The Power of Multiliteracies
How can multiliteracies be demonstrated through an app like Linoit.com?
During the school year 2016/2017, I was a Learning Support Teacher (LST) and a Vice-Principal (VP). Each month, as an LST, I was required to teach various classes so the classroom teacher could be released to attend program development meetings. When I would teach a class, Kindergarten through grade eight, I would use our school's monthly Character Development Linoit as the focus of the lesson. As a group, we would view videos, read posts and participate in activities posted on the site.
On each monthly linoit students were able to create new designs, share their opinions, and communicate with other classes by posting post-it notes on the linoit. Students enjoyed watching videos, working in small groups, and participating in Tribes activities uploaded to the site. As an LST and VP, I was able to lead meaningful lessons connected to our school's monthly character traits and build relationships with the students through sharing, collaborating, and presenting their designs.
Sharing this site with students, and educators, was exciting! They were motivated to learn how to upload and post comments to each other's classes, as well as create videos of their own to share school-wide. After teaching with the linoit in an intermediate classroom, the classroom teacher initiated digital portfolios for all students. He provided time and technology (class set of Chrome books) so every student could create a free account and begin their student portfolios. As the year progressed students uploaded images of their art and hand drawn mindmaps, pdf files of their written work and some uploaded class videos.
What has been my experience with Linoit.com?
Professional Development Linoit: Handwriting Without Tears Lunch and Learn
School-wide Character Development Linoits
The left section of this linoit describes the rationale, the middle column details the format, and the final column has suggestions and reflections on how to improve the Lunch and Learn for future sessions.
How can teachers use Linoit.com?
How can students use Linoit.com?
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A digital bulletin board that stores multimodal (e.g., images, audios, videos, text, pdfs) resources for teaching and student learning.
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Create a professional development site to share, reflect, and lead.
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A collaborative site among educators to share and store resources, ideas, and student work.
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Organize project based learning resources such as student samples, success criteria, class created rubrics, and curriculum expectations.
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Create a digital portfolio (e.g., personal interests, school desgins)
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Organize and store images, videos, word documents, reflections, and/or wonderings.
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Share ideas, designs, and resources with others locally and globally.
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As a medium to present and demonstrate their understanding using a variety of modes (e.g.,images, text, videos).
How are multiliteracies demonstrated through Linoit.com?
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Students can be explicitly taught how to navigate, create, design and redesign using multiple modes of meaning (video, print, images) as well as access to the linoit to refer to after school hours.
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When students post responses or collaborate to create an uploaded design, they are reading and writing for authentic purposes and therefore are more motivated and engaged.
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A digital, easily accessible site to support educators in their organization of resources as they incorporate the gradual release of responsibility in their lessons.
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Educators can demonstrate as well as co-create with colleagues and students what it means to be digitally literate and collaborative with others.
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Students have a variety of methods of posting responses and collaborating to create new or redesigns and are therefore actively practicing skills needed in today's schools and work forces.
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Anyone who has access to the linoit site through the login and password can post and share their designs, thereby providing an opportunity to build real life connections as well as a forum to express their interests.
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Since Linoit.com is web based, it can be shared locally, with other schools in the board and it can be shared world wide creating the potential to expand perspectives from local to global.
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The flexibility and simplicity of uploading or posting on the linoit allows students options of how they want to demonstrate their understanding
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When students share their redesigns, they inherently learn from each other hence they are moving away from the familiar teacher focused feedback to peer and self-assessment.
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The digital bulletin board is a forum to speak up, reflect, discuss, connect and critically engage with others.
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Having Critical thinking questions posted can help facilitate rich critical thinking discussions in the classroom and beyond (e.g., students can use this resource to create questions to other linoit community members).
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Most students are electronically engaged, providing them an additional technology experience narrows the gap between school culture and student learning.
