Visual Communication and the Multimedia

Examine the picture that follows. Refer to the information you could get in the STUDY portion to evaluate this image. Discuss this enthusiastically with others in the classroom.

https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3740/13448617384_07601f789d.jpg

Multimodality  

Every time we read a newspaper, watch television, play a video or computer game, or even read a book, we deal with multimodal texts on a daily basis. Visual literacy embraces multimodal media. To Bearne and Wolstencroft, 2007 (in www.open.edu/openlearncreate/mod/resource/view.pnp?id=799), multimodality involves the complex interweaving of words, image, gesture, and movement, and sounds including, speech. These can be combined in different ways and presented though a range of media. Multimodality matters because the future of reading and writing are closely interwoven with the future of digital technologies. We already know how much about multimodal texts from over experiences. It is then imperative for us to build on those experiences and over knowledge of multimodality. We need to recognize the interlacing relationship between and among various modes: text and image, sound and gesture and a perfect combination of kinds for a meaningful classroom experience.

Multimodality consists of mode and media. The former includes signs (sound, graphical material, print) which the latter entails the manner of dissemination. The modes of communication include writing or print, including typographical elements of font size, types and shape; images, moving and still, diagrammatic or representational; sound, spoken words and music; gesture and movement. The mediums of communication consist of the computer (internet information and software presentation); paper-based texts (picture books, magazines, novels, information books); sound and visual media (radio, television, videos, CDs and DVDs).

Adopting multimodality in the classroom excites all of us. We therefore have to be updated in using web pages and web logs, blogs, advertisements, newspapers, magazines, comics, poetry, songs, paintings/ drawings, texting, animated films, live acted films, computer games, and a lot more modalities to make our classrooms dynamic and experiential.