Meaning Making

I make sense and engage meaningfully with digital texts when they are multi-modal and collaborative by testing the test and figuring out how to navigate the text effectively. I do this mainly through trial and error and spending time interacting with the text figuring out the different components and interactive elements of the digital text.

I have tinkered with interactive digital resources on a variety of social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) as well as professional platforms like google docs/slides. In using these text and the variety of ways information is portrayed I find very interesting. For example the character count on Twitter 280 and to get one's point across compared to Facebook where vastly more charters can be used is a great accomplishment. As well as the use of multimedia aspects like images, video, gifs are incorporated to enhance the message in another way. Hinrichsen and Coombs state that; “Meaning making practices in digital texts are more likely to be multi-modal (Kress 2003). The existing purposes and conventions of digital texts are not always rigidly defined and can be subject to rapid metamorphosis or splintering; reading and creation practices may, therefore, be similarly fluid.” This demonstrates the changes in digital texts and the fluidity of technology over time, always changing and adapting. I hope to continue to use a plethora of social media platforms to enhance my digital learning experiences, especially with interactive resources like social media sources and professional platforms.

Creating interactive texts would help an audience to reach a wider learning style. Both visually, auditory, and kinetically through the use of different modules to understand what is being applied and taught. I personally, find messages more effective when images are included. The correlation between images and text has a strong impact on the reader. Last year I took a class about Children’s literature, one of the topics we discussed was the importance of images in picture books and the emotional response this can draw from the reader. A meme would not be relatable or effective if either the text or image was missing. Both components are vital, the text alone would not provide context and the image alone would not have any basis for satire or humour. Connections between texts and other sources would help with the three main ways of making meaning, through reading, relating and expressing.  Using interactive texts can also impede the message by making it more complicated than it should be and the audience not being able to navigate that interactive text.

References

Hinrichsen, J., & Coombs, A. (2013). The five resources of critical digital literacy: A framework for curriculum integration. Research in Learning Technology, 21, 1-16.