Today in digital technologies, I explored multimodal texts and the benefit of these in the classroom. A text is multimodal when it contains two or more of the semiotic systems; linguistic, visual, audio, gestural, and spatial. Today’s advancements in technology accounts for an increase of multimodal texts in the classroom as teachers have easier access to a multitude of sources which allows them to be highly creative. This is accounted for in Curriculum for Excellence; “the literacy and English framework reflects the increased use of multimodal texts encountered by young people in their daily lives” (Education Scotland, 2019).
Multimodal presentations are displayed daily in classrooms across Scotland, due to their ability to enhance teaching and learning; “the presentation of a topic in a variety of ways can increase pupils’ understanding of it” (Beauchamp, 2012). One form of multimodal presentation widely used in classrooms is ‘ActivInspire’.
ActivInspire presentations are interactive and personalised for pupils by the teacher, and therefore they are highly engaging. They help ‘bring lessons to life’ by enabling engagement with the interactive board. This touch display can become “a social learning tool encouraging hands-on experiences, thereby helping children to learn by doing” (Prandstatter, 2014), which in turn, builds pupils’ confidence.
I have seen ActivInspire presentations used throughout my own primary school and high school experience, and although used in different ways, I always remembered the interactive activities significantly more engaging therefore I performed better. ActivInspire was also used to accompany almost every lesson I observed during my primary school placement, and children always enjoyed the interactive side to lessons. It enabled all children to be engaged as they all had a turn, and for the teacher to demonstrate the information in several different ways which was exciting for the learners. There are endless possibilities of what you can create on ActivInspire, you are not limited at all, therefore it can be altered to use in all curricular areas.
As I was absent to class this day I had to catch up on workshop activities at home, I downloaded ActivInspire to my laptop and experimented with the features. As well as presenting notes, pictures or videos, text and images can be highlighted and annotated. Also, I thought that the pen tool was very easy to operate with a good selection of colours and pen sizes which can be used for drawing and labelling. There is also a shapes section and well as a ruler option which I feel would be beneficial during maths lessons. I also thought it was a key feature that slides could be printed out, saved or shared to be completed by pupils or in a teacher directed activity, this highlights the variety of ways ActivInspire can be used.
After familiarising myself with ActivInspire and all its features, I am aware of the importance that teachers are digitally literate when using different multimodal sources in the classroom; “the ability of ICT to present ideas in a variety of ways can help to structure new experiences but only if you as the teacher have sufficient understanding on the area itself” (Beauchamp, 2012, p.100). This highlights the need for teacher training in the digital world.
Personally, as a student teacher, I would use ActivInspire in my own classroom in the future, as it is easy to use and enhances not only teaching but the overall learning of young people by displaying information in a variety of ways. It would be an effective teaching tool especially when used as an introduction to lessons or used for children to engage with activities on the interactive board. Although debate turns to how long ActivInspire has been used in classrooms, perhaps it is slightly outdated, however I view this as a reason for its continued use; many student teachers will be comfortable using this in lessons if they themselves have experienced the engagement provoked in their own school years. Overall, I think that this is one of the most valuable resources for the classroom in the 21st century. By experimenting with ActivInspire as a multimodal resource I feel more comfortable to deliver a presentation using the software and it has opened my eyes to the endless possibilities and huge advantages of multimodal texts.
References:
Beauchamp, G. (2012) ICT in the Primary School: From Pedagogy to Practice. Pearson.
Online References:
Education Scotland. (2019) Literacy and English: Principles and Practice. [Online] Available at: https://education.gov.scot/Documents/literacy-english-pp.pdf [Accessed 20th March 2019]
Prandstatter, J. (2014) Interactive Displays in Early Years Classes. [Online] Available at: http://connectlearningtoday.com/interactive-displays-early-years-classes/ [Accessed 23 February 2019]
