What are multiliteracies?

Like most of the ideas discussed in this course, the notion of multiliteracies deals with cognitive and educational principles that just change and are upgraded thanks to new technologies. In this case, we have to ask ourselves how do we deliver information in a practical and effective way; that is, how do we teach what we have to teach in the limits of the book, of the classroom, and other physical limits in our way.

Traditionally, information was written in books with words, and as printing techniques became easier and cheaper, pictures were also a practical option. This is especially useful when ideas can’t be fully understood and when words turn soft, without a meaning for those who read them. It is far easier for a medical student to just look at a diagram of a certain operation or to the drawing of certain part of the body than just trying to understand the meaning trough words. With pictures, came the drawing of maps, came financial and mathematical diagrams, and education overall became easier. This is what we know as medias or modes: sometimes we teach with words and other with pictures, whenever they are available.

Of course, this is traditional education we’re talking about. With the turn of the twenty first century, along came new technologies- the power to reach words, pictures, sounds and videos right from a device in our pockets. Now, we have to teach children and other students not only through words and pictures. We can now teach easier and access and produce information with what we call digital media, that is videos and sounds too. And this is what multiliteracies are all about: we have to teach not only to read and understand the pictures and videos, but how to use and produce them effectively. To this day, we have a full generation of students that don’t know or don’t remember a time where they didn’t have this power, so they must learn the full responsibility of this new, digital media.

SOURCES:

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1030724.pdf

http://newarcproject.pbworks.com/f/Pedagogy+of+Multiliteracies_New+London+Group.pdf