Prompt #2- Multimodalities

Mill's article Shrek Meets Vygotsky: Rethinking Adolescents' Multimodal Literacy Practices in Schools discusses multimodalities and how multimodal text gives recognition to the outside world. It expands the notion of what composition is and how it can come in different forms not simply through pen and paper. Multimodal thinking gives recognition to the outside world of school as the majority of students are online constantly. However, not all students are digital natives. Often those who are the most proficient at online modalities are those who can afford to have the technology readily available or they are in a location where there is internet hookups. Students do not magically know how to use these technologies. They need to learn them along with everyone else. Also, it is essential as educators to foster creative thinking so students can decipher the constant flow of information on the internet as much of the information online is inaccurate or simply false.

Miller's article English Teacher Learning for New Times: Digital Video Composing as Multimodal Literacy Practices discusses the importance of multimodal literacy and how digital video composing is just as important as writing as an essay as it provides a way of composing and expressing without the written word. This is a powerful tool as it allows for a different creative outlet for students.

A working definition of multimodalities from both articles is: Two or more forms in representation: linguistic, visual, audio, gestural and spatial that often includes various forms of technology. These forms of literacies are often deeply rooted in new social contexts and practices.

This framework is key as it expands the notion of what composition is and that composition can come in all sorts of forms not just in five paragraph essay format. Students can still be assessed on various forms of multimodalties while being unconfined and creative.

Multimodalities is essential in education so that students are taught things that are interesting with technology as many of them are on the computer all the time. Also, all students learn differently whether visual, auditory or kinaesthetic and multimodalities allow for them to play upon their strengths. The main strength of multimodal technology is that it allows for creativity to be fostered and for different formats to be explored. One of the most important skills that students can learn is creativity. Challenges for educators who are interested in multimodalities are keeping up with the various technologies and finding the resources to actually use these technologies. Many schools are not even equipped with current computers and wifi which challenges educators who want to stay current.