Task 6 – An Emoji Story

Hi Emily,

Thank you for sharing your emoji story. I appreciate the fact that you used the plus sign to show how the characters have different forms. However, I still cannot figure out which movie this is. 🙁

I found my process of creating the emoji story similar to yours. I also started with computer but switched to using my phone very quickly since more emojis are available on the handheld devices. There are more choices, such as skin colour and actions, on the handheld devices compared to computers. It makes me wonder this is a cautions decision made by the developer as a result of emoji being dominantly used for texting/posting on smart phones.

I, too, felt constrained by the limited number of pictures available through pre-made emojis. It felt very difficult to convey my ideas thoroughly. Your statement of balancing the amount of text and graphic is very intriguing. In the example of the emoji story, it is difficult to understand without the support of written words. However, in my opinion, the arrangement of text and graphics is a decision cautiously made through considerations of the purpose and audience of the representation. Sometimes the text is needed for detailed explanation, other times graphic may spark more emotional responses. Therefore, the choice is left to the author/maker to decide what works the best to convey the meaning he/she intends.

TASK 4: Manual Scripts and Potato Printing

Hi Steve,

Thank you for sharing your experience with handwriting. I chose the same task and found it not too bad since I am used to writing my journals on paper. Like you said, it requires lots of practicing to get comfortable with handwriting, which is basically a skill and all skills asks for repetition before mastery. I wonder how this task would feel different if you wrote it in your first language. Will it maker it easier? Or is it still going to be a challenge simply because the media we use is paper and pen?

I agree with your statement that typing, with support of spelling correction and grammar checker, can be an effective tool for English language learners or any language learners. I personally use those tools as well. It makes me wonder what additional support we can provide to young ELL students when they are given a task to handwrite.

Task 7: Mode-Bending

Hi Jennifer,

Thank you for sharing this amazing challenge and I really enjoyed watching it. It demonstrates that almost every aspect of our daily life has been reshaped by technology since we rely on multiple apps for different tasks throughout the day. Imagine the extent to which it has reshaped the way we communicate with each other and share information, and multimodal representation is just one of the significant changes. I wonder how you felt about switching from writing to making a video for this task. Does it make any differences in your approach to the task or in your delivery?

I agree with you that it is so important to provide choices for students and creating a safe environment for them to explore the different modes of meaning making. As the New London Group stated, essentially “all meaning-making is multimodal” (1996, p. 81), finding ways for students to engage with meaningful multimodal representations, whether it is understanding, deconstructing, contextualizing or creating, should become the norm of our pedagogy.