Discuss the relevance of multiliteracies and multimodal approaches to supporting student learning.

   As literacy education shifts with changing society, so do its texts in the ways they are communicated and constructed (Healy, 2008). Traditionally, literacy pedagogy has been dominated by reading and writing, centred on language only, and focused on print based text (Cole & Pullen , 2010; New London Group, 1996). However many theorists including the New London Group (1996), Healy (2008), Kalantzis and Cope (2005), and Ng (2006) view the traditional approach to literacy as restrictive, monocultural and outmoded. The concept of multiliteracies has evolved in response to concerns about previous literacy practices and how they equip students for the changing world in which they live (Anstey & Bull,  2006).The concept of multiliteracies constructed by the New London Group (1996) embraces multiple forms of literacy including new forms of communication associated with information communication technologies, traditional types of communication, and various cultural forms of literacy that enable communication in different social and cultural contexts.

   New technologies and multimodal literacies mean that text is no longer restricted to print form. There is now a need for student to have multiple forms of knowledge and understandings in regards to literacy and the social context that is appears (Anstey & Bull,  2006). Students need to recognise that different contexts require different literate practices and be able to use known literacy practices in new and different ways (Anstey & Bull,  2006). Students who acquire this skill are deemed to be multiliterate. Being multiliterate also involves having the ability to analyse texts and understand how they have been constructed (Healy, 2008). However, because texts are increasingly multimodal, students are also required to make meaning using five semiotic systems including linguistic, audio, visual, special and gestural.

   Healy (2008) suggests that classrooms have a responsibility to reflect community practices with text and should therefore not focus only on linguistic and print technology. In addition, Anstey and Bull propose that in order to support multiliteracies, teachers need to give students access to a broad range of texts and give student the skills to analyse these texts.  For this reason my digital artefact requires student to use a variety of the semiotic systems to understand a variety of texts and create meaning. The texts that I used throughout my digital artefact are seen to reflect the lifeworlds of students and include video clips, online books, website, moving images, photos, music, graphs and many more. These forms of text require students to use a variety of semiotic systems to decode meaning. Students were also given the opportunity to create their own original resources, including Glogsters, videos and websites, and apply their knowledge of how meaning is created for different contexts.