3D multimodal authoring pedagogy and 3D grammatical design

3D digital multimodal authoring

The project Principal investigators Prof Len Unsworth Dr Angela Thomas

Researchers Dr Paul Chandler Ms Annemaree O’Brien

Partner organisation The Australian Children’s Television

Foundation

3D digital multimodal authoring

Project aimsExplicate the design features and characteristic uses of language and images in high quality student 3D multimedia narrativesDescribe students’ knowledge and compositional processes used in producing quality textsDesign optimal pedagogic contexts for developing students as 3D multimedia authors

3D digital multimodal authoring

Grammatical design“just as grammars of language describe how words combine into clauses, sentences and texts, so our visual ‘grammar’ will describe the way in which depicted people, places and things combine in visual ‘statements’ of greater or lesser complexity and extension” (Kress & van Leeuwen, 1996)

Grammar as the central organising system for all the meaning-making resources in a language, consisting of a series of options – a system of choices for making meaning

Look beyond a grab-bag of effects which seem to ‘work’, but embrace an organisational framework for systematic meaning-making

3D digital multimodal authoring

Focus on narrativeOrientationComplicationResolutionEvaluation

3D digital multimodal authoring

Participants 2009: 4 Melbourne metro classrooms (2 schools)

2010: 12 Melbourne metro schools (3 schools) 7 Victorian country classrooms (3 schools) 4 interstate classrooms (NSW, Tas) (2 schools)

2011: 25 Melbourne metro classrooms (9 schools) 2 Tasmania classrooms (2 schools) 2 NSW classrooms (3 schools) 1 Qld classroom

3D digital multimodal authoring

Pedagogical Approach

3D digital multimodal authoring

Teaching sequence – first unitPre-production (Lessons 1 and 2)

– Development of the idea

– Story outline– Character

profile– Script– Storyboard

Production (Lessons 3-9)

– Location and settings

– Characters, props and set dressing

– Animation– Voice over– Camera

Post-production (Lessons 10-12)

– The ‘first cut’– Sound effects– Music– Titles and

credits– The ‘final cut’

The Basic Plan: Teach and

Assess Two Units of Work

Introducing Multimodal Authoring

With Kahootz

Creating a story With Kahootz

At least 16 hour-long sessions in each unit of work

Resources and

Curriculum

•PDF documents•Video Resources•Recommended teaching procedures•Assessment rubric

Online questionnai

re T1

T2

T3

Introducing Multimodal Authoring

With Kahootz

Creating a story With Kahootz

3D digital multimodal authoring

Evaluation of student texts

Impractical to collect and assess up to 1000 texts Collect “top 5” from each classroom Training and employ evaluators

3D digital multimodal authoring

3D digital multimodal authoring

Data and resources available Detailed lesson plans and

resources Teacher questionnaire Student questionnaire Evaluation instrument Approximately 400 texts Case study data

3D digital multimodal authoring

Authoring platforms