Literacy is a tool that students carry from school to workplace. It extends beyond print literacy (reading & writing) to any system that we use to express meaning: digital, visual, multimedia, hypermedia, gaming, and more that are developed by each new generation. To be literate is to understand expressed meaning and to communicate intended meaning. Literacy is sharing meaning through symbol systems: language uses the alphabet, mathematics uses numbers, and music uses notes. Future-ready learners must be able to learn a symbol system and communicate meaning in that symbol system. A student who experiences and makes meaning in multiple symbol systems will develop critical skills that modern employers seek; he or she will know how the symbol systems of different domains interact with each other and how to build effective messages to communicate in any domain.
As technology evolves at a rapid pace, so does the way that we understand and share meaning. "Digital natives" use technology to make meaning every day when they play FortNite or make TikToks, but does this translate to literacy in a domain? Teachers facilitate the acquisition of multiple literacies by designing experiences for students to use the tools of a domain. Students need to know how to navigate and derive meaning from non-linear, networked modern technologies, such as hypermedia tools and the World Wide Web. Students also need to know how to experience and construct meaning through the encoding and decoding processes unique to each medium; creating a computer graphic, film, or video game virtual identity are all ways of using the tool of literacy to convey meaning in each medium.
The following quote has been my guiding standard throughout EDIT 782, Designing for Literacy, and informs what you will read in the following sections:
“Literacy is the power to encode and decode meaning through any of the forms that humans use to represent what they have come to know.” ~Elliot Eisner, Cognition and Curriculum Revisited
My first lessons in EDIT 782 tested my ability to derive meaning from print literacy. The resources, mostly print articles, helped me to understand what it feels like to be a future-ready learner: being able to navigate and derive meaning form multiple modes of expression. We read linear PDF articles and non-linear hypermedia-full websites, watched a video, and tested our visual literacy on interpreting and writing a reflection on Wordles. The word "literacy" traditionally refers to reading and writing, but new definitions and new literacies arise as new skills are required of future ready students. There are countless factors that go into being literate in today's society. Just because these factors (key words from the articles) are codified in the articles we read in January 2020 does not mean that they will not change in the next five, ten, or twenty years.
There is no one singular definition of "literacy." Upon reading Elliot Eisner's thoughts about literacy and several articles about digital literacy, I concluded (from a Wordle analysis) that "literacy" mostly relates to meaning, cognitive (processes), and experience. The thread that connected all literacy articles and websites is the concept of meaning. The ability to encode and decode meaning from any symbol system is the same across all types of literacies: new, digital, print, visual, etc. My second word, cognitive, relates to the fact that this “meaning making” is a cognitive process. Finally, it is through experiences that individuals create meaning.
The New Yorker writer Caleb Crain laments the decline of reading as a form of communication. The same article discusses how "young" reading is as a cultural tool: "Humans started reading far too recently for any of our genes to code for it specifically." While our genes do not code for reading, they DO code for seeing. With seeing comes visual literacy, which is the ability to decode and encode meaning in an image. It is also the ability to think critically about the credibility of the image itself. Those who are familiar with digital media editing are less likely to fall for fake images (sharks on a freeway, anyone?), but teaching hoax-happy teenagers to identify fakes is easier said than done.
Students should learn to spot fake images because the sharing of fake images lead can lead to a change in perception, the alteration of memory, and the spread of misinformation. As identified in a "Top 10 Ways to Dupe Your Viewer" list, there are many ways to spot a fake image. Students who are familiar with digital media editing techniques can learn to spot how images have been changed--even if they are not wholly familiar with the context of the original image. Students who can spot fake images also develop a critical eye; they learn to use multiple resources (reverse image search, fact-checking websites, spotting of bad editing) to identify the validity of a source. Latin students, in particular, need to know how to spot fake images. Although Latin is not currently spoken, what occurred in Roman history can easily be visually edited or misattributed to other cultures. A fake image can easily rewrite history in a student’s memory.
