Multimodalt skrivande - förutsättningar och lärandemöjligheter : Litteraturstudie om mellanstadieelevers lärandemöjligheter vid multimodalt skrivande inom svenskämnet och förutsättningar för en multimodal skrivundervisning

Kursplanen i svenska förklarar att eleverna ska utveckla det multimodala skrivandet inom svenskämnet. Det multimodala skrivandet innebär att ord, bild och ljud kombineras och samspelar. Huvudsyftet med den här litteraturstudien har varit att undersöka hur det multimodala skrivandet inom svenskämnet för årskurs 4-6 kan se ut, vilka kompetenser och resurser som krävs för att bedriva en multimodal skrivundervisning, samt vilket slags lärande det multimodala skrivandet kan ge upphov till hos eleverna. Litteraturstudien visar att det multimodala skrivandet kan förekomma såväl analogt som digitalt. Vidare visar den att svensk forskning på området är mycket begränsad. De artiklar och avhandlingar som inkluderats i litteraturstudien visar att forskare är eniga om att lärare behöver utveckla sina kunskaper om olika teckenvärldar, såsom auditiva och visuella, för att göra elever medvetna om teckenvärldarnas meningspotential och samspel. Det multimodala skrivandet ger upphov till en form av samordnat lärande, eftersom det multimodala skrivandet är en komplex process, som kräver att eleverna får explicit undervisning om aktuell digital programvara och teckenvärldarnas meningsskapande. Multimodalt skrivande är ett vanligt inslag utanför skolan, men bör få tillträde in i skolvärlden. Det förutsätter att digitala resurser finns tillgängliga och att lärare är positivt inställda till den multimodala skrivutvecklingen.

Multimodalt skrivande i praktiken : Sex lärares beskrivningar om och hur det multimodala skrivandet på Åland sker samt deras upplevelser av och attityder till multimodalt skrivande

Huvudsyftet med denna empiriska studie har varit att undersöka om och hur några lärare på Åland praktiskt arbetar med multimodalt skrivande i årskurs 4-6, samt deras upplevelser av och inställning till det multimodala skrivandet i skolan. Det multimodala skrivandet har i denna studie definierats som att skriftlig, visuell och auditiv teckenvärld kombineras på ett eller annat sätt. Skrivuppgifter där text kombinerats med bild och ljud är exempel på detta. Genom halvstrukturerade intervjuer visar studien att det multimodala skrivandet förekommer relativt ofta, främst det som innefattar text och bild. Dessutom förekommer både analoga och digitala multimodala skrivuppgifter i undervisningen. Det visar sig att möjligheterna är många med lärare som generellt är positiva till det multimodala skrivandet i skolan. Det är snarare lärarna själva som begränsar den multimodala skrivundervisningen på grund av egen osäkerhet. Den digitala tekniken kan stundtals också ställa till med bekymmer. Vidare visar studien att lärare behöver utveckla och förstå att den multimodala skrivprocessen är en integrerad process där helheten är det centrala. Lärare behöver även utveckla den multimodala skrivkompetensen eftersom den granskande aspekten av texters budskap är lika viktig som att låta olika teckenvärldar samspela. Trots en obekanthet med begreppet så inkluderar lärare multimodalt skrivande i sin undervisning.

Optimising container process at multimodal container terminal with automatic straddle carriers

-

Advancing e-learning policy and practice : influences on academics’ adoption, integration and development of multimodal e-learning courses

Tertiary education is increasingly a contested space where advances in Information Communications Technologies and their application to technology-mediated e-learning environments have forced university administrators and educators to dislocate themselves from traditional correspondence modes of student engagement. Compounding this paradigmatic shift within the traditional sphere of distance education pedagogy are multiple and conflicting pressures on academics to develop flexible, engaging, cost-effective and sustainable interactive learning resources that incorporate both multimedia and hypermedia. This chapter reports on a study that examined factors that influence educators’ decision to adopt and integrate educational technology and convert traditional print-based distance education materials into interactive multimodal e-learning formats. Although the broader study was conducted in a single Australian university and investigated pedagogical, institutional and individual factors, this chapter restricts its focus to solely the pedagogical motivations and concerns of educators. It is argued that findings from the study have significance at the institutional level, particularly in terms of developing an underlying pedagogical rationale that can permeate the e-learning culture throughout the university, while at the same time, providing a roadmap for educators who are yet to fully engage with the e-learning format.

Historical timelines : analyzing multimodal text design

The recent focus on literacy in Social Studies has been on linguistic design, particularly that related to the grammar of written and spoken text. When students are expected to produce complex hybridized genres such as timelines, a focus on the teaching and learning of linguistic design is necessary but not sufficient to complete the task. Theorizations of new literacies identify five interrelated meaning making designs for text deconstruction and reproduction: linguistic, spatial, visual, gestural, and audio design. Honing in on the complexity of timelines, this paper casts a lens on the linguistic, visual, spatial, and gestural designs of three pairs of primary school aged Social Studies learners. Drawing on a functional metalanguage, we analyze the linguistic, visual, spatial, and gestural designs of their work. We also offer suggestions of their effect, and from there consider the importance of explicit instruction in text design choices for this Social Studies task. We conclude the analysis by suggesting the foci of explicit instruction for future lessons.

