scholarly journals Introducing Everyday Digital Literacy Practices into the Classroom: An Analysis of Multi-layered Media, Modes and their Affordances

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adele Creer

Integrating digital media into classroom practice requires consideration on many levels, how young people access and engage with digital media at the level of media, mode and genre is complex and may redefine how literacy practices in the classroom are perceived. Young people use digital media in their everyday literacy practices and a failure to embrace new technologies in the classroom may lead to a disjuncture between their everyday and college-assessed literacy practices.  Following an analysis of communicative interactions that looked at multi-layered media, modes and their affordances, this paper offers insights from recent research.  It looks carefully at the congruence and incongruences that exists between the two literacy practices with the aim to offer rich insights into meaning making in what are comparatively new, digital literacy practices.  A major conclusion is that some assessment tasks do have congruence with young people’s everyday literacy practices but at times they either do not take account of the students ‘funds of knowledge’ (Moll et al.,1992) to the full which is likely to cause confusion and possible under performance.

2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Howard

English educators are responsible for preparing pre-service and in-service teachers to consider the ways in which people engage in meaning making by using a variety of representation, interpretive and communication systems. Today new technologies are radically changing the types of texts people create and interpret even as they are influencing the social, political and cultural contexts in which texts are shared. This research project was designed to immerse pre-service English education students in the creation of multimodal, multimedia texts as part of a digital composing workshop. For the purposes of this paper, three student experiences were drawn from a group of twelve pre-service English education students participating in the project. Each student represents a unique experience from which we may draw insight and direction as English educators. Despite the ever present barriers to integrating afterschool (Prensky, 2010) literacy practices into traditional schools and to ensure what we are teaching has the important element of “life validity” ( Mills, 2010) and reflects the evolving socio cultural literacy practices of contemporary society, English educators  must provide authentic, engaging opportunities for pre-service teachers to learn about and through multimedia, multimodal digital technologies.


2020 ◽  
pp. 230-239
Author(s):  
David Buckingham

Advocates of digital education have increasingly recognized the need for young people to acquire digital media literacy. However, this idea is often seen in instrumental terms, and is rarely implemented in any coherent or comprehensive way. This paper suggests that we need to move beyond a binary view of digital media as offering risks and opportunities for young people, and the narrow ideas of digital skills and internet safety to which it gives rise. The article propose that we should take a broader and more critical approach to the rise of ‘digital capitalism’, and to the ubiquity of digital media in everyday life. In this sense, the paper argue that the well-established conceptual framework and pedagogical strategies of media education can and should be extended to meet the new challenges posed by digital and social media.This article presents some reflections as an epigraph of the special issue "Digital learning: distraction or default for the future", whose final result has allowed us to group a set of critical research and analysis on the inclusion of digital technologies in educational contexts. The points of view presented in this epigraph is also developed in more detail in the book "The Media Education Manifesto" (Buckingham, 2019).


Author(s):  
Luis Pereira

Based on the assumption digital literacy needs a practical approach and actions, this chapter presents an initiative that intends to develop digital skills in a very creative way. Considering the challenge educators (for instance, teachers or librarians) face to promote digital literacy skills especially to young people in a very engaging way, some training was developed to create a possible answer to that problem. This chapter discusses the impact of that initiative that highlights the potential of humour and parody that we can find on digital media to teach digital literacy. According to some attendants, this approach was creative, engaging and built in their minds alternative paths to explore digital literacy and critical thinking.