On the other hand, digital media editing can be a powerful tool for conveying meaning. Computer graphics programs, such as Microsoft Paint and Google Drawing, allow for visual representation of our understanding of a concept. We encode meaning when we consider what symbols of graphic representation to use--what colors, shapes, or lines best make up a shoe? We decode meaning when we create the drawing, conveying our meaning to an external audience. Whether drawing what we see or making meaning of text, a picture is worth a thousand words.
Another component of visual literacy is understanding the purpose of a visual representation--what meaning is a graphic meant to convey? A teacher designing for visual literacy activities might develop content ideas that utilize different image types--images that decorate, represent, organize, explain, and transform content. I took the opportunity to further develop content ideas from the “Visual Graphic Pamphlet” and found that my favorite content idea was the representational image: “draw ___ to represent ___.” I highly encourage picture note-taking or drawing vocabulary words--anything to give more repetitions of the concept. The representational image can also be very flexible: draw a summary, draw the context, draw a prediction, draw the background action, etc.
As I matched each image type to a content idea, I clarified my thinking about how to teach visual literacy, which includes the symbol system of visual representation (line, shape, color, etc.) and design principles outlined in Robin Williams' “The Non-Designer’s Design Book." Although I learned about the principles of visual representation by reading 90-some pages of Williams' book, I would not expect my students to do the same. Students learn to apply the principles of graphic design--contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity--via situated experiences. Learning-by-seeing and learning-by-doing are the best ways for students to learn about concepts of visual literacy. Computer graphics creation programs, such as MS Paint and Google Drawing, are perfect platforms for practicing how to encode and decode meaning through a visual medium. It took me some time in our February 5 class to figure out how to draw a water bottle using only shapes, colors, and lines; my students would cut that time in half.
Using visual literacy in the classroom requires purposeful planning; while we are all experts in seeing, we are not all experts in encoding and decoding what we see to communicate meaning. I use many of the DROET image types in my instructional rotation. I choose and use an image type to connect the purpose of a graphic to the educational goal that my students should reach. When developing a design document for teaching visual literacy, I came up with several ideas for teaching the separate design and encoding processes, which students would need to know in order to be literate in the symbol system of visual representation. The clear outcome of this design was for students to communicate meaning through a visual--very different from a standard quiz on the concept.
Hypermedia is an interactive, non-linear medium and network of information. It is a combination of multimedia, hypertext, and plain text. Hypermedia may be found anywhere where there is an option to be linked from one piece of information to another. You are using hypermedia when you click a button in a PowerPoint presentation to go to another slide in a “Choose Your Own Adventure” narrative or when you interact with elements of a WebQuest.
A WebQuest is a powerful instructional tool for personalized or blended learning in a world where students must learn hypermedia literacy to be successful in their future endeavors. The nonlinear nature of a hypermedia-rich learning experiences requires a much different skill set than learning from a traditional linear text or curriculum. While a WebQuest and a hypermedia learning environment allow for much more learner autonomy, it is critical that there be a guiding framework or goal to center the learning--it is far too easy to go down a hypermedia rabbit hole.
The guiding goal of the Hypermedia WebQuest was to write a briefing paper about the use of hypermedia in schools. I learned how to decode my understanding of hypermedia in a form of discourse meant for decision makers, like superintendents or school board members. I could use this skill as an IFT or when briefing my school’s administration on the latest technology trend. I supported the background and analysis components of the briefing paper with peer-reviewed research articles. The process of finding the “right” articles reminded me of the “branching” nature of hypermedia and the skills required for navigating it. I utilized the skills to stay focused and to accomplish the task of finding two additional articles in a GMU library online database.
My favorite part of writing the briefing paper was the fact that I was able to collaborate with two other people. Having never completed a briefing paper before, I felt more comfortable working with others who were in the same boat. In order for us to successfully complete the task, each person needed to have encoded meaning from Parts One and Two of the WebQuest in advance. When we met in person, we were each able to decode the meaning, which we had encoded alone, into the briefing paper. Hypermedia as a learning tool allows learners to navigate their own paths, access information independent of “sage on the stage” instruction, and experience representation of information via multiple channels. I thought that I had a good understanding of hypermedia literacy on my own, but my understanding was amplified once I had had a chance to apply that understanding with others. I can easily transfer this learning experience to my classroom by combining a hypermedia learning environment with collaborative, situated learning experiences.
