LESSON 5

VALUE JUDGMENT OF MULTIMODAL COMMUNICATION

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of the lesson, students should be able to:

a. determine culturally appropriate terms, expressions, and images;
b. evaluate multimodal texts critically to enhance receptive skills;
c. create clear, coherent, and effective communication materials;
d. present ideas persuasively using appropriate language registers, tone, facial expression,
and gestures; and
e. assume responsibility in using appropriate media tools for community, social, and political
awareness.

Storytelling in any format is about making meaning. While the essence of the stories
we tell may remain the same, the ways in which we can now share these stories have
changed dramatically with the development of digital communication technologies. Access
to simple, easy to use media production tools and resources in conjunction with the
potential for immediate and universal online publication has significant implications for
literacy thinking and practice.

WHAT MULTIMODAL COMMUNICATION IS:

What does creating multimodal texts mean?

Creating is defined in the Australian Curriculum as ‘the development and/or production of

spoken, written or multimodal texts in print or digital forms’ and is an
embedded literacy expectation across all disciplines.

Multimodal is defined in the Australian Curriculum as the strategic use of ‘two or more
communication modes to make meaning, for example, image, gesture, music, spoken
language, and written language.

What is a multimodal text?

Please watch this video at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=se3G8LV40gg

A multimodal text can be paper – such as books, comics, posters.

A multimodal text can be digital – from slide presentations, e-books, blogs, e-posters, web
pages, and social media, through to animation, film and video games.

A multimodal text can be live – a performance or an event.

 LESSON 5
VALUE JUDGMENT OF MULTIMODAL COMMUNICATION

And, a multimodal text can be transmedia– where the story is told using ‘multiple delivery
channels’  through a combination of media platforms, for example, book, comic, magazine,
film, web series, and video game mediums all working as part of the same story.  Transmedia
is a contested term and Henry Jenkins is worth reading for more background. Jenkins argues
that transmedia is more than just multiple media platforms, it is about the logical relations
between these media extensions which seek to add something to the story as it moves from
one medium to another, not just adaptation or retelling. Transmedia enables the further
development of the story world through each new medium; for example offering a back
story, a prequel, additional ‘episodes’, or further insight into characters and plot elements.
(Jenkins, 2011). It also can require a more complex production process.

Development of multimodal literacy knowledge and skills

To enable students to effectively design and communicate meaning through such rich and
potentially complex texts, there is a need to extend their (and along the way, our own)
multimodal literacy knowledge and skills. Skilled multimodal composition requires new
literacy design skills and knowledge to enable students to make informed choices within and
across the available communication modes to effectively construct meaning.

Creating a multimodal text, a digital animation, for example, is a complex meaning design
process requiring the strategic orchestration of a combination of modes such as image,
movement, sound, spatial design, gesture, and language. The process of constructing such
texts is also truly a cross-disciplinary literacy process, drawing on digital information
technologies and The Arts (media, music, drama, visual arts, design) to bring meaning to life.

Animation
Traditional forms of animation are filmed as stop-motion where the camera is stopped and
the subject moved and then filmed again. This sequence of shots with small changes in
between is linked together to create a moving image.

Comics and graphic novels

Comics and graphic novel formats can be used to tell new stories, to retell old stories and to
inform and instruct for example information reports, book reports, text analysis, character
studies, diaries, and even instruction manuals.

Multimodal meaning resources to consider: images, print, design, dialogue. Specific comic
features include framing of information within each frame; and organization of  frames on
the page, size, design and shape of frames. Visual resources also include use of call outs,
dialogue balloons, lines, shapes, color, angles and visual characterization.

Digital storytelling
 LESSON 5
VALUE JUDGMENT OF MULTIMODAL COMMUNICATION

Digital storytelling brings the ancient tradition of oral storytelling and new technologies
together in a powerful, interdisciplinary learning process. Through digital storytelling, we
can weave together video, photos, art, music, narration, print, and sound effects using
simple multimedia publishing tools to tell our stories.

A digital story is short – usually, one to three minutes in length, narrated in first person using
your own voice. Still images are commonly used with camera tools used to frame the shot,
and to pan across the photograph, or zoom in or out, creating a sense of movement within
an image and across a sequence of images. Music and sound effects are added for dramatic
effect and to add emotional tone. Moving image can also be used.

Digital storytelling has broad application across all disciplines and year levels and is a highly
motivating, interactive learning process. Making a digital story involves creative and critical
thinking, inquiry, writing, discussion, design, production, reflection and presentation. It
provides opportunities to enhance the expression of their own stories, thoughts and ideas in
creative and engaging ways, across a diverse range of learning contexts. Digital stories can
be imaginative; they can be reflective and analytical; and they can be factual. It depends on
the purpose of the task, the audience and the genre chosen.

Music videos
Making music videos does not have to be a complex process. Simple choreographed films or
animations work extremely well. From a literacy perspective, communication of meaning is
essential. Thoughtfully selected action, visual and sound elements working together to
construct the message is the key to a successful composition.

Posters, magazines
In designing a poster, or a newspaper, magazine page, print advertisement, or
brochure focus on the importance of D-A-M-P: Design, Audience, Message and Purpose. The
work will be effective and have more impact if all of these elements are right.

It is important to highlight the literacy focus of this task, and how considered choice of
images, design, layout, color and text work together to create intended meaning. This
process requires preliminary activities deconstructing examples of the text to identify the
purpose of the text, audience and how the different modal resources – design and layout,
linguistic features, and visual elements – work together to construct meaning.

Short films
Short films can be made quite simply using the video recording capabilities of smart phones
or a digital camera. The film can be later compiled through editing and other post-
production processes using simple post production software programs. There are a number
of simple editing apps available for phones and tablets.
 LESSON 5
VALUE JUDGMENT OF MULTIMODAL COMMUNICATION

While one to three minutes is the usual length of a short film, even shorter films are fun to
make too.

Trailers
Trailers are very short videos traditionally created to promote a film. A commercial  film
trailer uses existing film footage and music to convey highlights or insight into key themes
and is designed to hook in potential viewers. Trailers are a very powerful marketing tool.

Book Trailers
Creating book trailers is an engaging way to present an insight into a text. A book trailer is a
multimodal interpretation of the themes of the book, and the media is produced from
scratch. A book trailer uses a mix of images and or moving image, symbols, text, voice-over,
music and sound to ‘sell’ the book.

Film trailers
Students can create their own film trailers for a film. This can be done with students creating
their own media, or using a digital mash up of new and existing media to create a new
interpretation.

Visual knowledge is ‘students understanding how visual information contributes to

the meanings created in learning area texts. It includes interpreting still and moving images,
graphs, tables, maps and other graphic representations, and understanding and evaluating
how images and language work together in distinctive ways to present ideas and
information in the texts they compose and comprehend.’

Visual knowledge is understanding how visual elements such as line, color, shape,
texture, space, symbols, pattern and composition create meaning. The resources are
primarily focused on reading visual texts, provide good starting points on how to
strategically design the visual elements of the texts. The aim is to develop a
shared metalanguage for talking about how visual meaning is constructed.

Source: creatingmultimodaltexts.com

FORMS OF COMMUNICATION AND THE USE OF DIGITAL MODES AND OTHER DIGITAL
APPLICATIONS

PLEASE SEE ATTACHED POWERPOINT PRESENTATION