literacy and thus, a new idea of what it means to be literate. Text, whether it is academic, social, or for entertainment purposes, can now be accessed in a variety of different ways and edited by several individuals on the Internet, in this way texts that would typically be concrete become amorphous through the process of collaboration. The spoken and written word are not obsolete, but they are no longer the only way to communicate and interpret messages.[30]] Many mediums can be used separately and individually. Combining and repurposing one to for another has contributed to the evolution of different literacies.

Communication is spread across a medium through content convergence, such as a blog post accompanied by images and an embedded video. This idea of combining mediums gives new meaning to the concept of translating a message. The culmination of varying forms of media allows for content to be either reiterated, or supplemented by its parts. This reshaping of information from one mode to another is known as transduction.[30] As information changes from one mode to the next, our comprehension of its message is attributed to multiliteracy. Xiaolo Bao defines three succeeding learning stages that make up multiliteracy. Grammar-Translation Method, Communicative Method, and Task-Based Method. Simply put, they can be described as the fundamental understanding of syntax and its function, the practice of applying that understanding to verbal communication, and lastly, the application of said textual and verbal understandings to hands-on activities. In an experiment conducted by the Canadian Center of Science and Education, students were either placed in a classroom with a multimodal course structure, or a classroom with a standard learning course structure as a control group. Tests were administered throughout the length of the two courses, with the multimodal course concluding in a higher learning success rate, and reportedly higher rate of satisfaction among students. This indicates that applying multimodality to instruction is found to yield overall better results in developing multiliteracy than conventional forms of learning when tested in real-life scenarios.