Multimodal Literacies MOOC’s Updates

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Youtube has become a source of information that is usually preferred over other where discourses are constructed mainly through text. Many times, as many people do, I have recommended looking for information on Youtube. Even more, I have heard a new popular expression in my country and abroad: “You can learn anything on Youtube”; from the things that (most) people find simple, as to how to boil water (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kieGBkOdyMU) to quite complicated things as to how rockets work. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQB1Iw3zJbc )

As well, Youtube is a platform where anyone with access to a camera (in a smartphone, for example) and internet access can be a creator and a designer of complex discourses spreading them to a massive audience. Big companies or individuals covering a wide range of topics and interests can have space on Youtube.

Youtube has gained popularity in classrooms, too. We, teachers, acknowledge the possibilities that Youtube offers and bring videos to our lessons in an effort for making classes more interesting and provide more tools to our students for understanding topics.

Being this, students and teachers can make the most of what Youtube offers by using a multimodal approach. To be aware that discourses and therefore communication and interpretation are constructed in a complex way, beyond text, gives a new perspective on what the interests behind these discourses are so that students and teachers can take a position and give an informed response to them; this could be a way to promote agency in students as creators and receivers of these discourses and construct a literacy that seeks an equal access and creation of knowledge.

  • Ilyes Haidara