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We begin by taking a look at two presentations which themselves model certain aspects of multiliteracy. When viewing the presentations, note how they differ from what Tuman (1992) calls 'print literacy'. What are some of the 'other' literacies required to not only make such presentations, but to view them? What do the presentations themselves suggest about literacy competencies required of a modern multiliterate online language teacher?
Sun Microsystems has some practical pages on writing for the Web as opposed to writing on paper
Module 1 - What is multiliteracy
Topic 1. Toward a definition of 'multiliteracies'
Please view and listen to the presentation by Stephen Downes on "Reusable Media, Social Software and Openness in Education" at http://www.downes.ca/files/utah.ppt with accompanying audio at http://www.downes.ca/files/utah.mp3 After viewing, please contribute your insights to the discussion toward your definition of multiliteracy in the Moodle forum set up for this purpose.
Check out Stephen's Web at http://www.downes.ca/If you are reading Selber, you will be developing a framework for your comments (in other words, you will be developing the literacy skills to enable you to discourse on this topic). If you don't have access to this book, you can use the source materials you found in Event Cycle 1 to help you with this framework.
Links on What is Multiliteracy?
Norbella Miranda's 2004 RECAP OF EVENT CYCLE: MULTILITERACIES (annotated by Vance) has been archived in two places:
A sampling of 2005 responses to the question: What are multiliteracies?
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Bob Palmer: Keying in “multiliteracy” and “multiliteracies” turned up nothing at either Merriam-Webster Online or Dictionary.com, suggesting, as we might expect, that definitions for both terms are evolving. The root “literacy” came back with “the quality or state of being literate, the ability to read and write.” |
But surely there are other literacies required if we are to intelligently interpret non-textual, non-linear information such as maps, schematics, navigational charts, and music scores. I would include these in any broad definition of multiliteracies. A google search was more fruitful. Although one site associated multiliteracy with multilingualism, most others addressed the term within the context of computer literacy. A good example can be found at: http://education.qld.gov.au/corporate/newbasics/html/curric-org/comm.html
Contributor Anstey, M. (2002) holds that multiliteracy “involves being literate about illustrations as well as language.” These include (again quoting):
traditional print literacies (to record information and ideas) visual literacies (for overall design and to manipulate images) aural and musical literacies (to build a soundscape around the page) mathematical understandings of number and chance and data (to keep track of usage and to survey interest levels)
Another good find was: http://www.si.umich.edu/about-SI/news-detail.htm?NewsItemID=136. Here, Daley, E. (2002) writes that multiliteracy really means “literacy that incorporates text, images, and sound and recognizes the importance of interactivity and nonlinear skills."
In this sense, the term “multiliteracy” could be a derivation of “multimedia literacy.” Anyway, I suspect both of the latter descriptions tie in more closely with what we will be studying in PP 107.
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Buthaina Alothman: My essay on multiliteracies is published on my Multilit 2 FIT blog, here: < http://multilit2fit.blogspot.com/ > And < http://del.icio.us/buthaina > was added to Links at the multilit YG. |
Multiliteracies is a multiple-form of knowledge, including print, images, video, combinations of forms in digital contexts, which we are required to represent in an equally complex way.
The term multiliteracies was created by the New London Group (1996) to emphasize two related aspects of the increasing complexity of texts:
I understood that multiliteracies is a revolution in education leading to inevitable major shifts or changes in pedagogy related to technology and human values. It’s about the nature and future of learning, new teachers and new teaching, formal and informal learning settings, and hopes of developing more dynamic and engaging learning environments or learning in communities of practice or action. Multiliteracies in the 21st century is what was literacy in the “60s” for the 20th century.
The purpose of multiliteracies is to extend literacy teaching for our new times, i.e. creating lifelong learners who are FIT (Fluency in Information Technology)and able to live with confidence in a new constantly changing society or world.
Resources:
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Dennis Oliver: A terrific essay, Buth! I had read several articles on the ideas of the New London Group, plus interpretive comments on those ideas, and your essay summarized what I read very well indeed. Thank you for your lucidity. My comments are here: http://multilit.blogspot.com/ |
Multiliteracy. Hmmm.
