Chapter 6: Analyzing Students' Multimodal Texts: The Product and the Process

Double Journal Entry #12

 

1. Why do educators need to be careful about terms like "Digital Native"?

Because the term leads to an understanding of a whole generation as a homogeneous group which is incorrect because a diverse range of skills and skill levels exist across student populations.

2. What outcome occurs when young people are encourage to transform their understanding of particular topics by designing a multimodal text?  Positive and enhanced.

3. You may skip the section titled "Context for the Project".

4. What was the goal of the project in terms of product?

To track the development of the participants' multimodal literacies over a two-year period by comparing two multimodal products created at the beginning and end of the period.

 

5. What was the goal of the project in terms of process?

To gain a deeper understanding of how multimodal texts were created, when students were working in pairs at the computer.

6. How were the participants fro the study selected?

Students were selected that fulfilled the following three criteria: they had worked collaboratively in pairs, they had fully completed the task, and the video screen data recordings were intact and complete.

 

7. Describe the task students engage is for the purpose of this study?

The students had to create a website describing the impact of plastic bags on the environment with their conclusions.

8. Explain how the researchers compared the student created multimodal texts?

The researchers compared the first slide/page in the set, the choice and shape or wording in the heading of individual slides/pages throughout the set, and the quality of knowledge revealed in each slide/page and complete set.

9. What differences in Jenny's PowerPoint presentation do you find the most interesting?

In the later slides, her position on the topic is neutral initially, and the colors are more constrained.

10. How is working together on a computer unlike working together using a pencil and paper?

The wait time on a computer is unpredictable, the wait time from keying an instruction and a response is unpredictable, and the result the computer provides to an instruction is often unexpected.

11. What was interesting about student's behavior as they collaborated on a task at the computer?  There was also evidence of off-task discussion.

 

12. What can teacher learn about designing learning activities that involve the creation of multimodal texts from this study?  Students spent too much time discussing the tasks at hand rather than completing them, and many students did not get the tasks completed.

 

13. According the the conclusion of this study, what do students need to learn in order to successful complete a multimodal text construction?

A range of skills that include ICT skills, cognitive skills such as; analysis, synthesis,summation, and logical organization of ideas, focus and time management skills.

14. Are you surprised by the conclusions drawn in this study?

No, because I see it every day in the classroom.