In a world where we can access almost anything at our fingertips, it's imperative that we continue to research the latest teaching and learning recommendations in literacy. Whether it's our students using TikTok, our coworkers using WhatsApp, or our friends sending an evite to their housewarming party, we live in a society where everything is dependent on technology—and that includes in our classrooms.
As someone who grew up neurodiverse with ADHD, I pursued my doctorate in literacy while focusing my research on my own marginalized community and that of students who receive special education. In that time, I found that there are many benefits to implementing digital literacies into literacy practices working with those specific learners.
The following are four key questions for educators looking to explore this topic:
1. What are digital literacies?
Digital literacies can be defined as a wide range of technology-mediated social practices that learners enact by assembling and interweaving their linguistic, semiotic, and technical resources. This concept not only pertains to reading and writing linked with digital media, but it also refers to how these literary practices provide learners with new avenues. Some of the avenues include processing (comprehension skills), meaning, thinking (metacognition), and connecting to the world. In other words, this concept involves literacy disciplines (phonics, reading, comprehension, vocabulary, writing, etc) being utilized through digital technologies.
Research shows digital technologies have instrumentally reconfigured our society and widened the avenues in which we navigate our education system—inside and outside the classroom. Literacy practices have become more focused on meaning and on literacy as a social practice. Digital literacies expand the ways learners comprehend information and interact with one another, serving as a supportive tool to strengthen comprehension and metacognitive skills among students who receive special education.
Digital literacies have the capability of promoting collaborative learning practices that can help students better their comprehension skills throughout the learning process while ensuring that they are engaged. Researchers support this ideology, suggesting that a central aspect to learning is the use of digital literacies practices. These digital literacy strategies include ways of learning and sharing knowledge from fields such as math, science, engineering, and art, along with additional disciplines. Digital literacies can support the learning process for students throughout multiple content subject areas.
Ultimately, one can presume that the benefits of using these teaching practices in classrooms would be amplified while targeting the learning needs of students who receive special education.
2. Why is multimodality a key component in this work?
Multimodality involves meaning that is made through multiple representations and communication systems, allowing individuals to utilize more than one mode to indicate comprehension. Multimodal texts involve meaning being communicated through a synchronization of modes that may include spoken or written language, still or moving images produced on paper or an electronic screen, or encompassing music and sound.
Educators who work with students receiving special education should be inclusive when implementing reading practices in a multimodal environment. These teaching practices can serve as a complimentary literacy approach for the learning needs of students who receive special education. While a student is reading a picture book or an information book, they need to concurrently comprehend the message in the words, picture, images, and graphics. However, with an electronic or digital screen, there are additional combinations of movement and sound, tying in the concept of digital literacies.
Research has shown an increased merging of communication within and outside educational environments in the same way smartphones and music players incorporate photography, entertainment, gaming, and internet access.
3. How can special education students benefit?
Digital technologies shape literacy practices and learning environments, which is significant when addressing the learning needs of students who receive special education. Research suggests that reading in a multimodal environment involves visual texts that impact and alter conceptual schemata. This is why new types of texts require different conceptualizations along with a different way of thinking.
Additionally, research suggests that children's experiences are grounded in the 'logic of image' and the 'logic of screen,' which is where the fostering of digital literacies comes into play and would be very favorable for students who receive special education services.
It should be noted that such students often respond well to teaching practices that include a visual learning style. After all, researchers have found technology use throughout digital literacy practices is, in part, outlining the need for adaptable, flexible learning spaces.
4. Where can I access related reading material?
As an educator myself, I will always believe there is no one-size-fits-all approach. However, there is research-driven data and cutting-edge support tools available to help address the learning needs of students who receive special education. Furthermore, as someone who navigated a mainstream education system with an IEP, I know firsthand how crucial utilizing inclusive, modernized literacy strategies can be. This is why the use of digital literacies can truly make all the difference.
For more on this topic, I would recommend the following:
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