I've been pondering this topic for three days, and unless I completely misunderstand the ideas of the New London Group, literacy (absorbing information through the artifacts, such as the printed page, used to convey it) is, due to the globalization of society made possible through rapid advances in technology, changing: we understand through becoming color-literate, sound-literate, place-literate, and more.
I think we've always been "multiliterate": even what we understand from what we read changes as we accumulate life experience. We synthesize what we encounter along the way and add it to the mix of input from whatever medium adds to the message. We consider the social setting. We factor in cultural elements. We link to similar past experiences. We consider age and gender and occupation and purpose and a hundred other things—and as long as we remain mentally active, we all gradually become more and more multiliterate. I understand far differently now, I think, than I did at 16 or 30 or even 50 because my input both increases and changes.
I think what the New London Group has done is to try to shake up our thinking and force us to realize that many elements combine in the information processing we call 'understanding.' I don't think this is really anything new, though I grant that the ingredients of the mix of stimuli may be. We're all multiliterate. We have to be unless we want to remain frozen in time and space.
Sources:
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Shelly Peters: I've finally gotten some thoughts down at: http://shellbakis.buzznet.com/user/ |
This seems a little hard to wrap your brain around, but I've been gathering that multiliteracy is somewhat like this picture. It's a mosaic of sorts -- lots of little pieces that can each stand on their own coming together to form a changed and more complete whole. The "whole" in this case seems to be literacy or, to put it another way, comprehension and utilization of meaning. The "little pieces" seem to be all the different channels that carry information to us (e.g. spatial, visual, audio, textual, gestural). They all come together and are, in turn, influenced by one another and by the way the receiver arranges them.
The especially interesting thing about it to me is the idea that receiving, comprehending and utilizing meaning can be looked at in terms of "design" -- "that a person is both an inheritor of patterns and conventions of meaning while at the same time an active designer of meaning". That means that multiliteracies involve not only skills and abilities and knowledge but also a unique and creative slant that is dependent upon a person's background and experiences.
I don't know if this even makes any sense or is on target at all, but it was just what came to mind as I tried to process all of these different channels and sort of design my own meaning... :o)
Here's what got me thinking:
2. WEB LITERACY THROUGH SOCIO-CONSTRUCTIVISM 2.2.1 AN APPROACH TO LITERACY AS A SOCIO-CONSTRUCTIVE PRACTICE: MULTILITERACIES - http://kielikompassi.jyu.fi/resurssikartta/netro/gradu/g_2_2_1.shtml; from Johanna Ahtikari and Sanna Eronen. (2004). On a journey towards web literacy - The electronic learning space Netro. A dissertation submitted at the University of JYVÄSKYLÄ Department of Languages. Retrieved September 23, 2004 from: http://kielikompassi.jyu.fi/resurssikartta/netro/gradu/index.shtml
Check it out!
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Hyman Wong: I enjoy reading all your posts and they are very stimulating. Shelley use the Mosiac metaphor to describe the part whole concept and how they interact. Bob's post provides a very good definition of multiliteracies. Also, Buth offered a very good summary of the idea from the New London Group. Dennis also provide his perspective of multiliteracies. |
After reading all posts, my own idea of multiliteracies seems have modified. I search on the ProQuest electronic database and key in multiliteracies and multiliteracy.
One article by Schewarzer, Haywood, Lorenzen, 2003. Fostering multiliteracy in a linguistically divese classroom, Language Arts. Urbana:Jul 2003 Vol 80, p. 453. Multiliteracy is elaborated in the multi-cultural context. It examines the relationship of native langauge and second langauge in a culturally diversified classroom setting. The writers did not define multiliteracy explicitly. My understanding of multiliteracy from the article is multiple language literacy that a learner develops. So, a person who is multiliterate is someone who is literate in more than one language.
Another journal article I found offers me a different interpretation of multiliteracies.
J. Grabill, T. Hicks. (2005). Multiliteracies meet Methods: The case for digital writing in English education, English Education, Urbana: July 2005, Vol 37, issue 4, P.301.
