Shifting towards multimodality: Are we losing our abilities to read and write well?
With the advancements that are happening in word processing combined with the growth of web 2.0 sites there has been a significant shift in how we view, use, and access textual information. Bolter (2001) and Kress (2005) suggest that there is a loss of traditional textual representation as users instead move towards more visual modes of representation. There is definitely truth in this assortment, however I feel like it is perhaps overstating the case. Rather than seeing a decline in text, perhaps what we are really seeing is the addition of multimodal content to supplement writing. Instead of seeing this as an ‘either/or’ situation, perhaps what we should be viewing these changes instead as an ‘in addition to’ scenario.
As an educator the addition of new multimodal forms of expression creates new challenges, but can also open up new avenues for students to demonstrate their understanding in a personalized way. The New London Group (1996) challenged educators to incorporate multimodal designs into their pedagogy. Students can now easily express their ideas digitally through oral, visual, textual, gestural, or spatial modes. The key benefit to providing students the opportunity to work in multimodal ways, is that the students can personalize their learning to their own unique learning styles. A major challenge for educators is that they will need to be literate across a wide number of platforms and it may be hard to assess students work when some are creating visual projects while others choose to create videos or perhaps to write a more traditional essay. It becomes harder to grade equitably when students are creating work in a variety of formats. Furthermore, educators will have to teach their students to be literate across many modes, rather than simply focusing on the more traditional textual form. There is a fundamental shift occurring, as users are becoming content creators, rather than simply content consumers. As educators, we should view students not as passive recipients of our expert knowledge, rather they should be seen as collaborative workers, who can create, share, remix, and construct knowledge and understanding. No longer is the goal to have knowledgeable students, we instead should aim to have students who are knowledge able (Wesch, 2007). In other words this means teaching students the ability to find, use, remix, and, or create from the plethora of information at our fingertips (
Perhaps the most significant advancement in textual modes has been the ability to share and collaborate ideas through social media and other web 2.0 applications. Students are now able to create, modify, remix, and share ideas to a potentially huge audience. Furthermore, there is now more information readily available than ever before, therefore it is more important than ever to teach students how to access, chose appropriate sources, analyze, and critique findings from the exponentially increasing forms of data. The ability to share thoughts with a broad audience has potentially greatly increased the relevance of classroom work. If you are able to create assignments where students can share or publish their work, they may feel a greater connection and sense of ownership to their work (DeGennaro, 2008). Web 2.0 has allowed for constructivist work on a scale we haven’t seen before. As long as a student has access to the internet, they can work simultaneously or asynchronously on blogs, Google Docs, Prezi’s, or countless other platforms.
I do believe that we are seeing a remediation between text and more visual forms of thought representation. New content is increasingly multimodal, with a greater focus on images, sound, and video (Bolter, 2001). Examples of this shift to visual media include the rise of popularity of YouTube, Vines, Instagram, and Facebook, combined with the decrease in newsprint and traditional publishing. Furthermore, many people are now getting their information through social media rather than through traditional news sources. Online news is frequently more based on pictures and videos and is often created with shorter, easier to read articles.
This is potentially a concerning shift as it appears that there is a continual decrease in in-depth articles and writing. Instead we are seeing very short, attention grabbing snippets of information. As well, when information is coming from your peers – and paid advertisers – there is a worry that readers are not getting a complete understanding of a topic, rather they may be receiving biased and potentially self-confirming sources. There is the potential for an increase in untrue or partially untrue information to spread when users are creating content. Aside from peers, who is there to moderate or fact check information as a post, meme, or video goes viral? So while the easy sharing and collaborating is a positive benefit in so many ways, it also highlights the need to teach critical thinking skills to our students. There is reason to be concerned that the increase in visuals is creating a corresponding decrease in textual abilities, especially as written – and video – content appears to be decreasing to ever shorter quick reads.
Are students really losing their ability to read and write at a high level as information is increasingly found in short easy to consume bits? Or rather, are students become literate in new multimodal ways, and are increasingly able to share and demonstrate their understanding in new ways? I believe that it is the latter, and hope that the increase in visual formats is adding new methods to convey thoughts, and isn’t taking away from our ability to effectively communicate through the more traditional reading and writing.
References
Bolter, J. D. (2001). Writing space: Computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print. Routledge
DeGennaro, D. (2008). Learning designs: An analysis of youth-initiated technology use. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 41(1), 1–20.
Kress, G. (2005). Gains and losses: New forms of texts, knowledge, and learning. Computers and composition, 22(1), 5-22.
The New London Group. (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review, 66(1), 60-93.
Wesch, M. (2007) Information R/evolution [Video File]. Retrieved from: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4CV05HyAbM
Thanks Jesse for your post, it was very well written and a topic that we all have thought about. I’m sure you have had this discussion with an older person who would be very passionate that society has lost its way in terms of literacy. My dad has been retired for a couple of years now, but he’s on a bunch of Board of Directors for mining companies. Every news release that the companies write he needs to read over and most of the time changes their grammar and punctuation. He always mentions “these young guys running big companies are so smart but can’t write to save their life”.
It makes me think, apart from the education world is literacy losing its battle? Remember, anybody in their 30 and 40’s they grew up with Microsoft editing their work their whole life. The teens and 20 year olds today have spent close to a decade communicating through instant messaging and text where nobody cares about grammar.
I also agree with you that visuals are becoming more of a norm to communicate your thoughts and opinions. I wonder what the future holds and will they place as much of importance on literacy?