Author(s):  
Kathy A. Mills ◽  
Len Unsworth

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.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 333-364 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Pitkänen-Huhta ◽  
Anastasia Rothoni

AbstractThis paper uses visual methods to explore how teenagers in two different European countries (Finland and Greece) personally relate to their first language and to English, which is widely used in the everyday lives of young people in both countries. Our data comprise sets of self-made visualizations in which 14- to 16-year-old teenagers depict their personal relationship to their first language (Finnish/Greek) and to English. Theoretically and methodologically, we subscribe to socio-culturally oriented research on (foreign language) literacy and language learning and recent studies on multilingualism. Overall, by offering a detailed account of the variety of representation forms and meaning-making symbols employed by our participants in their visual products, our analysis in this paper highlights the common but also diverse perceptions, values and attitudes that young people from two different European contexts bring to their practices and their encounters with English and other languages in their lives. By revealing the personal meanings and values attached by teenagers to English, our analysis also provides indirect insights into the multiple ways English is locally encountered, appropriated and drawn upon by young people in two different countries to serve their own purposes.


Author(s):  
Monica Fantin ◽  
Gilka Girardello

This chapter discusses the digital divide from the perspective of education and culture and highlights the forms in which the problem is presented in Brazil, understanding that it is not exclusive to this context. Given the complex challenges to digital inclusion in the context of globalization, the chapter emphasizes that for children and young people to be able to appropriate new technologies and languages in a significant manner, the promotion of digital literacy should be realized with respect to the concept of multiliteracies. Digital inclusion means much more than access to technologies and is understood as one of the fronts in the struggle against poverty and inequality. The authors propose that the understanding of the digital divide be enriched with the valorization of cultural mediations in the construction of digital literacy. In this sense, a culturalist perspective of media education can promote digital inclusion that is an experience of citizenship, belonging, and critical and creative participation of children and young people in the culture.


Author(s):  
Zuleica Aparecida Cabral ◽  
Mariele A. Mickalski

A chegada das novas tecnologias e o aumento de informações advindos da globalização faz com que haja a necessidade de os indivíduos dominarem as tecnologias que se encontram presentes nas atividades cotidianas, seja no trabalho, na escola, na vida social. Para que isso seja possível, o ensino deve estar voltado para a promoção do letramento digital dos alunos, a fim de que eles saibam dominar e lidar com situações cotidianas, nas quais as novas tecnologias se encontram presentes. Neste norte se busca, neste trabalho, trazer as perspectivas de professores de línguas, atuantes na sala de aula, acerca do letramento digital a partir de uma pesquisa qualitativa. Isso porque se entende a relevância das tecnologias digitais no ambiente educacional, na utilização da leitura e da escrita para a autonomia e construção de saberes dos alunos. Portanto, para que os alunos saiam da escola cidadãos letrados digitalmente e capazes de se incluírem no vasto universo de tecnologias, em que se encontra a  sociedade atualmente, faz-se necessário a inclusão de práticas de letramento digital na escola e na formação de jovens e adultos. Palavras-chave: Letramento Digital. Leitura/Escrita. Ensino de Línguas. AbstractThe arrival of new technologies and the increase of information coming from globalization makes it necessary for individuals to master the technologies that are present in daily activities, either it at work, at school or in social life. For this to be possible,  teaching should be aimed at promoting pupils' digital literacy so that they are able to master and deal with everyday situations in which new technologies are present. Therefore,  in this study it was sought to bring the perspectives of language teachers, acting in the classroom, about digital literacy from a qualitative research. This is because the relevance  is understood of digital technologies in the educational environment, in the use of reading and writing for students' autonomy and knowledge construction. Therefore, in order for students to leave school digitally literate citizens capable of being included in the vast universe of technologies in which our society is today, it is necessary to include digital literacy practices in school and in the training of young people and adults. Keywords: Digital Literacy. Reading/Writing. Language Teaching. 


