Multiliteracies Assignment 1: Changing writing practices in Literacy

1. TEACHING IN THE
CENTURY
Changing
Learning
Practices
ST
21

2. Personal reflection:
I have experienced two sides of the spectrum teaching ESL Kindergarten students in Egypt to teaching
Year 12 ESL students in Australia. Each and every day I have worked in the profession over the last 5
years I have developed a passion for making a difference and in the classroom my main priority is
engagement and enrichment.
In today’s society there are many facets to incorporate into our teaching programs and there is always
going to be a diverse range of students, situations, welfare concerns and disruptions. It is a time in society
in which technology and the media are beginning to saturate young people and instead of reading a book
they would prefer to chat online with friends.
We try to traditionalise their habits and influence them to put down the iPhone and pick up the book.
This PowerPoint will introduce you to the changing society in terms of changing literacies, social
participation and collaboration as well as the term multiliteracies.
We are going to loose if we are to convince them to replace their treasured technological devices but
instead of total disengagement with reading and writing in English and other subjects, it is important to
learn and adapt our methods of instruction and style of activities to instil a range of practical solutions to
this ever changing and dramatically dynamic society in which we live and teach.

3. Personal
Visual
RepresentationMy past, present and
future
Activities like this create your
own visual identity in which
students can recognise what
their interests and values are
and what they aim for in the
future.

4. Teaching experiences
Primary
Secondary

5. WHAT IS
MULTILITERACIES?
Definition:
Multiliteracies are defined as literacy practices that are colliding with
technology modes of representation… The element of ‘multi’ in
multiliteracies covers many aspects of literacy from visual literacy in images
to the traditional reading and writing performed in both formal and informal
situations (Cole and Pullen, 2010, pp.1-2).

6. Multiliteracies approach to writing
• The skills required in multiliteracies, “build on the foundation of traditional literacy,”
(Jenkins, 2006, p. 4) extend writing skills in the area of research, technical skills in
the use of technology and critical analysis skills in the evaluation of writing,
produced by both themselves and others as information in digital form. Teachers
must create students who are able to “communicate their conclusions,” (Claro
et.al ,2012, p. 1046) in a wide range of digital environments.
• Students need to take chances with their writing, think uniquely and negotiate
critique to “arrive at those ‘aha’ moments” (Campbell Stephens and Ballast, 2011,
p. 54). As new technologies change how the teacher explicitly teaches writing,
traditional skills founded in the writers cultural and social environment are still the
basis for which all multiliteracies rely on.

7. Collaborative and social learning through
digital literacies
• The collaborative learning process involves group participation in research,
questioning, critical thinking, challenging and validating members’
understanding through communication and interaction (Campbell Stephens &
Ballast, 2011, p. 57).
• The web 2.0 learning environment is student centred, participatory and active
which requires engagement with peers. Students share, debate and justify
information and knowledge resulting in deeper learning experiences (Sing et
al., 2011, pp. 23-24).

8. Changing Writing Practices
• Teachers are now implementing new writing practices to challenge the
traditional literacy methods in a society experiencing constant technological
and social change as, “literacy instruction has been dominated by the reading
and writing of printed text for a number of years,” (Cole & Pullen, 2010, p. 2).
It is apparent that teachers should extend further from individually using
technological tools to create multiliterate experiences, as students need to
critically design, interpret and reflect using new modes.
• In our dramatically changing technological society, “We can take into account
not just the written word but also images, layout, font, sound, gesture,
movement and so on,” (Davies, 2009, p. 30) to relate to students changing
interests and skills. Educators must adapt and learn new programs to
implement changing literacies into programming.

9. Practical Implementation
Primary School options:
• Smartboard resources and technology
• Interactive activities using the touch screen
• Alphabet stories and activities
• Ipads for learning

10. Future School Dahab – Egypt
My previous experience working overseas in an International Language school.
Technology use included: personalised computers and Smartboards.

11. Smartboard: Demonstrating skills
on the board

12. Smartboard activities

13. Practical implementation:
The following slides highlight the many different options there are in our developing society
to incorporate into both Primary and Secondary schools.
Secondary• Wikispace
• Blogging
• Wordle – mindmapping
• Video productions
• Magazines online
• Storyboarding
• Facebook
• Flickr
• Avatars
• iMovie
• iPoetry

14. Blogging
• Blogging allows students to engage online both in school and outside school.
• A blog is an interactive website where users can give their opinions,
narratives or experiences on a topic. They are typically set up by an
individual but are published so they can be read by the public.
Offering students a blog will enable them to openly discuss and share quotes
and language techniques from their novel to assist each other in analyzing the
text.
Students can also create their own images and mind maps with the concepts
and ideas and post on their blog.
A PowerPoint presentation will be able to combine both visual and written text
to enable critical and creative thinking and can be uploaded for other students
to view.

