Theme 5: Reading Two

Jewitt, C. (2006) Technology, literacy and learning: A multimodal approach. 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016: Routledge.

Chapter Two
A multimodal approach to technology-mediated learning offers a way of thinking about the relationship between semiotic resources (i.e. the resources of and for making meaning) and people’s meaning making. This relationship is central to my attempt to understand the potential impact of new technology on knowledge, literacy and learning. Multimodality offers an approach that can be applied to the prominent role of visual and other ‘non-linguistic’ semiotic resources on the computer screen and the way many modes involved in learning: the semiotic resources of image, colour, animated movement, writing, sound-effect, speech and so on.

Social semiotics and multimodality offer conceptual tools for the analysis of meaning making. This leaves out the socially situation character of meaning making. I complement multimodality with the heuristic framework of activity theory to give due attention to the socially situated character of meaning making.