Exploring new literacies and creating multimodal texts

Examples of texts:



One website that we explored during our ICT seminar was http://www.jigzone.com/. This website allows you to create jigsaws online using the preloaded images that are available. I chose a picture of a swan to create into a puzzle. This is what mine looked like:

I feel this website could be used for a variety of different lessons throughout any age group within a primary school. There are a large variety of images to chose from. This ICT resource could be used as a class started in which the focus of the lesson would unravel as the pieces of the puzzle are placed together. This would create a fun stimulating start to a lesson engaging all children. This website also allows you to chose how many pieces the puzzle is made up of. In my example above there are twelve pieces, however, you can vary the amount of pieces and you can change what shapes they are cut into. The large number of different cut options you can chose from are shown below:



This puzzle creator allows for differentiation as you can create it for the specific needs for a child. As this puzzle can also be seen as a game you could also assign it to a child as a reward for completion of their work but it is still a game that can challenge them.




Another website that I explored in my ICT seminar was http://www.tagxedo.com/app.html. This website allows you to create a picture of words in a particular shape. For my example I chose the shape of the apple and if I were using this within a class I could be focussing on healthy eating and the exploration of different kinds of fruit. The website is extremely quick, easy and simple to use. You choose a shaped stencil and then add as many or as little words as you want. One of my favourite attributes to the this website is that you can add and delete the words in the picture as many times as you wish without the website limiting the amount of edits. Here is the example I created:

I believe the image created from this website could provide a good concise source of subject specific vocabulary at the first introduction of a new topic for the class. It also presents the vocabulary in a fun and interesting way which the children will respond positively too instead of the pupils reacting negatively to an un-stimulating list of words on a display. Another attribute I enjoy is interactivity of the image. If you move the cursor over a word the word increases in size, drawing attention to it. This is shown below:

This way of drawing attention to a word could be used as a whole class tool on the SmartBoard in order to highlight a particular word. For example as a teacher you may decide to highlight the importance of the meaning of a word or possibly identify the particular spelling of a word.

Overall both ICT multimodal text resources I have explored have provided me with a range of uses and inspirations as tools for further use within my future lessons. I enjoy how neither resource is age specific and can be use to aid differentiation as you as the teacher can decide: what words will be displayed on the Tagxedo resource; and how many pieces of the puzzle there will be for the JigZone resource.