Blog 7: Multimodal Texts

Multiple Literacies and Multi-modal Texts

Unfortunately I missed this session, however, I have been doing a lot of research into a new wave of games on tablets, based on choose your own adventure books. The idea I have in mind is that this could be used in the classroom, hooking the children with a map before giving each child a portion of the story to write. All of this text could then be used to create a multi-modal text adventure based in Powerpoint, using hyperlinks to make choices. This would likely best suit older children or be used in a creative writing club and would not be possible unless adequate time was given to learn about adventure books prior to starting the project. However, the reward for children would be great as the finished product could be used in a variety of ways in the school to promote the learning of others and celebrate the accomplishments of the creators.

Evans (2004) expresses that relating topics to children's interests can greatly improve the motivation to complete it, I would therefore take this into consideration before beginning the project and allow the children to decide on the type of adventure they would like to write. There is also multimedia to consider; Allen, Potter, Sharpe and Turvey (2012) discuss the importance of using sounds within Powerpoints, and Evans (2004) highlights the usefulness of pictures. From previous sessions and experience in school I have learned that it is a good idea to ensure that multimedia such as these are pre-prepared and readily available to the children in order to keep a good pace.

The major problem to overcome would be time. This could be managed by ensuring that there were restrictions within the story limiting the amount of choices and making sure that paths quickly led to the same place. 




Bibliography

Allen, J., Potter, J. Sharp, J. & Turvey, K. (2012) Primary ICT: Knowledge, Understanding and Practice. [5], London: SAGE.

Evans, J. (2004) Literacy Moves On: Using Popular Culture, New Technologies and Critical Literacy in the Primary Classroom. Abingdon: David Fulton Publishers.