Unlike with traditional texts where readers need to focus only on the verbal information, with multimodal texts, besides the
words, readers need to pay attention to images (still or moving), sound, gesture or space. In most cases, despite its complexity, multimodal text don’t have to be more difficult to understand, on the contrary.
The problems with multimodal texts occur if the texts are poorly designed, when visuals and other non-verbal elements don’t serve any purpose, when they are used only for decorative purpose or they distract readers’ from the main message that was being communicated.
Multimodal texts used with students should be chosen bearing in mind the above mentioned problems and students should be taught how to recognize poorly designed multimodal texts. They also need to learn how to create texts with multiple modes which will successfully convey their messages.
Anticipated Problems for Creating Multimodal Texts and Digital Stories and how we addressed them:
While creating and piloting this toolkit we encountered some challenges related to the technical skills and the soft skills of the students, as well as with the facilities provided by the state schools. Here are some of them and how we thought of addressing them:
Lack of Technical Skills
- Provide basic technical training for students, including how to use relevant software and tools. We used only free tools in this toolkit and we understand the economical constraints of schools.
- Encourage peer learning and support among students. All our lesson plans include pair and group work. In this way, the more knowledgeable students can help the weaker ones.
Limited Access to Technology
- Offer access to school computers or loan devices for students in need. We think that most of the schools have labs where students can use computers for some activities, but most of our workshop plans do not require internet connection. Moreover, the Creative Drama units are based on kinesthetic work and very few materials required.
- Allow students to work in pairs or groups, sharing available technology. To digitalize a story or watch a story, one shared device per group is sufficient.
Copyright and Fair Use Concerns
- Teach students about copyright laws and the importance of citing sources. This is a very useful skill for their academic life.
- Use open-source or royalty-free media when possible. https://pixabay.com/ is a free resource where students can use videos, pictures and music to use in their own video production.
Overwhelming Amount of Content
- Break down projects into manageable steps and tasks. Also, giving them too many sources to study or to choose from can be overwhelming. This includes the digital tools and the number of projected steps and activities. Our lesson plans include a reasonable number of activities to be carried out within one or two lesson times.
- Encourage students to focus on a specific theme or topic. Each of our lessons are built around one central theme.
Lack of Creative Ideas
- Provide prompts or themes to inspire creativity. This applies not only to the Creative Drama lessons, but also to the other units. Scaffolding and activity ensures its effectiveness.
- Encourage brainstorming and group discussions. All lessons start or end with discussions and personalization for a better retention.
Difficulty in Storytelling
- Teach the basics of storytelling, including plot development and character creation. The Drama units will prepare the students for this stage.
- Analyze and discuss examples of effective storytelling in various media. A wide exposure to good examples is always useful and it can lead to practical solutions to your own digital stories. These can be meaningful images and photos like in this collection powered by #CIEDigitalStoryTelling https://learninglab.si.edu/collections/Digital%20Storytelling%20Collection/3rioVhp1EBFHuF3K#r/548563 or, they can be short videos rendering the voices of a person from a minority community. For example this collection powered by ACMI Australia https://www.acmi.net.au/stories-and-ideas/Collections-digitalstorytelling/
Time Management
- Help students create project schedules with milestones. We designed lesson or workshop plans where you will find the expected duration clearly stated in the description. In this way both you and the students can better manage your time.
- Encourage students to manage their time wisely and prioritize tasks. If you want to assign some tasks for individual study, it is always good to set the time expectations.
Language Barriers
- Offer support for English language learners, including bilingual resources. Also, if your students cannot communicate well due to other reasons, the units in Creative Drama will help them express themselves through non-verbal means
and techniques. - Encourage the use of visuals – our main goal is to incorporate multimodal techniques exactly for this purpose.
Lack of Motivation
- Connect projects to real-life applications or personal interests. This can be done by choosing media examples from your own local context and by personalizing the content and guiding them to say or act their own stories.
- Celebrate students’ achievements and provide positive feedback. We planned follow up discussions to help students reflect on their work and learning and you can also encourage peer-feedback at the end of an activity.