Week Three Journal Post

"Multimodal Composition" is this a pedagogy worth exploring?

In the text A New Literacies Reader Edited by C. Lankshear and M. Knobel, 2013 chapter one discusses "Multimodal Play," which at first glance sounds like a video game but it's actually far more. Multimodal play refers to the use of multiple models or instruments used to communicate creative expressions and ideas. 

The composer can mix and lace together if you will text, sound and image in order to convey ones thoughts. This kind of communication is interesting to me because just as it states in the text, "multimodal approach allows educators and researchers to attend to all of the resources involved in composing" (Lankshear & Knobel,2013). This says so much about exploration and discovery. However, not just exploration and discovery of clever and creative ways to use multimodalities but more importantly the exploration of the persons and minds doing the creating and the discovery of aptitudes and talents. 

For instance, lets say a student has difficulty expressing ones thoughts clearly with the written word but is excellent with artistic. The multimodal approach in this case can help the student place a higher emphasis on imagery while underscoring the images with short word phrases thus allowing the student to utilize more of their natural talent or aptitude rather than being stunted by the one modality that they struggle with. 


Reference: 

Lankshear, C., & Knobel, M. (2013). A new literacies reader: educational perspectives. New York: Peter Lang.