Informal blog: Week 7. ( revised) Ephrem Uwalaka

When I wrote this multimodal I had a year 2 class in mind. It has a purpose of developing literacy in non-fiction narrative. It has ICT usage and I would hope it would be confidence building. Differentiation is accounted for by the open input and creativity would depend on children’s individual outcomes in the sentences and story line.





This multimodal presentation which I created was designed to support Year two/KS1 children to create non-fiction narrative and to increase their capacity and confidence in using computer technology. It caters for open ended learning, differentiation and creativity all within a fun approach.





I would imagine using this type of exercise in the classroom if I needed to embed the use of or the teaching of sentence structure or grammar etc. From my readings, it is regarded and fully agreed that a holistic approach, taking in VAK styles is the best approach for young children. Therefore I would combine this example approach with other methods and styles of teaching in order to maximise the learning potential.

 

Walsh (2010) cites an increase in the amount of teaching being developed to embed literacy in emerging technology. Beauchamp (2012) provides compelling evidence that multimodal functionality of ICT helps children understand ideas in an interesting and motivated way because of the different mediums such as sound, text, visual etc. He also adds that, it had always been possible to teach using a multimodal approach using photographs, T.V, video etc. but emphasises that the contemporary ICT equipment is faster, interactive, software specific and much more pedagogically designed.   

I do not know how effective this type of digital literacy would compare to more traditional means and I think it would be good to apply an assessment tool such as the APP or First Steps just to find out if it could help measure success. If I was going to assess children I think I would have to consider the children’s fluidity in computer use and their confidence level.

Factors such as, a novel digital literacy exercise, use of technology in learning, learning through fun application etc. will definitely help towards progressing learning outcomes  and they are widely recorded as a positive approach to new pedagogy.

Walsh (2010) discussed research into multimodality in pedagogy and found positive outcomes, both from the children and from the teachers. She had commented that the technology is in a transitional stage of entering the curriculum which can be inferred that education needs to catch up.

Overall, I am pleased that there now exists far more adventurous programmes and apps to support teaching and learning in an engaging, non-threatening approach which is interactive and fun, but most of all creative.

 

Bibliography

 

Beauchamp, G. (2012) ICT in the Primary Classroom: From Pedagogy to Practice Harlow: Pearson Education Ltd.

Walsh, M. Multimodal Literacy: What does it mean for classroom practice? Australian Journal of Language and Literacy.  Vol. 33 No.3 pp211-239