2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Raimundo Nonato Moura Furtado

Resumo Neste trabalho apresentamos algumas reflexões sobre as práticas de letramento digital vivenciadas por uma turma de Educação a Distância usuários do Ambiente Virtual de Aprendizagem – AVA SOLAR da Universidade Federal do Ceará – UFC. Fundamentamos nosso trabalho principalmente nas reflexões de (CASSANY, 2005; ESHET-ALKALAI, 2004; SOARES, 2002; XAVIER, 2002; Buzato, 2001; LÉVY, 1999). Situamos essa investigação como uma pesquisa explicativa de caráter diagnóstico (GIL, 2002) situada no paradigma qualitativo-interpretativista (BORTONI-RICARDO, 2008). Construímos nossa amostra por meio de duas fontes: dois questionários e a análise das atividades do SOLAR. Os resultados apontam que as práticas de letramento digital recorrente nos dados são diversas e estão, principalmente, relacionadas às práticas vernaculares de letramento. Essas práticas estão vinculadas às diferentes agências de letramento com as quais estes participantes estiveram e estão relacionados.Os dados revelam  que ser letrado digital implica assumir mudanças nos modos de abordagem do texto com a utilização e com interação das múltiplas semioses em textos que estão em um suporte digital, no geral, a tela.  Palavras-chave: Letramento digital. Educação a distância. Novas tecnologias. Abstract In this work, we make some reflections on the practices of digital literacy experienced by a group of Distance Education users of Virtual Learning Environment - VLE SOLAR, Federal University of Ceará - UFC. We base our work mainly on r83eflections (CASSANY, 2005; Eshet-Alkalai, 2004; SOARES, 2002; XAVIER, 2002; Buzato, 2001; Lévy, 1999). We situate this research as an explanatory research diagnostic character (GIL, 2002) located in the qualitative-interpretative paradigm (BORTONI-RICARDO, 2008). We construct our sample by two sources: two questionnaires and the analysis of the activities of SOLAR. The results show that the practices of recurrent digital literacy in the data are diverse and are primarily related to vernacular literacy practices. These practices are linked to different agencies of literacy with which these participants were and are related. Our data indicate that being literate digital implies taking changes in the modes of approaching the text with the use and interaction of multiple semiosis in texts that are in a digital format, in general the screen. Keywords: Digital literacy. Distance education. New technologies.


2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 165
Author(s):  
Athanasios Mihalis

<p> </p><p><span> </span>This paper concerns digital literacy as a main dimension of social literacy in general, and especially as an important aspect of multimodal literacy. The main purpos-es of the paper (on a theoretical level) are the following: a) the definition of the nature and the main aspects and principles of digital literacy, which is regarded as not explicitly and sufficiently defined in an era of information and advanced technology; b) the presentation and analysis of students’ cognitive schemata (formal and content), which are a prerequisite for the cultivation of digital literacy practices, the social and linguistic aspects of digital literacy and the cultural dimension of this kind of literacy; c) the inves-tigation of ways to connect digital literacy and multimodality; d) the description of se-miotic resources and semiotic modes which are the main means for meaning making and meaning making transformation and redesigning, considered within the frame of social semiotic theory; e) finally, the discussion of some dimensions of critical digital literacy in </p><p>educational systems. Additionally, the main aims of the present paper, as a contribution to scientific research in the literacy field, are: a) to investigate the ways digital literacy practices are cultivated in Greek primary and secondary education through content analysis of the Greek language curricula and course books in secondary education and through the critical analysis of educational discourse; b) to present Greek language teachers’ attitudes towards the term and the aspects of multimodality and its location in the Greek educational system (the data about teachers’ attitudes are collected through interviews). The results of the research show that, in Greek education, digital literacy practices are considered to be an intentional process and a system of knowledge and skills (according the autonomous model of literacy) without being viewed in their social and ideological aspects within a communicative and cultural community. The considera-tion of semiotic resources and digital tools as isolated from their social context is in con-trast to language as semiotic mode, which is examined and studied in its social and cul-tural context. Also, language teachers are confused as far as the notion and the aspects of multimodality are concerned. Finally an example is provided of analysing a multimodal text positing an argument, so as to highlight the construction of meaning through a vari-ety of semiotic modes.Using this example, the content and practice of Greek language as an educational subject could be rejuvenated.</p>


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