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Available Designs

 

               Multiliteracies can be achieved through the concept of meaning making through the cycle of Available designs. The first step in the cycle is Available designs: “Available Designs are the found or discernable patterns and conventions of representation” (Cope & Kalantzis, 2009, p. 10). Available design are not restricted to reading or writing, but instead it can be anything in the student’s environment.  The available designs that I presented my students with for this project were both multilingual and multimodal.  

 

               First the project is multilingual because it presents the material in both English and Yugtun.  I was deliberate in my construction of the game in this way because I wanted my students to see that their culture was valued in the classroom, and that even in an English Language Arts classroom, they could use their indigenous language. I wanted to make sure that the material being presented was in the form of comprehensible input. Comprehensible input refers to “language that a learner can understand.  It may be comprehensible in part because of gestures, contextual information, or prior knowledge/experience”(Lightbown & Spada, 2013, p. 215). In this context, the videos are comprehensible because students understand what the content will be about before they begin, and it relates to situations and topics that students have background knowledge of or experiences with.

I also wanted to use Augmented Reality(AR) to present the material so that it was multimodal, instead of having them  listen to an elder and write about it. I wanted to engage them with a storyline and to use the elder knowledge and  incorporate this into their writing.

 

               One reason I chose to use AR is because of its ability to reinforce place-based learning. “The primary value of place-based education lies in the way that it serves to strengthen children's [and adults'] connections to others and to the regions in which they live" (Smith, 2002, pp. 593-594). Dikkers, Gagnon, Marin, & Squire explain how AR reinforces placed-based pedagogy (2014):

                Specifically learning embedded in the particular histories, environment, and culture of place                 (ideally students’ lifeworlds) can:  (1) make learning relevant, (2) demonstrate the power that                 knowledge can have in understanding the world (3) promote agency among learners, (4) raise                   equity and issues with the curriculum, and (5) address pressing global environmental                               concerns. (p. 3)

When I was developing my project, I tried to make sure that it covered all five elements raised by Dikkers et al. First, my project makes learning relevant by giving students a purpose: They are writing weekly journals on what they learned so that others can understand how they “survived the apocalypse” based on the knowledge they gained from elders.  Secondly, by learning from elders they are gaining more knowledge about the world around them, and how to use that knowledge to survive without modern amenities. Thirdly, by having students determine their own interview questions for elders, they are taking ownership of their own learning to accomplish the task. For the fourth step,  I tied my project to my students’ natural environment and their own elders, while also tying it to content standards. By doing this,  I am able to help my students gather background knowledge to help tailor their instruction to their individual needs. Finally, my project highlights climate change, and how the spread of disease in a remote area without adequate facilities can have devastating effects on populations.

 

                Not only did I use AR because it ties to place-based pedagogy, but it is also engaging for students. Although digital media can motivate some students to engage, as teachers we must ensure that we are focusing on the skill we are trying to teach.  “When using technology in conjunction with language learning, the technology chosen should supplement the lesson and not be the lesson.” (Galla, 2009, p. 176). I agree with Galla, who argues  that teachers must be sure that the technology does not become the focus for the lesson, but instead it is just the mode in which the lesson is completed.  For example, my project uses many forms of technology, AR, iPad apps, and videos, but these are not the main focus of the project. Instead technologies serve as modes for creating and presenting the material in engaging and interactive ways and as a modality through which  students can present their learning.

 

               I chose this game play because I wanted my students to draw connections between traditional knowledge, their own funds of knowledge and community subsistence practices, and the connections that they can make to survival in a new era.  I wanted students to really understand how they could use their own funds of knowledge in the classroom to be able to discuss the material presented.  Moll et al.(1992) explain Funds of Knowledge refers “to these historically accumulated and culturally developed bodies of knowledge and skills essential for household or individual functioning and well-being”( p. 133 ). I wanted students to be able to draw upon the skills and knowledge they already know and be able to find correlations between their knowledge and the knowledge being presented by the Elders. Through these correlations they would be able to make connections so they may be able to utilize this knowledge to complete the tasks presented in the game. As students worked through the AR game, they were asked to collaborate with their peers in their group.  Through this collaboration the students were able to use their own funds of knowledge to help themselves and their group members to complete the tasks because students are “active participants in a broad range of activities mediated by these social relationships” (Moll et al., 1992, p. 134). During the game students were presented information on how to build shelters, and after gathering all of the necessary background knowledge, students were asked to work with their group to create their own shelter. Many of my students have gone camping before, and have worked to set up tents.  The students were able to take their own funds of knowledge of setting up a tent, along with the knowledge they learned from the elders, to help themselves and their peers to create their own shelter from what they knew and learned.