The Multiliteracies Approach

Bob Dylan said:-

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin’
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’.

          Change is an inevitable phenomenon in our lives, as everything around us is bound to change, even our way of learning. According to (Baguley et al, 2010), literacy in education was principally confined to reading and writing. Hence, literacy teachers were seen as teachers of reading and writing. Texts in that era were print based, magazines, pamphlets, newspapers…etc. However, continuous modernization throughout the decades, specifically in the 20^th and 21^st, resulted in transforming the conception of literacy to go beyond the basics of reading and writing. Texts in this era are multimodal ones whereby students are engaged in a digital environment that employs “written texts, sounds, still and moving images and supports user interactivity via hyperlinks” (Baguley et al, 2010: p.4). Consequently, the multiliteracies approach was formulated by the New London Group (1996, 2000).        

The Multiliteracies Approach is an integration of multiple forms of knowledge, including video images and combinations of forms in digital contexts which support producing effective learning outcomes as learners are motivated to learn throughout creative activities created by the teacher using the Multiliteracies framework 

                                                                                             (Navehebrahim, 2011: p865)            

The multiliteracies approach, according to Van Heertum and Shane (2006 as mentioned in Baguley et al, 2010), provides students with the skills in technological literacy which fosters creativity and motivates young people whilst improving their economic opportunities. 

        However this drastic transition wasn’t simply integrated in the classroom context because technological advances initially conceived the point that students were perceived as digital natives and teachers were perceived as digital immigrants (Prensky, 2001). This notion is based on the believe that “Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language (that of the pre-digital age), are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new      language” (Prensky, 2001: p.2). Therefore, teachers complained that “the digital natives with whom they work have far-outpaced them when it comes to any type of technology, from programming a VCR (or, nowadays, a DVR) to accessing the Internet on their cell phone to understanding the language of instant messaging” (Hicks and Reed, 2007: p.3) . Nonetheless, Roblyer (2006) notes that technology is an opportunity to help teachers communicate more effectively with their students, and although it can make good teaching better, it cannot improve poor teaching performances. Essentially, “technology is not a substitute for sound pedagogical practice” (Baguley et al, 2010: p.10). Thus, teachers must orient themselves to the technological advances of the 21^st century and use technology in their teaching for better learning.

References 

Baguley, M; Pullen, L; Short, M. (2010). Multiliteracies and the New World Order. In Pullen, D & Cole, D (eds.)  Multiliteracies and Technology Enhanced Education: Social Practice and the Global Classroom. USA: IGI Global. 1-17. 

Hicks, T., & Reed, D. (2007). Keepin’ it real: Multiliteracies in the English classroom. Language Arts Journal of Michigan, 23 (1), 11-19.

Navehebrahim, M. (2011). Multiliteracies Approach to Empower Learning and Teaching Engagement. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 29, 863 – 868. 

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5), October 2001. Retrieved 1 march 2012, from http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/prensky%20-%20digital%20natives,%20digital%20immigrants%20-%20part1.pdf

Roblyer, M. D. (2006). Integrating educational technology into teaching. (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Merrill.