In What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy, James Paul Gee remarked, "People are (or are not) literate (partially or fully) in a domain if they can recognize (the equivalent of "reading") and/or produce (the equivalent of "writing") meanings in the domain" (p. 20). To me, this is yet another repetition of Elliot Eisner's definition of literacy. To be able to recognize and produce meaning--to encode and decode meaning--in any domain is to be literate, and modern society demands literacy in a wide range of domains. Even Star Wars creator, George Lucas, stated, "Kids should communicate using all forms of communication."
The last domains we have arrived at--hypermedia, film, and gaming--each have their own unique "grammars;" each domain has a unique symbol system with a basic units, rules about combinations of units and appropriate use, and a discourse through which meaning is expressed. I will show how a narrative story differs in the each symbol system of the domains of hypermedia, film, and games.
When tasked with turning my favorite print fairy tale, Beauty and the Beast, into a linear multimedia PowerPoint "book," I first encoded the meaning of the narrative story on design cards. The DDLS program's theme of "making thinking visible" is captured on the design card; I included details about the story, how each card would be linked to the next, and what character and background images I would use. I then decoded the design cards into a multimedia PowerPoint presentation.
The next step in this process was to create a hypermedia PowerPoint presentation. The key thing to remember about hypermedia is that it is interactive and non-linear; the new narrative had to have several alternate story lines. I created a hypermedia linking navigation map to represent the non-linear connections between events in the narrative story. I also added animations and sound effects to create a more multimodal reading experience. Reading and writing a hypermedia story means having to account for unique symbol system elements like non-linear linking elements and including multiple representations of meaning. The elements can be represented and scaffolded by using powerful design tools, such as design cards and navigation maps.
The Loudoun DDLS cohort created a "Children's Guide to Watching and Producing Film/TV" to represent what children need to know to be good consumers and producers of film. My group's particular assignment, Sound and Music, was a domain that has explicit symbols and rules that need to be taught in order to appreciate the use of sound and music in film and TV.
The context in which we situated this knowledge was to compare a print story, Ray Bradbury's short story "I Sing the Body Electric," to a film adaptation, "The Electric Grandmother." Bradbury's print version required print literacy: the ability to encode words and decode meaning of the story. The film adaptation required the viewer to be able to encode elements of sound, music, video, acting, dialogue between characters, lighting, and cinematography--the symbol system of film. While a reader is left to his or her own imagination to interpret the details of a print text, a film does much of the interpretation for us through powerful editing to communicate meaning.
One of our final assignments for EDIT 782 was to create a video essay about the use of video games in the classroom. In this process, we converted a traditional, three-argument persuasive essay into a multimedia presentation that presented compelling questions and arguments and used media as evidence and explanation. While the essay script was important, the most important part of communicating meaning through film was the encoding of film elements (video, graphics, sound, transitions, captions, etc.) and assembly editing process. The use of the video essay in the classroom utilizes multiple literacies--print, visual, audio, film--to create a more powerful product than the traditional five paragraph essay.
Computer and video games require knowledge of print, visual, and hypermedia literacy and have their own symbol systems, which range depending on the type of gaming software. Learning to play arcade, skill, problem-solving, interactive fiction, and simulation software all required different skill sets. Some games were image-based, some were image-and-text-based, while one game was only text-based. Once a player learns how to encode the visual representation of the game, he or she must learn how to decode actions or commands to create meaning in the in-game experience and apply that meaning to the out-of-game experience of real life.
Having had the opportunity to try out all game types, I most enjoyed interactive fiction and simulation software games. I was able to develop a virtual identity (a late office worker in Bed Time and the President of the United States in Executive Command), encode the variables of the game, and decode my choices to progress in the story line of each game. Each of these games reinforced the thesis that my video essay group created: More and more teachers are supporting the use of games in the classroom as part of their instructional practices in order to develop literacy across all content areas through the development of critical skills for the future, the improvement of problem-solving skills, and the strengthening of student identity. It is clear that the interactive fiction and simulation software games are the most promising educational software for engaging future-ready learners in developing literacy.