International Baccalaureate
Asia Pacific:

Teacher's Convention 2007

 

The Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel and Convention Centre, Singapore.

The use of mutli-modality to support and enhance discovery learning.

 

Today’s children are growing up in a world where they receive their information multi-modally; in text, graphics, sound, video and animation, sometimes all at once and sometimes a bit at a time. They also expect to interact with this information in a variety of ways often dependent upon their particular learning style. This opens a debate concerning ‘new literacies’.

These are powerful tools: how they can be used to develop the enquiry ethos which is fundamental to the five essential elements of the PYP and beyond, needs to be explored, discussed and moved forward. Children/students of all ages should be empowered to realise their learning through powerful technologies and collaborative efforts. These should be open and transparent applications that allow freedom of expression.

Those working with these new literacies need to appreciate the variety of effects that can be gained by utilising multi-modal technologies in creative and expressive ways. They also need, through their engagement, to appreciate the responsibilities that come with such publication.

It is, of course, not all about the learner. The blended teacher/learner role and the specific teacher role here are important. Multi-modality and the interactivity which comes with it supports the recognition of and the adoption/adaptation of the wide variety of learning styles needed to engage and develop today’s’ learners. The challenge that this brings to conventional forms of ‘writing’ and assessment needs to be addressed.

The Conference focus on Information Literacy Across the IB Programmes is an open invitation for such discussion to take place with contextual exemplars and evidence of work both from inside and outside the IB community.