Multimodal Literacy
I don’t really have any fully developed thoughts on the issue at the moment, but I was reminded today of the 2003 NCTE Position Statement On Composing with Nonprint Media. Like most “position statements” it sounds great, but what does it really mean? It calls for members to:
- encourage preservice, inservice, and staff development programs that will focus on new literacies, multimedia composition, and a broadened concept of literacy;
- encourage research and develop models of district, school, and classroom policies that would promote multimedia composition;
- encourage integrating multimedia composition in English language arts curriculum and teacher education, and in refining related standards at local, state, and national levels; and
- renew the commitment expressed in the 1983 Resolution on Computers in English and Language Arts to achieve equity of access to the full range of composing technologies.
Equity of access, as previously defined, is an economic/departmental issue. I find this slightly confusing in the light of the more modern notion of “accessibility” in computers—that of equity among those with sensory or motor difficulties. “Access to the full range of composing technologies” is even more confusing—does this mean that every student should have access to a midi-keyboard for composing music, the latest in computer rendering software for graphics, video cameras and studio space, as well as a standard word processor? I’m all for breaking down the walls of English departments to expose the world outside, but such a proposal seems Panglossian.
Interestingly, it seems to me that a model much like this one has long been in place in one level of classroom environment—kindergarten. Images, words, music, and dance all mesh together in early childhood education with one teacher in one room. As the business of education moves to the cultivation of taste, rather than “composing,” the disciplines of art, music, literature, and composition fracture. I suspect that art, music and literature departments would be very resistant to the suggestion that they return to kindergarten. It surprises me that composition people are relatively all right with the concept—at least when it is veiled with indistinct jargon and buzzwords with ambiguous meanings.
I must admit that I am, perhaps much more than I should be, thrilled with the idea of perpetual kindergarten where there are few rules. However, I think such an abstract proposal is of little utility. Just what is multimedia composition? Building websites with Flash seems to be one take on the matter, or perhaps integrating mp3s or video files as well as graphic images. I tend to view these things as transitory and subject to rapid technology shifts. I suspect the vague proposal rests firmly on a shaky undefined ground—just what is multimedia literacy anyway? Shouldn’t there be a more concrete proposal of what such literacy entails before a resolution is passed to promote it? At the very least, some tentative definition should have been offered in the resolution itself.
The Master’s program I just completed made some effort to address the issues of electronic literacies in its exit requirements. A student is required to demonstrate proficiency in four or five (I forget) software packages relating to document design. Of course, they offer one course (intermittently at best) where students without access to such software at home might learn it. It is up to the students (outside of class) to learn software packages—they do not teach them. The addition of a software requirement was a concession to corporations who hired previous graduates and felt them ill prepared for modern tech writing environments. I suspect that few of their employers would consider the ability to compose Flash animations a necessary skill except in specialized cases. So, the question remains—just what would qualify a person as “multimedia” literate?
I’m just thinking out loud here. Obviously (if you’ve read me for a while anyway) it should be clear that I think that multiple literacies are important, and support the resolution (such as it is). However, the really important question is how?
