Multimodal Literacy Exploration Through Digital Role-Play

• In Event: Crown Plaza Roundtable Session 6
  In Roundtable Session: Early Childhood Language

Abstract

Abstract
This two-year research study across 14 classrooms examined young children’s (aged 3-6 years) use of open-ended iPad applications to support literacy learning. The applications used positioned students as the creators of the literacy content. They supported the children as they engaged in identity exploration through role-play, which in turn supported their literacy learning and digital technology learning. While using the apps, the children took on roles such as photojournalist, scientist, teacher, and performer, documenting their work and their world through photos, videos, audio recordings and digital text. The slideshows that they created, archived as digital portfolios, illustrated multimodal text creation greater in length, complexity and variety of modes than their non-digital literacy output.

Authors

• Monica Eileen McGlynn-Stewart, George Brown College

• Leah Brathwaite, George Brown College

• Nicola J Maguire, George Brown College

• Emma Mogyorodi, Ryerson University