Mode-bending Task
For this task, I opted to change the mode of my What’s in my Bag? from the physical, to a Genially phone app design, where each icon represents a different item from my bag. I arranged the items on the phone screen according to their level of importance, placing the most essential at the top and the least essential near the bottom. This allowed me to organize the information visually and spatially, creating a clear hierarchy of meaning. In addition, I added short audio clips to each icon to enact the sound of each item: a “cha-ching” for the wallet, a car beep for location, typing for the laptop, clicking for the pen, key turning for the work key, erasing sounds for the white-out, and a piano instrumental sound for the lip gloss.
The benefits of this process were multifold, as the digital representation made the task more engaging and appealing, allowing me to communicate key points more concisely than in the written version. Each icon represented an item, paired with a short explanation describing what it is and how I use it, ultimately making the demonstration more direct and easier to follow. Even in cases where the visual representation may have been unclear, the accompanying audio helped clarify the item’s meaning. For example, within my physical bag, I have two sets of keys: my personal car and apartment key, and my work key. To avoid confusion with duplicate key icons, I represented my car/home key with a location icon and car beeping sound, and my work key with a standard key and key-in-lock sound. Though even with this adjustment, the representation could still be confusing without the explanation. Similarly, there was no available icon for an eraser, so I substituted white-out, which I do not actually carry in my bag, and for lip gloss, I used an icon of a girl (intended to represent me) to convey the idea. Overall, however, the digital format made the task more engaging and accessible, even though some accuracy was lost due to the limitations of the platform’s available features.
Overall, digital literacy carries with it the potential for a far wider, more global access to knowledge (Dobson & Willinsky, 2009, p. 286). If I had simply handwritten each item in my bag, someone reading it would have encountered limitations in accessibility and engagement because of my writing style, legibility, length, and descriptions. Using a digital mode allowed for conciseness, visual and spatial engagement, and opportunities to integrate audio design, all of which reinforced the meaning of each item. If it were possible to define generally the mission of education, one could say that its fundamental purpose is to ensure that all students benefit from learning in ways that allow them to participate fully in public, community, and economic life (New London Group, 1996, p. 60). In this way, designers and educators can leverage digital technology and multimodal learning to engage all learners. This task exemplified that principle, as if I had assigned this task to my own students, they could use various creative modes to represent their items, integrate multiple technologies, and likely gain a deeper understanding of the activity than if constrained to paper and pencil. Therefore, a pedagogy of multiliteracies focuses on modes of representation much broader than language alone (New London Group, 1996, p. 64). These differ according to culture and context, and have a specific cognitive, cultural, and social effect (New London Group, 1996, p. 64). By approaching the task digitally, students would be encouraged to become designers and meaning-makers, rather than just passive recipients of information.
Overall, bending the mode of this task allowed for a more interactive, layered, and multimodal demonstration of meaning. By combining visual, spatial, and audio elements, I was able to communicate the function and significance of each item in ways that the text alone could not, ultimately making it a more accessible and engaging experience. The task challenged me to think about the “need-to-know” rather than over-explaining, and allowed me to simplify without losing meaning entirely. This approach demonstrated how different modes of meaning and learning can interact in complex ways, strengthening overall understanding and highlighting the value of multimodal approaches in teaching and learning.
References
Dobson, T. M., & Willinsky, J. (2009). Digital literacy. In D. R. Olson & N. Torrance (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of literacy (pp. 286–312). Cambridge University Press. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-handbook-of-literacy/digital-literacy/219EED91FE30D9370DC76816FEACDCE8
The New London Group. (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review, 66(1), 60–92. https://newarcproject.pbworks.com/f/Pedagogy%2Bof%2BMultiliteracies_New%2BLondon%2BGroup.pdf