Sustainability of a multimodal intervention to promote lifestyle factors associated with the prevention of cardiovascular disease in midlife Australian women : a 5-year follow-up

We evaluated sustainability of an intervention to reduce women’s cardiovascular risk factors, determined the influence of self-efficacy, and described women’s current health. We used a mixed method approach that utilized forced choice and open-ended questionnaire items about health status, habits, and self-efficacy. Sixty women, average age 61, returned questionnaires. Women in the original intervention group continued health behaviors intended to reduce cardiovascular disease (CVD) at a higher rate than the control group, supporting the feasibility of a targeted intervention built around women’s individual goals. The role of self-efficacy in behavior change is unclear. The original intervention group reported higher self-reported health.

“Filming in Progress”: New spaces for multimodal designing

Global trends call for new research to investigate multimodal designing mediated by new technologies and the implications for classroom spaces. This article addresses the relationship between new technologies, students’ multimodal designing, and the social production of classroom spaces. Multimodal semiotics and sociological principles are applied to a series of claymation movie-making lessons in an upper primary school in Australia. The analysis focuses on the social meanings embedded in the multimodal spaces of the classroom—dialogic, bodily, embodied, architectonic, and screen spaces. The findings demonstrate how the uses of new technologies and the students’ multimodal learning were tied to important transformations of space.

Shrek meets Vygotsky : rethinking adolescents' multimodal literacy practices in schools

Recent research has emphasized the multimodal and digital nature of adolescent literacy practices. These practices cross multiple social spaces, particularly settings outside of schools. This article re-examines current research to yield three caveats that counter assumptions about the pervasiveness, relevance, and spontaneity of youths’ multimodal practices in the digital communications environment: 1. It is incorrect to assume that today’s adolescents are all “digital natives”; 2. Engaging adolescents in multimodal textual practices must involve more than conforming the curriculum to their interests and practices, extending students’ repertoire of skills and genres; and 3. While some new multimodal practices are taken up by adolescents with minimal instruction in informal contexts, greater emphasis should be placed on expert scaffolding of these literacies in school settings.

Optimising container processes at multimodal seaport terminals : an integrated approach and application

A Multimodal Seaport Container Terminal (MSCT) is a complex system which requires careful planning and control in order to operate efficiently. It consists of a number of subsystems that require optimisation of the operations within them, as well as synchronisation of machines and containers between the various subsystems. Inefficiency in the terminal can delay ships from their scheduled timetables, as well as cause delays in delivering containers to their inland destinations, both of which can be very costly to their operators. The purpose of this PhD thesis is to use Operations Research methodologies to optimise and synchronise these subsystems as an integrated application. An initial model is developed for the overall MSCT; however, due to a large number of assumptions that had to be made, as well as other issues, it is found to be too inaccurate and infeasible for practical use. Instead, a method of developing models for each subsystem is proposed that then be integrated with each other. Mathematical models are developed for the Storage Area System (SAS) and Intra-terminal Transportation System (ITTS). The SAS deals with the movement and assignment of containers to stacks within the storage area, both when they arrive and when they are rehandled to retrieve containers below them. The ITTS deals with scheduling the movement of containers and machines between the storage areas and other sections of the terminal, such as the berth and road/rail terminals. Various constructive heuristics are explored and compared for these models to produce good initial solutions for large-sized problems, which are otherwise impractical to compute by exact methods. These initial solutions are further improved through the use of an innovative hyper-heuristic algorithm that integrates the SAS and ITTS solutions together and optimises them through meta-heuristic techniques. The method by which the two models can interact with each other as an integrated system will be discussed, as well as how this method can be extended to the other subsystems of the MSCT.

Reading in the Australian curriculum English : describing the effects of structure and organisation on multimodal texts

The recently introduced Australian Curriculum: English Version 3.0 (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA], 2012) requires students to ‘read’ multimodal text and describe the effects of structure and organisation. We begin this article by tracing the variable understandings of what reading multimodal text might entail through the Framing Paper (National Curriculum Board, 2008), the Framing Paper Consultation Report (National Curriculum Board, 2009a), the Shaping Paper (National Curriculum Board, 2009b) and Version 3.0 of the Australian Curriculum English (ACARA, 2012). Our findings show that the theoretical and descriptive framework for doing so is implicit. Drawing together multiple but internally coherent theories from the field of semiotics, we suggest one way to work towards three Year 5 learning outcomes from the reading/writing mode. The affordances of assembling a broad but explicit technical metalanguage for an informed reading of the integrated design elements of multimodal texts are noted.