'I'm making it different to the book': Transmediation in young children's multimodal and digital texts

Abstract

Young children shift meanings across multiple modes long before they have mastered formal writing skills. In a digital age, children are socialised into a wide range of new digital media conventions in the home, at school, and in communitybased settings. This article draws on longitudinal classroom research with a culturally diverse cohort of eight-year-old children, to advance new understandings about children's engagement in transmediation in the context of digital media creation. The author illuminates three key principles of transmediation, using multimodal snapshots of storyboard images, digital movie frames, and online comics. Insights about transmediation are developed through dialogue with the children about their thought processes and intentions for their multimedia creations. © 2011. All rights reserved by Early Childhood Australia Inc.