Multiliteracies

Stephen Downes' Presentation

2005-09-21T01:55:00.000-03:00

I listened to Downes' presentation again. His phrase "... Education needs to be seen as something people do for themselves ... People can have a voice..." still lingers on my mind. I think this relates to the dichotomies closed vs. open, product vs remix, broadcast vs conversation, among others. I believe the Internet and technology provide us, educators and students, with lots of tools to express ourselves, to learn on our own and through collaboration with others. Besides, popular technologies offer us the opportunity of reaching our students' interests, of communicating with them by using the same media they do.

My students' web log

2005-05-01T16:56:00.000-03:00

My students These are Lucía and Inés. Lucía is my niece. Inés is her best friend. They have been taking English classes with me for about six months. We are using a web log where they can create things to illustrate what they have learnt so far. They are both highly motivated, and they have become very creative and productive. They are very enthusiastic about their log because they can show it to their parents, relatives and friends. They feel proud of their work. I think this will be a great way to foster their writing in the future. You can visit their log at http://lucyandagnes.blogspot.com Graciela

The Firewall in the Mind

2004-10-03T22:09:00.000-03:00

I found this presentation very enlightening and empowering. That's the reason why I posted it on my blog.

Selber's Functional Literacy

2004-10-03T22:07:00.000-03:00

Differences between Constructivism and Constructionism

2004-09-28T16:49:00.000-03:00

After reading several articles on the two terms, I have reached the following conclusions: Constructivism sees learning as a mental internal process by means of which the learner constructs meaning by processing new information / knowledge and confronting it to previously acquired knowledge and experience. Constructionism sees learning as the external manifestation of this constructivist internal mental process, that is, the learner constructs something external and shareable. Thus, learning is based on an active and collaborative process of knowledge construction. I think that both constructivism and constructionism are involved in multiliteracies in the sense that learners become multi-literate by processing new information and constructing new meaning based on their previous knowledge and experience, by interacting with other learners, and also by producing something that they can share with others. As an example, take the work of our group, think of the way in which we interacted / shared information on how to "construct" a blog, consider all the internal processes each of us has undergone in order to understand how each of the new tools/software worked, and also analyze how much our previous experience and knowledge helped us understand these tools better and faster. Graciela

Basic principles of constructivism

2004-09-26T22:14:00.000-03:00

Basic principles of constructivism A methodology based on such principles focuses on "learner orientation, process orientation and learner autonomy" (Wolff 1994: 407), all of which ought to be regarded as extremely important in the context of language learning and acquisition. Learning should be regarded as a process of information gathering and knowledge processing. In such a process the interaction between knowledge previously acquired and new information gathered leads to the acquisition and even to the production of new knowledge. Learning is an active process in which learners construct new ideas based upon their current and past knowledge. (cf. Bruner 1990) · learning must be regarded as an active and collaborative process of knowledge construction; · learning is to be seen as an autonomous process, to be regulated by the learners’ expectations, goals, existing schema and intentions; · learning is a process of experimentation based on previous knowledge and experience; · learning is a process of socially negotiated construction of meaning; · learning is a process which must be supported by a rich learning environment rooted in real life and authentic situations. We understand ‘constructionism’ as including, but going beyond, what Piaget would call ‘constructivism.’ The word with the v expresses the theory that knowledge is built by the learner, not supplied by the teacher. The word with the n expresses the further idea that this happens especially felicitously when the learner is engaged in the construction of something external or at least shareable ... a sand castle, a machine, a computer program, a book. This leads us to a model using a cycle of internalization of what is outside, then externalization of what is inside and so on." (Papert 1991: 3) Consequently, the trick to a successful transfer of constructivist theory onto a constructionist platform can be described as finding appropriate tasks which get the learner „engaged in the construction of something shareable". http://www.uni-essen.de/anglistik/bernd/construction.htm

How do we learn?

2004-09-26T22:12:00.000-03:00

How do we learn? Watching a young child grow from infancy to toddlerhood, we marvel at the amount of learning that has allowed her to understand her expanding environment. Those early years provide the basis for language, physical dexterity, social understanding, and emotional development that she will use for the rest of her life. What a vast amount of knowledge is acquired before she sets foot in school! This child taught herself by gathering information and experiencing the world around her. Such learning exemplifies constructivism -an idea that has caused much excitement and interest among educators. Constructivism emphasizes the importance of the knowledge, beliefs, and skills an individual brings to the experience of learning. It recognizes the construction of new understanding as a combination of prior learning, new information, and readiness to learn. Individuals make choices about what new ideas to accept and how to fit them into their established views of the world. Our challenge is to foster students' abilities so they can continue to learn and build their understanding based on the changing world around them. In a Constructivist Classroom... Student autonomy and initiative are accepted and encouraged. The class uses raw data, primary sources, manipulates physical, and interactive materials. The constructivist approach involves students in real-world possibilities, then helps them generate the abstractions that bind phenomena together. http://www.sedl.org/scimath/compass/v01n03/1.html

Constructivism & Constructionism

2004-09-26T19:08:00.000-03:00

Constructivism and constructionism Constructivism and Constructionism are relatively new ideas in the field of learning. These ideas were presented by Papert (1990) as being alternatives to the dominant method of learning in schools today, known as instructionism, where the students passively receive information and knowledge from their teachers. Papert described constructivism, constructionism and the difference between them thus: The word with the v expresses the theory that knowledge is built by the learner, not supplied by the teacher. The word with the n expresses the further idea that this happens felicitously when the learner is engaged in the construction of something external or at least shareable…a sand castle, a machine, a computer program, a book (Papert, 1990, p. 3). http://emhain.wit.ie/~p98ac25/2.htm

2004-09-26T13:24:00.000-03:00

My husband and me in La Hoya, Esquel, Chubut, Patagonia Argentina.

