THE PROGRAM
The aim of the New Learning and New Literacies Master's program is to develop teachers who are knowledgeable in contemporary theories of learning and language/communication, and who can create vibrant and challenging learning environments for the learners in their classes.
This sequence of courses builds on the theory and practice of ‘Multiliteracies'. In the mid-1990s, Kalantzis and Cope led an international group (including Gee, Cazden, Kress, Fairclough, Luke, and Michaels) to formulate an agenda for the future of literacy teaching. Published in 1996 in the Harvard Educational Review, this article, a subsequent book, and numerous follow-up publications have had an enormous impact in the field of literacy.
This program explores the understandings of literacy and literacy pedagogy embodied in the Multiliteracies theory. ‘New learning' signals an approach to education that engages students as active designers and co-designers of their own knowledge. ‘New literacies' exposes learners to the variety of forms of representation to be found in different social contexts. It sets out to expand learners' meaning making modes and capacities, and uses digital media to enhance student learning. The purpose of the Multiliteracies approach is not to negate the value of traditional literacy practices and modes, but to supplement and extend these, thereby opening up a broader pedagogical repertoire of literacy practices and pedagogies for teachers and learners. The program supplements traditional, alphabetical notions of literacy (including the literacies required for learning across a wide range of discipline areas), with a broader conception of literacy in the context of new media, global communications and cultural and linguistic diversity.Participants in the program are teachers of literacy and teachers in other discipline areas who wish to focus on the investigation of language across the curriculum, and on the broader question of the communicative or representational conditions of learning. Participants able to join the program will have training and professional experience ranging from the early years of schooling to adult learning.
The program is both intellectually ambitious and pedagogically innovative. It is:
- firmly grounded in the ‘real world' of professional practice, requiring cycles of reflective action, hands-on intervention, and empirical engagement. Participants will (individually and collaboratively) develop, trial, peer review, and publish online a ‘Learning Element' or unit of work relevant to their own practice.
- strongly grounded in theory and contemporary canonical disciplinary knowledge. Participants will be intellectually challenged by having to read key classical and contemporary theorists. Each Learning Element will be accompanied by a teacher-researcher reflective report linking theoretical issues with evidence of learner outcomes arising during the trial.
- presented through the new media and about the new media. The discipline and profession of education is undergoing a transformation in which new forms of media are central and new social and learning possibilities are afforded by the new media, hence the focus on authoring digital Learning Elements.
- global in its content and outlook, reflecting the diversity of program participants who we expect will be drawn from around the world. Joint research and writing collaborations will be encouraged, especially between teachers working in very different settings.
- designed to nurture and build lateral knowledge communities, encouraging and support collaborative learning with peers, peer review, and peer assessment. In this way the program aims to model new forms of teacher collaborative work.
The following specific program objectives will be achieved through this program:
- Expand program participants' understandings of the connections between new media and new literacies.
- Expand program participants knowledge base on learning theories and theories of language/communication, particularly with respect to the ‘grammars' of multimodality, including their instructional implications in learning environments and the deployment of pedagogical strategies such as synaesthesia (mode switching, e.g. between visual to linguistic) as a supplement to other literacy pedagogies.
- Enhance program participants instructional design skills, particularly in the development of learning environments in which learners are active co-designers of knowledge.
- Prepare program participants for the ongoing innovation of communications media and learning technologies.
- Prepare program participants for the management of learning processes in a context of social transformation and change in the heritage organizational forms of the traditional classroom.
- Enable program participants to convert proven learning theories into practical solutions to enhance learner performance.
- Achieve a long-term impact on pedagogical practices with focus on the effectiveness of teaching and learning.
- Create an environment that is highly interactive and relies heavily on knowledge sharing among the participants, direct application of instructional principles, and self-assessment of instructional effectiveness through reflective activities
PROGRAM CHARACTERISTICS
This program prepares teachers for positions as instructional designers, instructors, and teachers, particularly for learning environments which use new media extensively, including e-learning environments.
This 36 credit hour degree incorporates seven department courses and two College foundation courses. Each course will be ten (10) weeks in length. The degree will normally take two years to complete, with students organised in cohorts which proceed together through the course sequence.
The New Learning and New Literacies program uses the general admissions criteria of the Department of Educational Policy Studies and the College of Education. These include:
• Bachelor's degree from an accredited institution
• A minimum grade point average of 3.0 on the 4.0 scale for the last 60 hours of undergraduate course work
• A minimum grade point average of 3.0 on the 4.0 scale for all graduate course work.
• 3 quality letters of recommendation
• A personal information and experience statement that shows connection between future career goals and the goal of the master's degree with an emphasis in New Learning and New Literacies.
