Week 2 - Literacy as multimodal designs for meaning

We briefly scratched the surface of what literacies are, but we are now posed with a new question, what is meaning? How do we make meaning? All this was soon to become clear to me as we examined our second reading titled multi-literacies. Meaning making is defined as an intricate and often circular process which sees the back and forwards exchange of representation and communication (Kalantzis & Cope, 2012).

Representation is a kind of internalised narrative, or the cognitive operations conducted in our mind, which we employ when trying to make sense of a situation. Communication refers to the external narrative we undergo when we attempt to express our meaning to others. These two processes are intrinsically connected to one another as we almost always think (represent) before we talk (communicate). When we read or hear things we also make our own representations of these kinds of communications which is known as interpretation, which refers to the meaning which we derive from external mediums of meaning (Kalantzis & Cope, 2012). 

The concept of the processes of communication and representation working together and interrelating is essential for all teachers to comprehend if effective learning and teaching is to be achieved in any subject area (Kalantzis & Cope, 2012).

The literacies we use and employ are how we facilitate these types of meaning to others. In the past the subject of literacies has been viewed as simply reading and writing, but in today’s society, the way in which we make meaning is greatly varied, often encompassing many of the six modes of meaning; written, oral, audio, visual, gestural and spatial. (Kalantzis & Cope, 2012)

This now brings us to the term which brings all of the information covered in the reading together, multimodality. 

 

This concept refers to the interconnectedness of the modes of meaning and how we employ the processes of representation and communication. As a teacher, it is important to identify that all forms of representation and communication are inherently multimodal as we strive to teach literacy to students. It is also imperative that the various tools, materials and practices with which we engage with in the 21^st century be recognised and employed in the classroom, as there are certain combinations of modes of meaning which are best suited to certain kinds of media (Kalantzis & Cope, 2012).

As is easily deduced from the graph, I predominantly convey meaning in a multimodal fashion. I will often use video clips from the popular site YouTube as a way of conveying how I feel, what I am interested in and what I find to be humorous, by sending these to others. By then waiting for their response, and identifying how they have reacted to these same videos which have meaning to me, I will then either be excited by the prospect of shared interest and humour, if they react and respond positively to my interests, or be disappointed and separated from the person if they respond negatively. I will also use YouTube and other video clips to reinforce and give substance to my points of view as people will often be more easily persuaded if video evidence is presented.  Another form of multimodal meaning making I find particularly useful and effective is simply conversing with people or telling stories. I find this to be the most effective mode of meaning because it allows me to convey interests and emotions and humour through tone, sarcasm, raising and lowering of voice, timing, pausing after words and allows others to interject at certain points to inform me of their similar or different opinions. All of these traits are scarcely possible in the other modes of meaning making.

I believe this love of storytelling stems from the pivotal and influential role my parents have played in my life. They both would constantly engage me in conversations, whether it be what was in the media spotlight, their work, scientific concepts, stories of their past and present experiences, my future, or just how my day was, my parents and I were constantly interacting and communicating with one another.

This is an example of a clip I enjoy, find informative, and can use to make my opinion or beliefs known to others.