Creating Access, Opportunity, and Ownership Through Cross-Cultural Meaning-Making in Academically Diverse Online Courses

2019 ◽  
pp. 42-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christi U. Edge ◽  
Abby Cameron-Standerford ◽  
Bethney Bergh
Keyword(s):  
Teaching Practices ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Multimodal Literacy ◽  
Multimodal Texts ◽  
Self Study ◽  
Relationship Of

As a group of three teacher educators representing reading, special education, and educational leadership, the authors conducted a self-study of their online teaching practices with the guiding question of “How can we use multimodal literacies to re-see our practices and to empower others to construct and to communicate meaning?” The purpose was to explore the pedagogic potentials of multimodal literacy by acting upon recent findings from their longitudinal, collaborative self-study into how they use and learn through visual literacy. They sought to extend their line of inquiry and to more inclusively empower learners to negotiate and to make meaning through multimodal literacy practices. Findings document how using protocols to critically “read,” discuss, and collaboratively make meaning from their online teaching practices illuminated the relationship of multimodal texts, visuals and literacy practices in fostering access, opportunity, and ownership for learners in online courses.

Multimodal Literacy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathy A. Mills ◽  
Len Unsworth
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Digital Images ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Mobile Technologies ◽  
Language And Literacy ◽  
Multimodal Literacy ◽  
Multimodal Texts ◽  
Making Meaning

Multimodal literacy is a term that originates in social semiotics, and refers to the study of language that combines two or more modes of meaning. The related term, multimodality, refers to the constitution of multiple modes in semiosis or meaning making. Modes are defined differently across schools of thought, and the classification of modes is somewhat contested. However, from a social semiotic approach, modes are the socially and culturally shaped resources or semiotic structure for making meaning. Specific examples of modes from a social semiotic perspective include speech, gesture, written language, music, mathematical notation, drawings, photographic images, or moving digital images. Language and literacy practices have always been multimodal, because communication requires attending to diverse kinds of meanings, whether of spoken or written words, visual images, gestures, posture, movement, sound, or silence. Yet, undeniably, the affordances of people-driven digital media and textual production have given rise to an exponential increase in the circulation of multimodal texts in networked digital environments. Multimodal text production has become a central part of everyday life for many people throughout the life course, and across cultures and societies. This has been enabled by the ease of producing and sharing digital images, music, video games, apps, and other digital media via the Internet and mobile technologies. The increasing significance of multimodal literacy for communication has led to a growing body of research and theory to address the differing potentials of modes and their intermodality for making meaning. The study of multimodal literacy learning in schools and society is an emergent field of research, which begins with the important recognition that reading and writing are rarely practiced as discrete skills, but are intimately connected to the use of multimodal texts, often in digital contexts of use. The implications of multimodal literacy for pedagogy, curriculum, and assessment in education is an expanding field of multimodal research. In addition, there is a growing attention to multimodal literacy practices that are practiced in informal social contexts, from early childhood to adolescence and adulthood, such as in homes, recreational sites, communities, and workplaces.

Engaging Mathematically in Synchronous Platforms

2020 ◽  
pp. 119-140
Author(s):  
Eileen Fernández ◽  
Eliza Leszczyński
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Mathematics Teacher Education ◽  
Learning Management Systems ◽  
Online Interactions ◽  
Online Platforms ◽  
Education Community ◽  
Self Study

In a qualitative self-study, two teacher educators introduce the notion of engaging mathematically to study synchronous interactions in two of their online courses for K-8 teachers. By studying the interactions between themselves and their teachers, the teacher educators are able to describe novel opportunities, negotiations, struggles, and insights involved in engaging mathematically in online platforms. Their mathematical and pedagogical illustrations convey new possibilities for synchronous online interactions during mathematics lessons. These descriptions address a gap in the research on online teaching about how mathematics can be negotiated within these platforms, as well as concerns about the meaningfulness of interactions in online settings. Implications to teacher education practitioners and researchers, and developers of learning management systems suggest the importance of the teacher education community taking a lead role in ensuring that online teaching has a purposeful part to play in the field of mathematics teacher education.

