EDUC 3610 Saleha Iqbal

Professor Heather Lotherington 213542089

New media literacies and culture in my educational story – Edit

Hi Professor Lotherington, I decided to make a journal entry that highlights the progress I

have made in thinking about the new media literacies in my educational experience.

Now that I have a better understanding of what “new media literacy” means, from the

Lankshear and Knobel article, “as a historical period of social, cultural, institutional, economic

and intellectual change that is likely to span in many decades” (Lankshear and Knobel, 2012,

page 45), it creates a broader perception than I had before. I used to think that new media

literacies were ways to write or send information in writing form; however, when I read Susan

Marcus’ article on the sensory alphabet, I remembered quite a few different experiences from my

education and teaching practices. For instance, in grade 6 to grade 8, I played the clarinet and the

sounds that came out of my instrument not only gave me emotions but also acted as a way to

express myself. In grade 8, I remember writing a music piece that describes my future goals in

life, including being a teacher – in this music piece, I began with a calm music note as I

described how I wanted to become a teacher, and then I increased the pace and volume of my

clarinet demonstrating the sound in my future, action-packed classroom with my future students.

Moreover, Susan’s article also discussed colour, line and shape, and s p a c e. In my

elementary school years, I remember colour played an important role in my artwork because red

would always represent love and anger, and green would represent nature and life. In my middle

school and high school classes of visual arts, I thought about how important it was for me to

have line, shape and space in my artwork, as well as in my writing. Moreover, my religion

has a large impact on new multi media literacy because when I used to read the Qur’an in the

Arabic language, I attempted to copy the voice of famous Qur’an reciters, like Shaykh Abdul
EDUC 3610 Saleha Iqbal
Professor Heather Lotherington 213542089

Rahman Al-Sudais, who understood the Arabic language. In this case, the movement and sound

in the voice of the reader helped contribute to the listeners what the Qur’an was saying and

provided meaning-making. Here is a clip of what I mean by this:

[Link]

Furthermore, as I was reading the article, Multimodality: Out from the Margins of

English Language Teaching, the authors mention how Professor Lotherington and Professor

Chow studied the use of digital media to develop writing (Early et al, 2015, page 449). I

remember in grade 7, I made a comic book using an online storyboard creator – this was a great

assignment because I was horrible at drawing, ultimately giving me an alternative way to perfect

and express myself. However, I must say that I was the only student who actually completed the

assignment and my teacher did not even grade it or look at – this got me upset because I spent

hours in making the comic, but was not appreciated for it. Additionally, in my later years of high

school, I used Microsoft Publisher a lot as I clearly remember making a parenting magazine for

my Children’s Studies class (see next page), as well as a children’s book for my Grade 12

Natural Disasters class (see below) – again, in this way, I was never the best artist, however these

online technologies gave me an alternative way to maximize my creative abilities.

Children’s Picture Book

Parenting Magazine

As Professor Lotherington mentioned multimodality and semiotic resources – symbol, icon, and

index, I was reminded of my placement kindergarten class. Although the students did not know

how to read, they knew that the blue letters and yellow star meant , and the

colourful letters with the blue star in the middle meant . This fascinated me

because both stores had letters and similar shapes; however, the four and five-year olds knew the

distinction! It further demonstrated how symbols and icons create meaning-making.

Moreover, Professor Thumlert’s twine workshop reminded me of the new media literacy

experience I learned in my Grade 11 class. With the use of “if”, “then”, and “or/else”

commands in the Turing programming software, I was able to create an entire menu online,

Christmas cards, and an emotional workshop. This emotional workshop was a means for users to

ask how their day was going and in what ways it can become better! Likewise, as I was reading

the article, The Maker Movement in Education, the authors stated “maker culture has become a

way to express creative and communal drive” (Halverson and Sheridan, 2014, page 495). With

this reading, I was reminded of my practicum school where the school librarian did all kinds of
EDUC 3610 Saleha Iqbal
Professor Heather Lotherington 213542089

maker projects with his school students such as building robots and circuits and it fascinated me

how they incorporated literacy into their projects without any student being bored.. Hence, this

demonstrates how multi modal literacies was a great advantage to my education. In the final

analysis, I slowly see my educational narrative evolving from my first scratchpad experience as

my definition of “multi modal” and “literacies” becomes more informed. I am more than excited

to continue reading the articles and having classroom discussions to see how this journal entry

will evolve into my final product.

Bibliography

Early, M., Kendrick, M., & Potts, D. (2015). Multimodality: Out from the margins of English
language teaching. TESOL Quarterly, 49(3), 447-460.

Halverson, E. R., & Sheridan, K. (2014). The maker movement in education. Harvard
Educational Review, 84(4), 495-504.

Lankshear, C. & Knobel, M. (2012). ‘New’ literacies: technologies and values. Teknokultura:
Revista de cultural digital y movimientos sociales, 9(1), 45-69.