This paper reflects on recent projects in a variety of media forms, in both formal and informal educational settings, discussing ways of expanding our notions of literacy practices which reflect their place in the wider lived experience of digital culture. We have collected these reflections under three headings. The first of these, Dynamic Literacies, presents an overarching view of literacy as both ideological, following the 'new literacy studies', and dynamic, incorporating both semiotic and sociocultural versions of literacy in ways which reflect the changing nature of lived experience in the digital age. The second strand, Productive Literacies, constructs an argument around digital making practices with younger learners which views these as media crafting, critique and artistry. The third strand, Playful Literacies, explores recent projects which are located in games and game authoring practices as a specific example of connecting pedagogy to contemporary media forms and learner agency in formal and informal settings. Taken together, the three perspectives allow for common ground to be established between multimodal production practices, whilst providing suggestions for framing literacy pedagogy in response to the pervasive use of media and technology in contemporary digital culture.

No abstract

No abstract

This article analyses the player–avatar relation in Final Fantasy 7, drawing on multimodality theory to analyse textual structures both in the game and in the discourse of player–interviews and fan writing. It argues that the avatar is a two-part structure, partly designed in conventional narrative terms as a protagonist of popular narrative, and partly as a vehicle for interactive game-play. The former structure is replete with the traditions and designs of Japanese popular narrative, oral formulaic narrative and contemporary superhero narratives, and is presented to the player as an offer act – a declarative narrative statement. The latter is a construct of evolving attributes and economies characteristic of role-playing games; and is presented to the player as a demand act – a rule-based command. Though these two functions separate out in the grammar of player and fan discourse, it is their integration which provides the pleasure of gameplay and narrative engagement.

No abstract

This article will consider the making of animated lm by Year 6 pupils (11 years old) based on the story of Little Red Riding Hood, using digital drawing and animation software. It will examine how the act of inscription-making signs on a page or screen using software, pens or other materials-might be different in the context of digital composition of the moving image, and how, at the present time, digital modes of inscription may offer a greater freedom of expression to users, especially in education. The authors locate their theory of digital inscription within a proposal, brie y summarised in the article, of a wider model of a social semiotic grammar of the moving image.

No abstract

This article engages in debate with Alain Bergala's The Cinema Hypothesis . It selects four topics for discussion. The article agrees with Bergala's arguments for the importance of (film) art in education as a productively subversive practice, and that engagement with film should be a creative process, in the viewing and interpretation of film as well as in film-making. It disputes Bergala's opposition to language-isms, arguing for the value of multimodal semiotics as a way for students to understand the structures of the moving image. It also disputes Bergala's efforts to insulate film from other media, arguing that, in a world of proliferating transmedia narrative, educators and students benefit from exploring representations and structures between and across media.