A Teacher Educator's Meaning-Making From a Hybrid “Online Teaching Fellows” Professional Learning Experience

2021 ◽  
pp. 422-455
Author(s):  
Christi Edge
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Teaching Fellows ◽  
Theory Of Reading

This chapter describes a two-part, hybrid “Online Teaching Fellows” faculty development initiative and the tensions and transformations one faculty participant experienced. Case study and self-study research methodologies were utilized to systematically document and explore, from an insider's perspective, the lived experience of professional learning related to the design and delivery of online courses. This chapter identifies and describes tensions and transformations that contributed to professional learning and concludes with a discussion of how literacy practices in the design of frameworks for teaching and for learning may contribute to understanding how instructors read and make meaning from experiences in the context of professional learning. Implications extend Rosenblatt's transactional theory of reading and writing to multimodal online teaching and learning contexts.

scholarly journals Meaning-making in fifth-graders’ multimodal texts

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sofia Jusslin ◽  
Ulrika Magnusson ◽  
Katarina Rejman ◽  
Ria Heilä-Ylikallio ◽  
Siv Björklund
Keyword(s):  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Fifth Grade ◽  
Multimodal Literacy ◽  
Multimodal Texts ◽  
Fifth Grade Students ◽  
Writing Research ◽  
Semiotic Approach ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Research Questions

Despite a growing body of research on multimodal writing, scholars still express a need for formal frameworks for discussing multimodal literacy practices and call for  research on multimodality in education that develops a vocabulary to approach multimodal texts in teaching. This study answers this call by presenting an analysis that adds to the field of  multimodal writing research, and thus furthers the knowledge of different semiotic potentials of modes in student-produced texts. Drawing on a social semiotic approach to multimodality, a total of 299 texts, written by fifth-grade students from three schools in Sweden and Finland, are analyzed. The aim is to explore semiotic modes used in the student-produced written texts. The guiding research questions are: (1) What modes are used in the texts, and (2) what meanings are realized through the different modes in the texts. Results showed that six different modes were used to realize meanings in five categories: create representative meaning; visualize phenomena and assignments; foreground important areas; design the text; and decorate the paper. These categories offer a vocabulary that can describe semiotic potentials of the modes and how they realize different meanings in multimodal texts. Such a vocabulary can aid teachers in cultivating, supporting, and assessing students’ multimodal writings that contain multiple modes. From these results, we suggest that acknowledging the diversity of the modes and their meanings in student texts can help raise the awareness of how students also make meaning in modes beyond writing and image.

Access, Opportunity, and Curriculum Making Through Multimodal Meaning-Making and Technology Integration in Teacher Education

2020 ◽  
pp. 188-213
Author(s):  
Christi U. Edge
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Technology Integration ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Teacher Educator ◽  
Multimodal Literacy ◽  
Multimodal Texts ◽  
Secondary Reading ◽  
Critical Friends ◽  
Curriculum Making

This chapter describes an investigation into exploring meaning making through multimodal literacy practices and technology integration for teacher education within the context of an online, secondary reading course for K-12 teachers. Through the use of a collaborative conference protocol, discourse with cross-disciplinary critical friends, and visual thinking data analysis strategies, a teacher educator examined existing multimodal literacy practices and then studied course redesign and technology integration. Results include recognizing opportunities for diverse learners to access and use prior knowledge in the construction of new knowledge, reframing the course delivery platform as a multimodal “text,” increasing opportunity for learners to construct and communicate complex understandings through multimodal texts and technology-infused assessments, and learners' curriculum making through transmediation mediated by technology.

A Teacher Educator's Meaning-Making From a Hybrid “Online Teaching Fellows” Professional Learning Experience

2019 ◽  
pp. 76-109
Author(s):  
Christi Edge
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Teaching Fellows ◽  
Theory Of Reading

This chapter describes a two-part, hybrid “Online Teaching Fellows” faculty development initiative and the tensions and transformations one faculty participant experienced. Case study and self-study research methodologies were utilized to systematically document and explore, from an insider's perspective, the lived experience of professional learning related to the design and delivery of online courses. This chapter identifies and describes tensions and transformations that contributed to professional learning and concludes with a discussion of how literacy practices in the design of frameworks for teaching and for learning may contribute to understanding how instructors read and make meaning from experiences in the context of professional learning. Implications extend Rosenblatt's transactional theory of reading and writing to multimodal online teaching and learning contexts.