15. Technology in Classroom
~ Wikispace ~
• Wikis are
another example
of collaborative
social learning
through digital
literacy. This
allows users to
collaborate and
communicate
ideas in an
online
community.

16. Year 9 – Project online using a Wikispace

17. Wordle – mind map
• Mindmapping
The use of mind mapping is an online
version of brainstorming which is a
valuable tool for students to do at the
start of a topic, unit, or to get started
on an assessment or project.

18. Teach with Web 2.0 - website

19. Student Video Productions: Media Studies
• My students created their own news programs by utilising iPads to film and used
scaffolded worksheets to write and produce news articles and interviews live which the
class where then able to view.

20. Interviews: Students had the task of interviewing William Shakespeare as part
of their Macbeth unit. They used effects, voice overs, sound to add to their previously
written interview script. The use of filming and producing their interview extended students
to move from solely writing and using technology in creative and inventive ways.

21. Student Online Magazines
• My Year 7 class were thoroughly engaged in our Media – Make your own magazine project. They
chose a topic of interest to them such as surfing or cars and they had a series of things they needed
to accomplish over the 2 weeks. They enjoyed working with technology and created professional
designs as well as wrote informative articles and interviews. I made the decision to allow them to
use technology as it would engage them and give them hands on experience of creating their own
magazine. They all excelled with the task as they already had acquired skills with these tools and
have been saturated with magazines which gave them prior knowledge of expectations.

22. STORYBOARDING
Storyboarding:
A great online resource to create narratives, plan a short film
or create a chronological visual representation.
Students benefit from use this tool to help plan and organise
their projects. It is a strong visual medium which helps assist
literacy learning.

23. Online social networking
• Facebook Social networking sites such as Facebook or
Myspace consist of personal profiles, blogs, photos, music,
videos and connect to other friends via the network.

24. Flickr
“Flickr provides all members with an online space where they can manage
their own ‘photostream’; uploaded images are shown in chronological order
and the template includes writing spaces for titles, descriptions and ‘tags’,”
(Davies, 2009,p. 34) which sets up a collaborative space where individuals
can share cultural ideas with people across the world.

25. FlickrA photosharing
website where
students can view
and share their
creative photos to
masses of
people. This kind
of publishing
creates an open
space for people
to display their
work. It is easy to
create an account
and you can
discuss your
favourite photos
and artists.

26. Avatars in Education
Definition: a movable image that represents a person in a virtual reality
environment or in cyberspace
Avatars foster visual literacy learning where students can become part of a
virtual world through creating their own character. This gives users the
opportunity to develop writing and communication skills among virtual peers.
http://www.slideshare.net/TanVeron/avatars-in-education-voki-13495690

27. Video Productions: iMovie & editing
• Implementing video productions into the classroom allows for a
system of education where you learn skills through using
editing programs to visualise an idea.
• The access to technology through the use of devices such as
IPads and video cameras offers students new ways to expand
on their conceptual ideas. Due to the constant saturation of
visual mediums through Youtube and online social media sites,
they are accustomed to this system of learning which allows
them to flourish using new tools.

28. iMovie and editing

29. iPoetry
• iPoetry creates the opportunity for group work or partner work which, “encourages an
exchange of viewpoint and verbal elaboration,” (Fleer & Jane, 2004, p. 260). Therefore,
iPoetry is an ideal method to incorporate into the classroom to extend and deliver
different outcomes with the implementation of new technologies to prepare students for a
developing 21st century.
• Therefore, poetry writing tasks need to be extended to push the boundaries and offer
new skills of interpretation as, “After students read, critiqued, and wrote poetry using
traditional print text, they employed digital tools to reinterpret those poems using
multimodal elements”, (Curwood & Cowell, 2011, p. 110). Furthermore, E-Poetry has
been discussed as a new practice where “classic literary devices, such as mood or
imagery, can come alive through sound effects, visual images, and dynamic transitions,”
(Curwood & Cowell, 2011, p. 112). le & Pullen, 2010, p. 2).

30. iPoetry
• Multimedia based poetry – students are able to bring their poems to
life using sound and images which conveys their message and mood.

31. Multimedia Projects using moving images
and titles

32. Conclusion
• According to Anstey & Bull, “The multiliterate person can interpret,
use, and produce electronic, live, and paper texts that employ
linguistic, visual, auditory, gestural, and spatial semiotic systems for
social, cultural, political, civic and economic purposes in socially and
culturally diverse contexts,” (as cited in Plair, 2007, p. 93).
• Both educators and students benefit from the practical applications
demonstrated and it is important to recognise the difference between
solely relying on using ICT tools to furthering the engagement to
integrating a range of multimodal texts and learning opportunities into
the classroom.

33. REFERENCES:
Wordle document
Teach with Web 2.0 website
Mindmapinspiration.com
Avatars: http://www.slideshare.net/TanVeron/avatars-in-education-voki13495690
Google Images
Youtube -