Cooperative & Collaborative Learning

2004-09-21T18:07:00.000-03:00

Cooperative and Collaborative learning This is my web to illustrate the article "Exploring Collaborative Online Learning" by David Curtis and Michael Lawson which I found surfing the Internet. http://www.aln.org/publications/jaln/v5n1/pdf/v5n1_curtis.pdf

Literacy Learning and the Design of Social Future

2004-09-14T17:16:00.000-03:00

The term ‘Multiliteracies’ highlights two of the most important, and closely related changes. The first is the growing significance of cultural and linguistic diversity. The news on our television screens screams this message at us every day. And, in more constructive terms, we have to negotiate differences every day, in our local communities and in our increasingly globally interconnected working and community lives. (…)The globalisation of communications and labour markets makes language diversity an ever more critical local issue. The second major shift encompassed in the concept of Multiliteracies is the influence of new communications technologies. Meaning is made in ways that are increasingly multimodal in which written-linguistic modes of meaning are part and parcel of visual, audio, and spatial patterns of meaning. Take for instance the multimodal ways in which meanings are made on the World Wide Web, or in video captioning, or in interactive multimedia, or in desktop publishing, or in the use of written texts in a shopping mall. To find our way around this emerging world of meaning requires a new, multimodal literacy. http://www.alea.edu.au/multilit.htm

Teaching literacy in the Internet age

2004-09-14T17:02:00.000-03:00

(Ottawa, February 12, 2003) – The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) is investing $750,000 in research to help Canadians succeed in the new economy by expanding the literacy skills taught in the classroom. “We know that Canada needs a literate workforce,” said Allan Rock, minister of industry and minister responsible for SSHRC. “But the global workplace demands new kinds of literacy skills, and schools need to prepare students—our future knowledge workers—for the technological and cultural diversity they will face.” “We need to start viewing literacy as more than just the ability to understand words printed on paper,” said SSHRC president Marc Renaud. “More than ever, students need to know how to read and write, but they also need to know how to use technology to access information and to present their work.” “We need to teach students to use language and technology more creatively,” said Early. “Instead of just having elementary school students write short stories in their exercise books, why not have them write bilingual stories and publish them on the Web?” http://www.sshrc.ca/web/whatsnew/press_releases/2003/ine_vancouver_e.asp

Putting ‘Multiliteracies’ to the Test by Bill Cope and Mary Kalantzis

2004-09-14T16:40:00.000-03:00

The Multiliteracies argument runs like this: our personal, public and working lives are changing in some dramatic ways, and these changes are transforming our cultures and the ways we communicate. This means that the way we have taught literacy, and what counts for literacy, will also have to change. The term ‘Multiliteracies’ highlights two of the most important, and closely related changes. The first is the growing significance of cultural and linguistic diversity. The news on our television screens screams this message at us every day. And, in more constructive terms, we have to negotiate differences every day, in our local communities and in our increasingly globally interconnected working and community lives. As a consequence, something paradoxical is happening to English. At the same time as it is becoming a lingua mundi, a world language, and a lingua franca, a common language of global commerce, media and politics, English is also breaking into multiple and increasingly differentiated Englishes, marked by accent, national origin, subcultural style and professional or technical communities. Increasingly, the name of the game in English is crossing linguistic boundaries Gone are the days when learning a single standard version of the language was sufficient. Migration, multiculturalism and global economic integration daily intensify this process of change. The globalisation of communications and labour markets makes language diversity an ever more critical local issue. The second major shift encompassed in the concept of Multiliteracies is the influence of new communications technologies. Meaning is made in ways that are increasingly multimodal—in which written-linguistic modes of meaning are part and parcel of visual, audio, and spatial patterns of meaning. Take for instance the multimodal ways in which meanings are made on the World Wide Web, or in video captioning, or in interactive multimedia, or in desktop publishing, or in the use of written texts in a shopping mall. To find our way around this emerging world of meaning requires a new, multimodal literacy. These two developments have the potential to transform both the substance and pedagogy of subject English. No longer do the old pedagogies of a formal, standard, written national language have the use they once did. Instead, the Multiliteracies argument suggests an open ended and flexible functional grammar which assists language learners to describe language differences (cultural, subcultural, regional/national, technical, context specific, etc.) and the multimodal channels of meaning now so important to communication. Dr Bill Cope is Director of the Centre for Workplace Communication and Culture. Prof. Mary Kalantzis is Dean of the Faculty of Education, Language & Community Services at RMIT University, Melbourne. Funding for the Australian component of the International Multiliteracies Project was provided by Language Australia and the Australian Research Council. http://www.alea.edu.au/multilit.htm