A Thought on Multiliteracies
In its 1996 self-described “manifesto”, the New London Group proposes that “designs of meaning” are created from “available designs” (1996, p.74). This theory was developed as part of the exploration of the need for changes to literacy pedagogies, as well as the application of the concept of multiliteracies to their view of learners as social subjects in fast-changing and culturally diverse societies. To attempt to unravel some of their arguments, I compared their “available designs” to my educational experiences—my life-world as a student in the community of UBC (NLG. 1996, p.70)—to see which I may have advantage of, and those which I may not have yet accessed, and why.
The systems of available designs are categorized broadly into linguistic, audio, visual, spatial, gestural, and multimodal. (NLG, 1996, p. 80). In my personal experience of available designs, linguistic has always been my “fall-back.” During my earlier years at UBC in English and law, written designs wear the norm—the convention, for education. Of course there were oral activities such as discussions and presentation, but the emphasis fell back on essays and reports. The concept of “multiliteracies” had not yet been put forward, and learners adapted to the presentation rather than the reverse. Audio and visual designs have played little part in my educational experiences as yet (though as the New London Group observes, all speaking has elements of audio design, and all writing, visual (1996, p. 81). Audio and visual designs were not very accessible outside fine art and musical disciplines. My current barrier is simply lack of experience; tools to incorporate them are easily available. Spatial and gestural design have not entered my student life-world either, with the exception perhaps during legal studies. Body language is frowned upon in the courtroom, so we learned the reverse: how not to use gestural design elements and how to be as body-neutral as possible. How that might be incorporated in this program remains to be seen.
Of all the available designs use to create “modes of meaning” (NLG, 1996, p. 80), multimodal design is of course most interesting and influential. With its combination of “hybridity” and “intexuality” it allows new combinations of modes of meaning. (NLG, 1996, p. 81). Needless to say, it has had little impact on my student life before this program, despite its influence privately. Now, of course, I am choosing multimodal learning, a departure from past experiences.
As a final thought, New London Group also argues that within available designs there are “orders of discourse” or sets of conventions, “associated with the semiotic activity in a given social space, or within different life-worlds” (1996, p.74) They posit, then, that in my life-world as a student, there are a set of conventions that help structure the designs I use and the education I create. I see that, up until now, the order of discourse as I student at UBC was highly influenced by traditional or “old, monocultural, and nationalistic” (NLG, 1996, p.61) style of education. While many of the cultural changes posited by the New London Group were in process, such as the end of the cold war, increasing globalization, reduction of government, and privatization, the phenomena had not yet sparked a pedagogical shift. How much that has changed will be part of my learning experience.
References:
The New London Group. (1996) “A Pedagogy of multiliteracies: designing social futures.” Harvard Educational Review 66(1), pp. 60-92. Retrieved from http://newarcproject.pbworks.com/f/Pedagogy%2Bof%2BMultiliteracies_New%2BLondon%2BGroup.pdf
Hi Mary,
Great post- thanks for sharing!
Much like you, my design experience lies with written works, and informal oral presentations. Multiliteracies didn’t extend much beyond simple slideshow presentations throughout my undergraduate experience, and even those weren’t nearly as common as research papers and essays. I was in an applied science program and, in contrast with the norms surrounding legal studies, courses dealing with communication and counselling demanded that we pay a great deal of attention to our own body language, as well as that of our peers, during social interactions. We would often act out counselling sessions, ensuring that in our role as “counsellor” we exhibited gestures of warmth, openness, and attentiveness.
It is interesting to note the ways in which multimodal design maintains varying degrees of influence on different aspects of our lives. Personal and social experiences may benefit from enrichment through the use of multiliteracies, afforded by social media channels, communication platforms, and access to Web 2.0 technologies. Whereas multimodal design may not be quite as integral to our day-to-day work life. With that said, this seemingly compartmentalized landscape has undergone rapid change in recent years. In alignment with the New London Group’s (1996) discussion of life-worlds, it is stated that as they become more divergent, boundaries between different facets of our lives- personal, public, work-related- find themselves overlapping with one another (1996). The age of the NLG article also leads me to believe that this multilayered nature of life-worlds has become much more established in today’s society since it’s publication. Even though my experience with education in counselling indicated a lack of dependence on any sort of digital representation, it’s preference for traditional modes of communication have begun to parallel today’s overarching trends in multimodal representation of knowledge. This certainly isn’t surprising, as cultural sensitivity and awareness is one of the key underlying principles of professional counselling and therapy. As pointed out by the NLG (1996), civic pluralism, as promoted by the use of multiliteracies, recognizes cultural differences and the demand for access to culturally-supportive resources. Online counselling and outreach initiatives are gaining traction, providing individuals seeking support with greater access to personally and culturally relevant resources. In fact, a study conducted by Beattie, Cunningham, Jones, & Zelenko (2006) found that children seeking out online counselling services experience a greater sense of comfort and self-control within this virtual format, when compared to traditional face-to-face counselling. These findings raise the age-old question of whether or not taking interactions that were once so dependent on physical presence and gestures into a world of digital media is truly in our best interest, as social, emotional, and physical beings.
References
Beattie, D., Cunningham, S., Jones, R., & Zelenko, O. (2006). I Use Online So the Counsellors Can’t Hear Me Crying: Creating Design Solutions for Online Counselling. Retrieved from http://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/10875983.pdf
The New London Group. (1996) “A Pedagogy of multiliteracies: designing social futures.” Harvard Educational Review 66(1), pp. 60-92. Retrieved from http://newarcproject.pbworks.com/f/Pedagogy%2Bof%2BMultiliteracies_New%2BLondon%2BGroup.pdf