Multimodal Opportunities with Digital Tools: The Example of Narrated Photographs

Abstract

This chapter explores recent encouragement to cultivate in students a sensitivity towards the ``multimodal'' nature of human communication. We consider what this means for educational practice and, in particular, how such an imperative might be addressed with digital tools. In particular we report a field study of secondary school students creating narrated photographs to characterise their local community and to construct sequences in the style of graphic novels. Although students were well engaged by this activity, many were hesitant in using their voice expressively. This variation in voicing confidence reminds us that education creates few opportunities for students to think about their speech in instrumental terms. Yet, we did see in some students a willingness and ability to do this. Adapting speech-for-purpose is a fundamental social skill. Thus, there is a need to take oracy more seriously and to see digital tools as one opening to do so in a practical way. Likewise, this project revealed disparities in students' confidence with visual expression: differences that implied a lack of experience in seeing the semiotic potential of the image. These observations suggest that educators should help students read (and compose) in these modalities as carefully as they help students to acquire more familiar text literacy.