They discuss multiliteracies in a technology setting. They look into how ICT and Literacy education are related to each other, or hoe technology changes writing, how linguistics, society, culture and technology impact on literacy education, making changes in nature, form, pedagogy of literacy education.
The two articles offer very different meanings of the term multiliteracy(ies). I think multiliteracy(ies) is a concept is multiple domains and a inter-discipline subject. The first article explains it from a more cultural persective and the second one is more into the technological aspect of multiliteracies.
Second, I wonder if the term "multiliteracy" and "multiliteracies" are used in different domains or not. It seems to me that the multiliteracy is non-technological and the multiliteracies is the tech one.
I haven't started my course blog but just put down some thoughts in the notepad.
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Holly Dilatush: I've read through the presentation Downes gave, but couldn't get the audio to work today -- he certainly is a thought-provoker. I have my doubts as to whether the majority of educators will ever (at least in the culture of educators as I know it/experience it) become as 'all-hands & brains in the fire' as Downes encourages -- but it's a hopeful thought nonetheless. |
For whatever reason, my brain took a tangent to the way some hospitals/physicians are now communicating by satellite TV DURING live operations -- exchanging info -- and envisioning what could be, then sharing the outcome --- my mind sees classrooms doing that from Yemen to Iraq to Texas to NYC -- hurricanes to drought to blizzards -- imagine it! Eureka! (where do we find/how do we design a heuristic for that?) answer: via technological tools, of course!, with a fine dose of human compassion and integrity thrown in for good measure...
I’m surprised no one has included voice recordings on their comments – I may try to add one, and find out that we can’t on this medium – but multi-literacy to me MUST acknowledge the power of all four – perhaps one reason I have so loved Moodle and the courses I’ve been taking online is because voice (audio voice) has been a part of all this. I do recall feeling, experiencing and commenting on the power of authentic voice enriching my distance learning experiences. So, even though Selber’s book is targeting writing professors, I believe listening and speaking are inextricably interwoven with reading and writing!
Hello everyone! I've been reading and enjoying your posts (really, I have!), and remain amazed at how others seem to multi-task so much more efficiently than I. I love these online courses, but am finding it increasingly difficult to manage my time to handle them... I have a passionate personality and compassions and passions tend to over-immerse me in most things I do... enough whining!
Wow! This is an interesting exploration. I've posted a LONG blogpost to
http://www.tabulas.com/~jonquil -- this is a blog I started years ago with the intent to post with ESL and career-related mental meanderings. As you'll see, I've been quite neglectful (instead, I have drawers and notebooks full of post-its, scrap papers of jotted notes, and multiple beginnings to blog posts saved as Word documents -- sigh... on some things I am a slow learner!).
Anyway, a recognizable title to my recent entry is PP107 Multiliteracy -- I suggest you refill your refreshment of choice before sitting back to attempt reading it!
What is multi-literacy? Good question! What is computer literacy? What should students know how to do? What should teachers teach? What are obstacles? These and other questions were introduced in the preface – random thoughts:
definition of multi-literacy – info found on web: http://www.pkp.ubc.ca/multiliteracies/ The term multiliteracies was coined by the New London Group (1996) to highlight two related aspects of the increasing complexity of texts: (a) the proliferation of multimodal ways of making meaning where the written word is increasingly part and parcel of visual, audio, and spatial patterns; (b) the increasing salience of cultural and linguistic diversity characterized by local diversity and global connectedness .
and Eureka! I found myself researching/refreshing my knowledge of the term heuristic! (Webster’s definition and appended info from wikipedia were quite enlightening – I actually printed them out for future reflection! (I’m hoping someone reading this will be curious enough to find the time and initiative to locate it and read it themselves!).
…back to random comments on Chapter 1,
Enough! Now, if anyone has actually read this, you’ll have a better grasp as to why I’m so late in posting – I’ve spent an accumulated 7+ hours on this course so far – precious hours I don’t really have to spare! sigh! And I’m still behind in the work – dang!
