Task 7: Mode-Bending

I recreated my first task both aurally and visually by storytelling a day in the life of my backpack with visual cues to accompany my day. The main benefits of this semiotic mode is simply the engagement of students and ability to incorporate several of the multiliteracies and create an “order of discourse…[involving] the grammars of several languages” (The New London Group, 1996, p.74). By creating a discourse using visual, auditory, and spatial meanings brought all together with multimodal meaning. The incorporation of multimodal meanings is particularly important as each sound cue may elicit a different spatial connection for the viewer, but the guidance and scaffolding of the narrator directs the story towards the objective truth of the purposes of each object. 

The significant challenges I faced in the redesign of my task was my lack of talent with audio recordings, and my slow progress in learning to use Canva and incorporating my own sound bites while being overlaid with speech as well as visuals. My recording of the sound bites also did not come out to the standard I expected as I used my laptop for the most part to maintain a control but on later viewing it may have produced a higher sound quality if I had used my phone. Lastly, the redesign process I was faced with a pedagogical issue as I often have students that have auditory or visual difficulties in class and having written text is an important part of their IEPs and learning goals. For many students, being able to reflect and review on the lesson material at home is the key to their success but if it was all auditory and visual it may result in an engaging class, but authentic learning may be lost. 

References:

The New London Group. (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review 66(1), 60-92.