The visual learning or new learning which I am witnessing in the education of my child and my students is multi-modal. The cognitive modes are written, oral, image, sound, gesture, and tactile. This meaning making is supported and enhanced by digital technologies. For instance, teacher may use a podcast as well as a video as well as a reading. Today’s learners must be able to switch back and forth between different modalities as both consumers and producers. To illustrate, YouTube is a medium where we might find a clip of a music performance that goes along with a topic we have just discussed. My daughter handpicks what snippets she wants to watch, for instance of a world champion soccer match, but of course back in the old days we had to wait a week to watch a show scheduled in the TV Guide. She is adept and choosing from the menu which key words will yield her best find. Will it be “youngest soccer champion”? Or “2019 female soccer champions”? An example of the multi-modal student in an English class would be one writing a critical analysis of a video. The video is a great way to hold interest when a longer reading will not. Allow me to digress here--as an English instructor I am puzzling over images in social media which use the hashtag and the hashtag becomes away to search for things and connect with a wider audience. Who is in this audience? I think "youth" are listening to hashtags but of course adults also use hashtags for research and marketing. Here is a link for ways to improve one's business using hashtags. And I am appreciating that social media uses written text in a whole new way.

https://sproutsocial.com/insights/hashtag-marketing-tactics/

This link is shared here to highlight the importance of words in social media, even where talk is cheap. The language of the hashtag exemplifies how learner-generated knowledge is still text-driven but enables the curation of photos and videos. Everyone is their own little personal brand. Everyone is their own museum exhibit. How does one's curation sway meaning? Of course, we know how "echo chambers" and "confirmation bias" lead to biased thinking. How does digital thinking broaden thinking rather than shrink attention spans? If we "read" "The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson how does the teacher make the greatest impact? Is it through the photo and the video and the written and the sound and the gesture, etc...? Or does the deluge turn away people? If learning is social, then I propose the social activity for reading "The Lottery" could be to make students responsible for small chunks of it in small groups. Then, they can post their paraphrased chunk online.

To what extent do educators have a responsibility to teach what counts as social (what is pro-social behavior) in social media? If educators have a responsibility to teach multi-modal ways, then it seems we do have a responsibility to teach both the content and the procedural knowledge of social media. If that is the case, then educators must possess a far greater repertoire than in years past. I understand the importance of multi-modal learning but I do not understand the extent to which it must implemented or structured. In conclusion, I do not fully understand what it means to harness digital technologies to be a better educator, though I can keep up with email and use an LMS.