Week 7- Introduction to
the Range of New Literacies
Having taken another class
on literacy instruction, I felt I had thought a lot about students and their
interactions with text until I read this article. This concept of a different
relationship with text; one where the reader is gaining more insight from the
actual font, font size and typesetting than from the text itself, was eye
opening. I have three children of my own and realize young readers take visual
clues from each page. How often have we seen young readers scan the page before
reading the words when just learning to read? This is an great technique to
help the reader understand the supposed content of the text. However, I had
never considered the other elements of multimodal text and the dynamics of this
writer, reader and teacher relationship. Text can create pathways to follow, for
example different windows to open or doorways to enter. Text can present
parallel displays of information with cross-referencing features (i.e. see page
6 for more information or see glossary at back of book). Text can contain
extreme graphics and images and interact with a reader in such a way as to
provide the possibility for every reader to have a different interaction and relationships with
the text. Text can allow readers to form their own opinion and can pose
questions to readers enabling them to construct meaning.
The teacher’s role is very
important in the multimodal learning environment. The teacher models this type
of constructivist learning and asks young readers to not only tell what they
know but explain how they know it.
Multimodal practices in education create new
roles for the writer, the reader and the teacher. I really enjoyed this article
and am thinking beyond the scope of the article to the endless possibilities
and new instructional dynamics that can be created with interactive online
books. There are so many possibilities.
This is a fascinating and
informative article about the potential of using Second Life (SL) for educational
purposes. SL can provide “near real life environments” for learning as well as
for social interaction and exploration. SL offers instructors and learners
alike the option of taking virtual field trips and participating in simulations.Most importantly, according to the article, SL can create a sense of
community, which can often be lacking in online learning environments. The
article was careful to point out the realities of using SL in a school setting.
Often schools block SL because it can use a great deal of the bandwidth on a
network. SL does not provide a platform for distribution and submission of
documents nor an environment for assessment. In addition SL require a higher
end computer to run because of the need for a good graphics card. And, in
addition the SL network is an open one, meaning anyone can enter a classroom on
SL and observe or participate. This can be distracting to the teacher and the
learner.
However, it seems that
there are many options for teaching and learning and building a sense of
community. After reading this article I would be inclined to further explore
the educational possibilities of SL.
No comments:
Post a Comment