Multiliteracies

Multiliteracies 'covers what has been regarded as electric literacies, technoliteracies, digital literacies, visual literacies and print-based literacies' (Hill, 2006, p.323). It is becoming essential for children to be competent in reading many different forms of literacy as the world of technology plays a larger role in everyday life. Children will need this knowledge to be able to effectively communicate and progress in the modern world. Therefore it is the role of the teacher to teach them the skills they need to be able to read multiliteracies. These multiliteracies include print, images, screen and page as mediums of communication and can also be defined under different genres such as geography or science (Unsworth, 2001, p.10). Teachers can use activities such as creating a blog or a stop-motion animation, to teach children about communication, story telling (creating narratives, recounts or procedural texts), the internet, and different genres of literacies. Unsworth suggests that children will also need to learn the meta-language of multiliteracies, which is the language which describes 'language, images and meaning-making intermodal interactions'(2001, p.8). However, for younger children this will be easy as they do not see it as a separate language as many adults may. Children will find it easier to learn the new ways to read different texts and images than the teacher as they have always been surrounded by the newer technologies. This means that the teacher needs to be the one up-dating their own knowledge of multiple literacies so that they can pass the information on to their students.

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