This research presents ways in which high school students used the multimodal and interactive affordances of blogs to create, organize, communicate and participate on an educational blog. Their actions demonstrated how plural modes of literacy are infiltrating digital environments and reshaping literacy and learning. Multimodal blogging practices of participants broaden the discourse about educational blogs to include an understanding of blogs as media-rich platforms in which learners operate with plural modes of literacy to construct meaning, communicate and participate. Practitioner NotesWhat is already known about this topic • The potential for blogs to enrich classroom communication, participation and learning has been established. • Existing research has mixed findings on the value of blogs in facilitating reflective learning. • Multimodal dimension of blogs has been evaluated in some studies.What this paper adds • Proposed a wider, multimodal lens through which to interpret learning and literacy activities conducted on social media such as blogs. • Documented multimodal literacy practices on blogs that supported learning. • Identified the positive impact of digital forms of participation and interaction such as following and viewing.Implications for practice and/or policy • Broadened the discourse on blogging from text-based postings to a framework cognizant of the multimodal basis of social media. • Illuminated the need to make use of digital forms of communication, participation and interaction when establishing educational projects. • Suggested a need for education policy makers to consider a wider spectrum of literacy practices when constructing curricula and standards. IntroductionThree Grade 11 English classes were set the task of developing a short multimedia video on a topic with social relevance. The teacher required that students organize and share their work for the assignment on a free blogging site; she posted directions, outlining a sequence of postings to guide project preparation. The teacher saw the blogs as tools to assist with organization, support reflective learning, monitor progress, and provide timely assistance throughout the moviemaking task. As the project proceeded, it became obvious that the students had a wider understanding of blogging activities. The participants engaged with the text-based postings, as outlined by the instructor. They also posted personal information and gathered multimedia artifacts, reconstituting these materials in ways useful to the construction of the video on a socially relevant theme. In addition, bloggers used digital tools to participate and interact in ways that went beyond the boundaries of text-based postings. The focus of this research is to identify and make sense of literacy practices initiated by students, to contextualize them in terms of what is known about plural modes of literacy, and to reflect on their meaning for teaching and learning. It builds on a preliminary report that examined how literacy is represented multimedia environments

No abstract

Research in integrated learning systems has demonstrated a need for rigorous studies that identify how such systems influence learning, and in particular that of low achieving students. No Child Left Behind legislation mandated evidence-based interventions as the standard for instructional approaches in American public schools. This quasi-experimental study investigated the impact of Merit literacy software on students in West Virginia. The study confirmed that the software supported the reading and language arts curriculum and significantly improved the scores of low achieving middle school students on three variables of the WESTEST, a criterion-referenced state test: reading and language arts, science, and social science. This integrated learning system was effective with rural and urban school populations.

Blended course delivery has wide applications across diverse educational settings. By definition, it is multimodal and involves multiple delivery formats. However, scant research has examined the impact of multimodal, blended delivery on university pedagogy. This chapter makes the case for close examination of the theoretical and pedagogical foundation of blended learning and proposes that research is needed to establish and validate the constructivist principles associated with blended learning. A longitudinal analysis of surveys and in-depth interviews with instructors from a distance education graduate school in the United States identified and contextualized features of learner-centered pedagogy linked to blended learning.