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Am I late? he he Well, I wrote an entry on my LiveJournal blog and there is a Web page linked to it with my view. http://www.livejournal.com/users/dygonza/ hugs, Daf |
The course deals with "Multiliteracies for Collaborative Learning Environments". I have been kindly invited to attend by its moderator, Vance Stevens. We are pretty familiar with what collaborative learning environments are, but... MULTILITERACIES...Hmmm, what is that? Well, that's what we are supposed to get to in the second cycle of the course (in the first cycle we introduced ourselves and interacted informally with the rest of the participants in Moodle ). After reading the different enlightening works done by other participants, I decided to take a look at what goes on inside my classrooms, and I created this Web page I would appreciate your comments. http://daf4.free.fr/pp107/multiliteracies-images.html
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Roger Drury: I've done a couple of definition entries on my blog http://journal-multilit.blogspot.com/ , but I'll paste the latest -- and fuller -- one below: I did a Google search on ?multiliteracies? and selected this web site as my source for information: http://bevtrayner.tripod.com/multilits/ |
This site is a literature review for someone getting ready to work on a dissertation, so it both summarizes and is fairly comprehensive. Too comprehensive, I think. I read several pages of it and followed many links that I thought looked interesting. I think I've come to something of an understanding of 'multiliteracies.'
A 'literacy' is just the ability to communicate using some kind of ..er.. tool! For example, a sculptor communicates with sculpture; a choreographer, with choreography, a designer, with design; a language user, with language. To a large extent, I think the word 'literacy' overlaps the word 'discipline.' This seems pretty simple, but I guess I'm dense because it's taken me a lot of effort to get at this little definition.
First, I had to get past my idea that someone who was 'literate' was able to be the receptor of a message. That's not what it means here. The 'literate' in 'multiliteracies' is a person who can both originate and receive a message. That is, a person who can communicate.
Along this same line, I also had some confusion about all the talk of 'technological literacy.' I thought 'technological literacy' was the ability to use technological tools, and the non-teacher example I thought of was the job of today's poor car mechanic. Way back when, I was able to do my own work on my car, and although I never really liked doing it, it was easier than getting to a garage'and often more reliable. However, the job of a car mechanic started changing about 15 years ago, and I couldn't work on a car now if I had to because cars have too many electronics and because the repair tools are specialized computers. I thought, therefore, that an auto mechanic today had to be 'mulitliterate.' Now, however, I've changed my mind about that example of 'multiliteracy.' The mechanic definitely has to know to use a lot of technology, but you wouldn't call that 'technological literacy' because the mechanic isn't communicating. 'Literacy' refers to communication.
Then, I had to get past the term FLUENCY. Being literate doesn't necessarily mean being fluent. After reading, I think that 'fluency' is just a measure of the degree of success you have in whatever area of literacy you are talking about. For example, a person who can move you -- 'speak to' you -- in music is fluent. On the other hand, a person like me may have some literacy in music but is definitely not fluent in it.
My last major confusion concerned DISCOURSE. This confusion is just a result of my education. I see discourse as quite similar to culture. There is, if you will, a discourse in a field like pottery; potters talk about things like slips and firing when they are together, and the words have a different meaning than when we normal people (oops -- 'imperialism' at work!) use them. Discourse involves social groupings, cultural groupings, shared-interest groupings. These are not literacies, though. Literacy occurs within (and sometimes between) discourses.
So at my yard sale yesterday, there was a range of discourse, and many people were able to communicate among the various discourses. In fact, the yard sale itself is a social discourse with its own set of codes and traditions. However, it didn't involve literacies, despite the fact that people spoke so many different languages and came from so many backgrounds.
I used two literacies when I made the first blog entry about multiliteracy, though. I wrote my response in language, and then I added a photo.
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Vance: Is absorbing and will react to all of this shortly. I think my reaction will be in the form of a piece I must knock out Real Soon Now for TESL-EJ. I'm On the Internet editor there and I think my contribution is the only thing holding up publication of the September issue. I had a vague idea to write something on multiliteracies. Now, I wonder if I can find that 'something' in the multiliterate outpouring of my friends and colleagues in this course? I wonder if I can find any reflection time in the next few days? Don't touch that dial (now what kind of literacy is THAT from? ... multigenerational perhaps ... that's another one for your list Dennis ... ) |
Still with us from last year ...
