How can media professionals design content that limits screen time yet remains engaging for children aged 9-12?
How can audio-visual experts produce content that promotes active engagement and learning, reducing passive screen time for children aged 9-12?
How can content producers create programming that encourages children aged 9-12 to balance on-screen activities with offline interactions?
How can media professionals produce content that resonates with children aged 9-12 while simultaneously promoting healthy screentime habits?
How can audio-visual professionals employ to ensure their content is both age-appropriate and conducive to moderated screentime for children aged 9-12?
As the digital era continues to evolve, our modes of communication have expanded beyond traditional text-based methods. Today’s children are born into a media-rich environment where they interact with visuals, sounds, and interactivity daily. This requires them to develop multimodal literacy skills, which are understanding, interpreting, and creating communications across various forms.
The Significance of Multimodal Literacy:
Traditional literacy, focused on reading and writing, is no longer sufficient. With the advent of smartphones, tablets, and interactive platforms, children are constantly exposed to a mix of text, images, sounds, and videos. Hence, to effectively navigate and comprehend this diverse media landscape, they must be adept at multimodal literacy.
Current Challenges
Limited Curriculum Integration:Many educational systems still prioritize traditional literacy, leaving little room for multimodal literacy.
Passive Consumption: Children often interact with media as passive consumers, rarely being encouraged to create or analyze content.
………Collaboration with Media Professionals:
Inviting media professionals to conduct sessions can offer children a real-world perspective. Whether it’s a filmmaker discussing the intricacies of storytelling or a graphic designer explaining visual aesthetics, such interactions can be invaluable.
The Role of Parents:
Parents play a crucial role in their child’s multimodal literacy journey. They can:
Limit passive consumption by setting screen time rules.
Encourage active media interactions, such as discussing a film’s narrative or the persuasive techniques in an advertisement.
Provide resources and tools that aid in content creation.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/00393541.2004.11651771?needAccess=true
There is an acknowledgement now of the textual change that has taken place for present-day pupils, whose surroundings are inundated with visual, electronic and digital texts. The terms ‘multiliteracies’ (Cope & Kalantzis, 2000; Unsworth, 2001), ‘new literacies’ (Lankshear, C. & Knobel, M. 2003), ‘multimodal texts’, ‘multimodal discourse’ and ‘multimodality’ (Kress & van Leeuwen, 1996, 2001, 2006) attempt to describe the shift in textual norms that has transpired and to conceptualise the altered learning paradigm that is integral for literacy and learning in an age of heightened digital communication.
References:
Duncum, P. (2004). Visual culture isn‘t just visual: Multiliteracy, multimodality and meaning. Studies in Art Education: A Journal of Issues and Research in Art Education
Mills, K. A. (2010). Shrek meets Vygotsky: Rethinking adolescents’ multimodal literacy practices in schools. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 54(1), 35-45.
Serafini, Frank. (2011). Expanding perspectives for comprehending visual images in multimodal texts. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 54(5) :342-350
Serafini, F. (2014). Reading the visual: An introduction to teaching multimodal literacy. Teachers College Press.
Sturken & Cartwright. (2001). Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Van Leeuwen, T. (2015). Multimodality in Education: Some Directions and Some Questions. TESOL Quarterly, 49(3), 582-589
Van Leeuwen, T. & Jewitt, C. (2001). Handbook of Visual Analysis. London: Sage