Reflection+4

Viewing Multimodal Texts

Key question: What makes a multimodal text successful?

// My suggestion is: a text that offers a rich experience for the viewer comprised of a variety of semiotic systems that interact and interplay to offer a satisfying whole text. In a successful text the effect of the whole work will surpass the contribution of individual elements contained within. Like all other texts, it must appeal to the intended audience emotionally and cognitively. //

// General observations about // Inanimate Alice//.//
 * // I was very impressed with the educational packs due to the depth of knowledge behind their creation and also the generosity of spirit that enabled me to access these top quality resources for free. It was a good example of the collaboration and communication that characterise the best of the New Literacies. //
 * // When viewing the story over several lessons with my Year 12 class I realised how much the quality of the reading experience contributed to our engagement with the text. For the first two episodes we watched the narrative unfold on my laptop screen and through its speakers. Later, when I was more organised, I played it through the data projector and some quality speakers which had the effect of immersing us in the text. The experience was more emotionally engaging and the diverse clues, games, extras and richness of the graphics became more compelling. //
 * // This age group (17-19) was fairly impatient with the relatively slow pace of the narrative and did not identify with the main character (perhaps because of the age difference). I think they watched it and discussed it to please me rather than out of intrinsic enjoyment. The text did not fit into any unit of work we were studying (the class is a research class) so I did not lead into the reading with discussion or any priming of visual literacy. While several students were keen to keep reading and to see what others had done to add to the adventure most would not read it for their own pleasure. They did, however, think the text provided a rich source of material for developing analytical skills. //
 * // On the whole the group was much faster than me at noticing clues and understanding how to navigate around frames. They quickly pointed out jarring or unusual items in frames and could easily discuss the use of diehttp://www.danbuckleyblog.blogspot.com/getic and other sounds to create mood. They displayed a casual literacy competence that I didn’t have with multimodal texts. //
 * // I think they made uneasy about the lack of obvious pointers about the genre of the narrative. Several said they weren’t sure if it was going to be a ‘coming of age’ story, a spy thriller, a quest or a future holocaust narrative. Some thought it could all turn out to be concerned with parallel realities or taking place in a character’s mind. I felt this unease proved to be a barrier to their engagement; while I was intrigued by the mystery and uncertainty of the characters and their context the students were impatient to “get a feel for it’. //
 * // If I had an English class this year I would be keen to develop a unit of work based on // Alice//that lead into discussion of the grammar of visual and aural texts, and also text creation. This unit would really lend itself well to group collaboration with students taking responsibility for different elements and then discussing the best ways to achieve synthesis for effect.//