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Identified appropriate pedagogy used to teach these “New Literacies” (Anstey, 2002), needs to be taught using what the New London Group (1996) have defined as “Multiliteracies Pedagogy”. This approach encompasses and extends on traditional literacy approaches. It incorporates the “how” of literacy (Riddle, 2014) by engaging students in situated practice, overt instruction, critical framing, and transformed practice (New London Group, 1996), as well as Text Design Elements which recognise a variety of literacies and; the Four Knowledge Processes of experiencing, applying, conceptualising and analysing. Multiliteracies pedagogy should be taught with the intent to extend the “mastery of a repertoire of practices with the texts of traditional and new communications technologies via spoken, print, and multimedia” (Luke & Freebody, 1999). Incorporating a multiliteracies approach students are encouraged to utilize decoding skills, to integrate their prior knowledge with new styles of text; and engage as text participants and users, to decipher and make meaning. In multiliteracies pedagogy all four roles of Luke and Freebody’s Four Resources Model (1999) are employed which supports and ensures the development of the dynamic literacy skills that in turn represent student progression on their literacy continuum, rather than isolated skill development seen in the past (Walsh, 2010).
Students have diverse literacy needs (Wilder, n.d.) and multiliteracy pedagogy can be used to differentiate the product, process and content of learning (Archer and Hughes, 2011) according to their learning style, interest and readiness. Howard Gardner identified this diversity as multiple intelligences (Woolfolk, 2001). Using understandings of various learning styles, multiple modes of learning can be employed in order to engage students in meaningful literacy activities using multiliteracies pedagogy. This approach moves away from the traditional practices where only one modality - typically linguistic (Winch et al., 2012) was employed for all learners. Successful integration of knowledge and practice currently sees teachers employ multimodal texts, to provide opportunities for students to use linguistic, visual and audio modes in order to experience, conceptualize, analyse and apply meaning. Examples of pedagogy to enhance multimodality in literacy education include: modelling and joint construction of a variety of text types (Wing Jan, 2011); Discussions (Frangenheim, 2012) in order to help learners process what they are learning; using or creating visual representations; incorporating ICTs using blogs, wikis, podcasts and power points, and; writing in many modes using journals, blogs, letters to peers, personal learning statements and goals.
There’s no doubt about it, kids today are drawn to technology whether it be touch screen TVs, tablets, smart phones or apps. By encouraging this interest in technology, and using the technology itself, literacy teaching and learning can be improved (National Council of Teachers of English, 2000). It is with ICT integration embedded in multiliteracies pedagogy that students are enabled as autonyms learners. By providing access to computers and an online platform of communication, technology can be used to assist in presentation, organization of ideas and learning research. Furthermore incorporating the use of class blogs students are able to contribute to the conversation, which offers them the opportunity to become digital citizens. With this, the theory of Connectivism (Siemens, 2004) deserves a mention as it reiterates that Multiliteracies Pedagogy where ICTs are integrated effectively, can greatly enhance opportunities for students to engage in effective communication at several levels (Unsworth, 2001) using multiple modalities, thus affirming the original thesis statement that Multiliteracies Pedagogy is essential in the development of multimodal literacy skills for 21st century learners.