Online Teaching Practices of Science and Mathematics Preservice Teachers in middle schools

2022 ◽  
pp. 195-228
Author(s):  
Neusa Branco ◽  
Susana Colaço ◽  
Bento Cavadas
Keyword(s):  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Teaching Practices ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Inservice Teachers ◽  
Internship Experience ◽  
And Mathematics ◽  
6Th Graders ◽  
Work Student

The chapter presents a qualitative study that describes and discusses the teaching practices of four preservice teachers (PSTs) during their mathematics and science internship with 6th graders, performed in the context of distance learning related with the COVID-19 pandemic. The data collected included PSTs' documents, such as lesson plans, descriptions of and reflections on the practical work, student outputs, and interviews. The online organization and dynamics of the internship process describe the practices of the PSTs, inservice teachers, and teacher educators, which provided a practical context for the development of PSTs' online practice. Moreover, the results present digital educational resources used by PSTs, mainly for inquiry, communication, construction, and problem-solving purposes. PSTs pointed out benefits arising from the online internship experience. It better prepared them to use and create digital resources, increased awareness of the importance of collaboration and the role of formative assessment.

scholarly journals FACULTY SELF-STUDY RESEARCH PROJECT: EXAMINING THE ONLINE WORKLOAD

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Melody M. Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Online Teaching ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Time On Task ◽  
Online Environment ◽  
Faculty Workload ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Self Study ◽  
Penn State ◽  
Productive Time

Concerns about faculty workload in the online environment are a reported deterrent to participation in online teaching. To date, such concerns have been based primarily on anecdotal evidence rather than empirical research. This paper describes a project in which six faculty members teaching courses through the Penn State World Campus conducted studies of the comparative workload in the online environment. Results of the studies indicated that faculty workload for teaching these online courses, as measured by time on task, was comparable to or somewhat less than that for face-to-face courses. However, a differential “chunking” of productive time contributed in some cases to a perception of increased workload. The success of the project suggests it is a replicable model for investigating various elements of the faculty experience in the online environment.

scholarly journals Applications of multimodal concordances

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (41) ◽  
pp. 11
Author(s):  
Anthony Baldry ◽  
Paul J. Thibault
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Multimodal Literacy ◽  
Multimodal Texts ◽  
Multimodal Discourse ◽  
Language Tests ◽  
Multimodal Corpora ◽  
Multimodal Corpus ◽  
Textual Organization

Multimodal corpus linguistics has so far been a theoretical rather than an applicative discipline. This paper sketches out proposals that attempt to bridge between these two perspectives. It does so with particular reference to the development of the conceptual and software tools required to create and concordance multimodal corpora from the applicative standpoint and as such is designed to underpin the study of texts at universities in foreign-language teaching and testing cycles. One branch of this work relates to multimedia language tests which, as illustrated in Section 2, use concordancing techniques to analyze multimodal texts in relation to students’ understanding of oral and written forms of discourse in English. Another branch is the exploration of multimodal tests concerned with the explicit assessment of students’ knowledge of the principles and/or models of textual organization of multimodal texts. The two types of test are not mutually exclusive. A third branch of research thus relates to the development of hybrid tests which, for example, combine a capacity to analyze multimodal texts with an assessment of students’ language skills, such as fluency in speaking and writing in English or which ascertain the multimodal literacy competencies of students and the differing orientations to meaning-making styles that individuals manifest. The paper considers these different applicative perspectives by describing the different categories of concordance achievable with the MCA online concordancer (Section 2) and by defining their relevance to multimodal discourse analysis (Section 3). It also illustrates the use of meaning-oriented multimodal concordances in the creation and implementation of multimodal tests (Sections 4). It concludes by suggesting that the re-interpretation of the nature and functions of concordances is long overdue and that the exploration of new types of concordance is salutary for linguistics and semiotics in general.

Evolving Practice for Training Online Designers and Instructors

2019 ◽  
pp. 166-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott R. Garrigan
Keyword(s):  
Online Instruction ◽  
Teaching Practices ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Teaching Style ◽  
Single Model ◽  
Online Instructors ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Student Interests ◽  
Online Instructor

Online courses place greater responsibility and demands on both the instructor and students compared to traditional face-to-face courses. Online instructors and designers are often given checklists of required or best online teaching practices to help them meet the challenge. But these checklists tend to assume that online courses fall into a single model that is independent of course goals and of the unique teaching style and strengths of the online instructor. This chapter presents the author's methods and values in training online instructors and designers. Conventional online instruction model aside, the focus is on helping the instructor and designer identify salient aspects of the course, the students, and the instructor. The chapter presents methods, content, and values that may to be less known, less understood, or difficult to implement for new designers and instructors. Each model builds on elements such as student interests, deep engagement, group collaboration, and practical assessment.

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