What?
Digital technology affords teachers and learners the opportunity to access and create in multiple ways. Mayer (2014) recognizes that learning is more effective when a learner has access to “words and pictures than from words alone—a finding that has been called the multimedia principle” (2014, p. 385). The purposeful design for learning that includes different modalities can “ensure that all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities” (Cast, 2018, The UDL Guidelines section). Modalities is defined by the International Baccalaureate Organization as “combining several modes to convey a message” (IBO, 2019, p. 2) which is visualized in Figure 1, and elaborated upon in Table 1.
Figure 1. Multimodality: Modes of Expression
Source: IBO (2018, p. 53)
Table 1. Modalities
Source: IBO (2019, pg. 3)
So What?
So how can we use technology to engage the senses? For me and the Kindergarten Information and Digital Literacy Coach (IDLC), it started with looking at the school's identity, mission, vision, values, and what this meant for information and digital literacy (IDL). This led to the IDLC outlining the collaborative process to develop strategic thinking, with the end product being the Kindergarten Information and Digital Literacy Philosophy Statement (Figure 3). This statement formed the foundation and vision for our future.
Figure 3. Kindergarten IDL Philosophy Statement
The philosophy is our school’s promise and commitment to our learners, in how we purposefully leverage modalities through play. As inferred, this will have a future impact on spaces, programming and resources, and require a collaborative community approach.
So far, we have employed an additional IDLC to help lead this process. A number of committees have been formed to investigate specific IDL elements. For example, a group is now exploring how a significant part of the school library can be decentralized and distributed throughout the school, thus providing greater access to all learners. Other projects on the horizon include the transformation of shared spaces to provide hands-on experiences such as story-telling (digital and non-digital), podcasting, and interactive museum type exhibitions.
Doumanis et al. “subscribed to the view that traditional educational plus digital tools are greater than either on their own” (2019, p. 122) and we recognize that it is not a matter of simply using technology and hoping for the best. Our philosophy explicitly calls for “thoughtful design” which will involve us learning more about how modalities are best combined. As O’Halloran et al. discovered when using 360 degrees to support university students “develop a deeper understanding of learning processes and subject-specific knowledge” (2018, p. 88), incorrectly combining different modalities simultaneously can negatively impact learning by asking the senses to compete for attention, rather than complementing, or reinforcing to better understand the content being presented. This overload was referred to by John Sweller (1998) as Cognitive Load, and it refers to the amount of working memory that a person uses at one time to process information. In thinking about this from an early childhood learning perspective, Feez (2018) highlights the lessons that can be learned from Montessori teachers who are trained to purposely combine modalities to enhance the sensory learning experience.
Now What?
It is clear that when purposefully designed, digital technology can be used to leverage multimodalities that improve learning outcomes. For now, my collaborative journey focuses on planning, implementing, reflecting and tweaking my knowledge, skills and understanding of this in an iterative manner.
Bibliography & References
CAST (2018). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 2.2. Retrieved from http://udlguidelines.cast.org
Doumanis, I., Economou, D., Sim, G. R., & Porter, S. (2019). The impact of multimodal collaborative virtual environments on learning: A gamified online debate. Computers & Education, 130, 121-138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2018.09.017
Feez, S. (2018). Multimodality in the Montessori Classroom. In H. de Silva Joyce & S. Feez (Eds.), Multimodality across classrooms: Learning about and through different modalities (pp. 30-48). Routledge.
IBO (2018) Primary years programme: The learning community. International Baccalaureate Organization.
IBO (2019) IB multiliteracies: Language and culture meet technology. International Baccalaureate Organization.
Mayer, R. E. (2014). Multimedia Instruction. In Handbook of Research on Educational Communications and Technology (pp. 385-399). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3185-5_31
O’Halloran, K. L., Tan, S., Wiebrands, M., Sheffield, R., Wignell, P., & Turner, P. (2018). The multimodal classroom in the digital age: The use of 360 degree videos for online teaching and learning. In H. de Silva Joyce & S. Feez (Eds.), Multimodality across classrooms: Learning about and through different modalities (pp. 84-102). Routledge.
Sweller, J. (1988). Cognitive load during problem solving: Effects on learning. Cognitive Science, 12(2), 257–285. https://doi.org/10.1016/0364-0213(88)90023-7
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