Pedagogy of Play & Multimodality in Learning

 

        "We suggest that through multimodal play—including textual explorations, reconfigured teaching and learning relationships, and the performance of new roles and identities with and through new media technologies and media texts—educators are better able to make pedagogical connections with adolescents’ evolving literacies." (Vasudevan, p.24)

    We have come to realize that the traditional forms of learning, such as reading and writing can and have always been multimodal, " As Jewitt (2005) notes, even printed texts “require the interpretation and design of visual marks, space, colour, font or style, and, increasingly image, and other modes of representation and communication” (p.24). However, we know now that adolescents (and even younger) participate with new literacies much more outside of school. That is, within the school setting, they are not being engaged with their learning due to the fact that the "technology" or the modality of the learning with the new literacies is not being put into practice as much. Unfortunately, we can see this happening in many schools. However, in settings where you see a more learner-centered approach to education, teachers connect and utilize the interests of students outside of the classroom, creating powerful mediums for literacy in the context of the student's identity. Literacy is deeply rooted in the ability for us to connect culturally and critically. Exploration, play and experimentation has always been a foundation of good education, the digital technologies forces educators to examine that in order to be relevant with their adolescents, they must also collaborate and create with their students to provide spaces in which these multi-literacies emerge.

        In "A New Literacies Reader", we learn from many teachers across the United States & Norway that use journalism, blogging, the internet and video as a way for students to be engaged with the world around them. When provided the multimodality approaches to learn about a subject, whether it be about Antartica, current events in their school, or blogging to engage in self-reflection - themes of trust, autonomy and creativity sprout. A playful & creative way of learning - imagine that! Students and teachers find ways to engage with the community at large, utilize the technologies and share what they have learned.  Students shared themes such as, being valued in their contribution with the skills they had, and the teacher respected the knowledge students contributed to the projects with their creativity and use of mediums that engaged them. We can also learn from this process the idea of re-mixing which contextualizes digital literacies a step further in meaning making. We reach students that learn in other ways besides lecture, pen & paper, tests.

    The key issues outlined in a "A New Literacies reader try to define and substantiate that multimodal learning is more than just the operational context of how to utilize the technologies (whether it be computer, typing or writing a blog) but for teachers to be able to participate in a back-and-forth process of co-learning and co-creating. This provides the space for which the learners can participate in being able to analyze, make meaning and discern what it is they are learning. I felt the need to share this quote, "Many schools have problems in developing learning strategies supporting remixing practices because the structure of the school day, teacher competencies, examination systems, and so forth, do not take into consideration developments in the ways young people use new technologies. The institutional practice of schooling is thereby challenged by remixing as a literacy practice, entailing students in taking a more active role in developing knowledge. A key question in these developments involves interrogating what we have traditionally meant by the distinction between formal versus informal learning. From the perspective of young people, learning takes place in many different contexts, and in taking experiences from one context over to another. Remixing is an activity that cuts across such educational conceptions" (Erstad, 54). The biggest example of remixing is the ability to use multiple forms of engaging in learning; I am recalling the project of students in Oslo, from two different socioeconomic parts of the town, "the students came from many different cultural backgrounds, with about 65% of the students belonging to minority language-speaking families. After discussing this with the students the teachers decided that the students should collaborate on a project about prejudices concerning east and west in Oslo, and that they should use technology as a central part of the project work" (Erstad, 49). These students were able to create an online newspaper of each school, with students dissecting tasks to talk about many things such as religion, culture, sports of the school. Students also participated in online community boards. During this project, students travelled via public transportation to visit the other school and some students made a film about this journey. You can see how transformative this experience is, I find that example articulates multimodalities and technologies in the operational, cultural and critical literacies in a clear way. 

    On a personal note, I feel very fortunate that in my high school years, I was exposed to this form of learning. My learning journeys allowed me to feel empowered (as I've said before) because I had teachers that were themselves learning and saw teaching as greater than operational. I graduated high school in 2002; I remember that multimodal literacies were a huge part of my education; I was also involved in journalism, broadcast homeroom/club, yearbook and filmmaking. I attended film school because I was given the access in high school to find different ways to engage in my learning and find a passion. I was able to express and articulate my thoughts in ways I couldn't through a traditional method. Knowledge can imprint in ways outside of the scholarly/ traditional academic methods.

    Prior to this class, and to this year; I have a hesitation to technology in the schools (maybe I still do!) and really feel like it has its place to be explored in the late middle to high school years rather than K-6. I feel that I have many questions on early childhood and the developing brain and that play and multimodal learning in these ages is in the body. I don't see play or multi-modality learning happening in my district in K-6, but alot of digital and technology use to teach traditional lessons. 

    At the same time, we don't get many opportunities to be slow, everything is rushed. Can multimodal learning be without using a screen all the time?  What comes up for me is that the learning environment and its educators cannot be static; in essence "keeping up with the times and new technologies" is essentially staying relevant with the people around us (Vasudevan et.al, 23). I will provide an example of my oldest child, 12 years old, who utilized a computer just this year. They were able to learn the operational use very quickly, and even surpass other students in slideshow presentations, taking time to make a beautiful slideshow with thought and care; a trait that is very common in the previous alternative school compared to this new public school. The teacher shared sentiments of how he could tell my child put thought and care in every assignment and would be one of the few listening during instruction. Of course, this child had spent 2-3 hours of the day moving the body and being outside as well, and listened to stories from teachers and developed a focus and recall so keen.  Perhaps many of my child's new peers didn't find the use of the computer as novel, and after a few months my child has grown bored of the use of this Chromebook in every single class, in every single lesson in two dimensions. 12 years spent without using this technology didn't mean there was no play or multi-modality learning - quite the contrary! We can look at this child as deprived access and left behind as many narratives may portray, but this child was not deprived. This child was learning and living, experiencing school and learning with so much love. Can we slow down with the technology with our children? It won't ruin them if they had less of it prior to adolescence (my opinion!).

    

    Our human need is to feel connected; to have a sense of belonging is a strong tendency. To be a teacher/educator in these times is to be able to also learn from our students. When we incorporate new ways of learning that is experiential, sensorial and participatory, we are engaging in a multimodal experience. I feel that the levels of play should never be removed in K-12, but that they evolve, much as the human does in development. I will continue to beg the question of how we can stretch the use of the digital and technological world in our classrooms that provide a more cultural and critical context in our older learners, and to limit the use of digital in the form of screen skills in the early years, and end with this quote, "The important challenge is to move away from a simplistic understanding of digital literacy as the skills in operating the technology, towards the more complex set of competencies involved in multiliteracies. Remixing encompasses many of these competencies, such as selecting, organizing, reflecting, evaluating, creating and communicating. And, as a literacy, it is closely related to the developments of new digital media (Olson & Cole, 2006)."

References

Lankshear, C., & Knobel, M. (2013). A New Literacies Reader (66th ed.). Peter Lang Publishing.

Vasudevan, L., Dejaynes, T., Schmier, S., & Erstad, O. (2013). Multimodal Pedagogies and Trajectories of Remixing. In  Lankshear, C. & Knobel, M. (Eds.), A new literacies reader: Educational perspectives (pp. 23–38)

Erstad, O. (2013) Trajectories of Remixing: Digital Literacies, Media Production and Schooling. In Lankshear, C. & Knobel, M. (Eds.), A new literacies reader: Educational perspectives (pp. 38–54)