The National Council of Teachers of English states, "Visual culture and the proliferation of multimedia texts have changed literacy practices both inside and outside the classroom" (National Council of Teachers of English, 2008). According to the article, these changes come in textual, relational, spatial, and temporal forms. All 4 of these forms deal with the best ways to use new technologies in teaching. Textual approaches use new media to help mold student literacy, relational approaches focus on literacy-focused interactions, spatial contexts focus on where and when literacy is best and worst promoted, and temporal forms focus primarily on the composition time of writers.
The culmination of these 4 contexts and the use of digital technology helps to result in multi-literacy. Multi-literacy or multimodal literacy uses a variety of interactions to communicate with the learner and, "...involves learning how to negotiate the interaction of different meaning-making systems" (National Council of Teachers of English, 2008). This combination of interactions allows for the most well-rounded student learning experience and places the student in the best position to interact with the actual world they will enter into after completion of their education.
Digital technologies can support reading and writing in the context of school throughout many ways. The first way is through online forums that allow students to post their thoughts and provide their opinions on the thoughts of others. "Online forums engage students in social interactions and letter-writing," which can improve the student's voice and provide them with outside insight and conversation not possible anywhere else. (National Council of Teachers of English, 2008) This interaction with others may also allow students to share readings of interests which may foster improvement of reading skills through repetition. To continue, "Both social interaction and reflective conversation with others is increased by the use of digital technologies," (National Council of Teachers of English, 2008) These types of interactions can be promoted by using Skype to chat with experts of a particular area or using Twitter as a means to accumulate student opinions on a certain subject area. Using Twitter in this manner will help improve a student's writing skills as even though the process may be informal, the text of the student will be available to the world; causing the student to want to put his or her best foot forward.
Overall, the best student learning experience can be attained through a multimodal approach that uses a variety of interactions to open as many pathways as possible to help students learn. Try it out in your classroom and see how it works!
Creating a digital comic strip and placing it in a blog supports the research recommendation of the above article "Reading and Writing Differently" as it allows for a multiple media approach. The comic strip could attract a new audience as it encompasses writing, images, and humor along with a joke about texting in today's society. As mentioned in the article, "The variety of media used by writers creates synergy among different forms of communication, and it increases interactivity and non-linearity for both writers and readers" (National Council of Teachers of English, 2008). Simply put, you are more likely to get a positive response from your students if you use tools which interest them among your teaching methods.
Reference List
National Council of Teachers of English. (2008). Reading and writing differently. National Council of Teachers of English Journal, Retrieved from http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/CC/0182-nov08/CC0182Reading.pdf
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