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Lilia Joy: Here is a definition of multiliteracy that I found on the web: http://intel.si.umich.edu/news/news-detail.cfm?NewsItemID=136 |
Multimedia literacy includes "nontext writing," such as new approaches to learning that place production technology in the hands of the learner. This makes various forms of technology an instrumental part of the learning process. "We really mean literacy that incorporates text, images, and sound and recognizes the importance of interactivity and nonlinear skills," Daley says.
Vance's introduction and my search for multiliteracy articles made me wonder if my ESL students are learning as much as or the same way as they would in traditional setting. I'll explain why. In my current ESL Lab, we use an electronic textbook (more of a grammar manual I would say), so my students have to read the explanations on the screen, then complete activities with built-in keys. What I would like to know is if this type of visual presentation and interactivity with the computer makes learning more effective or not. What I have noticed so far is that the students skim through the rule explanation as fast as they can (if pay any attention at all) and move on to the activities. With this type of activities, however, they seem more involved than with the exercises they have to complete in their workbook.
I found a couple articles that may answer my questions (I just need to find full texts..:))
http://activated.decs.act.gov.au/reading/curr_jour_hotlists_multiliteracies.htm
Zammit, K; Downes,T
New learning environments and the multiliterate
individual : a framework for educators.
Australian Journal of Language and
Literacy v.25 n.2 p.24-36 June 2002
Being literate in today's society and in the future is more than just being able to read and write the written word. With advances in technology and the inclusion of technology in educational settings students are reading and viewing an increasingly complex and diverse range of multimodal texts. Literacy and learning in these new environments requires students to be multiliterate. This paper presents a curriculum framework for new learning environments to assist teachers to develop pedagogical practices for the multiliterate student, the case for the use of metalanguages in the implementation of this framework, and an example of the use of the curriculum framework with a year 6 class.
Zammit,K The literacy demands of visual text : working with new learning environments. Scan v.19 n.3 p.10-14 August 2000 This article discusses the teaching and learning of literacy in electronic and digital environments. The needs of students who are using electronic learning environments to create their own text by piecing together parts of relevant information they have collected, being able to evaluate and critically read texts they find and the ability to work in an environment where links to texts and hot linked words are commonplace are issues discussed in the context of visual literacy. The use of the Internet to collect information and the use of graphics on web pages which compound literacy issues with students tending not to read deeply each part of the page, are issues discussed. The author argues that the best way for students to become visually literate in the new medium is through a program of work. The article includes a description of what a visual literacy program might include.
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Graciela Martin: As a result of globalization, we are faced with cultural and linguistic diversity, and also with advances in communication technologies. Being "multi-literate" means not only being literate in the use of these technologies, but also being adaptable to change. |
Using existing technologies, adopting new ones, and adapting oneself to change in culture, language and technology increases one's reach both as an educator and as a student.
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Norbella Miranda: "In light of changing economic and social realities ( Castell, 1996, 1997a, 1997b; Reich,1991) academic textual literacy has become one of many literacies that Canadians need in order to function in a global economy. The multiliteracies that have become increasingly important in our technologically-evolving, globalized economy include information, communication and media technology, as well as culturally specific literacies required to function in a culturally diverse pluralistic society (New London Group, 1996). " Source: http://www.pkp.ubc.ca/multiliteracies/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=2 |
What I understand of being multiliterate is being able not only to read textual messages, but also be competent in interpreting symbols and images, and in using multimedia and other technological tools, such as the internet, all of which allow us construct meaning, learn and interact with others. Being multiliterate also embraces understanding multiculturalism and showing respect to diversity, which reflects in effective interaction. Although the concept of multiliteracies expands the vision of knowledge, it might perhaps as well increase the gap of those who have access to the different "literacy means" and those who don't. Our positions, yours, being able to read this post online, and mine, being able to write and publish it, is indeed different from many others' , who are struggling to have an opportunity to learn to read and write in paper.
Events in Event Cycle 2
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on this page Last updated: September 18, 2005 |
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