Not Always as it First Seems: Thoughts on Reading a 3D Multimodal Text

For some years, it has been argued that 'literacy pedagogy now must account for the burgeoning variety of forms that are becoming increasingly significant in the overall communications environment' (The New London Group, 1996, p. 60). Indeed, students are active consumers and producers of a very wide range of text, including books, newspapers, magazines, movies, radio, television, DVDs, SMS, Youtube, web pages, Facebook, blogs, twitter, MSN, podcasts, iPods, and online games. In the face of this present day reality, traditional forms of literacy are necessary but not sufficient. Students need to be multiliterate. The multiliterate individual, in addition to being able to use traditional texts (print and paper, as well as face-to-face oral encounters) will be also able to use digital and electronic texts that have multiple modes. S/he will not only be able to work with different modes but will 'use appropriate literate practices in … different contexts' (Anstey & Bull, 2006, p. 21). Anstey and Bull also observe that, over the centuries, 'considerable time and effort has been spent teaching about reading the words – but rarely about reading the pictures' (p. 108). This article considers the reading of a multimodal, but predominantly visual, text - a student-created 3D animation. The discussion illustrates how the meaning communicated through visual texts, even those which are apparently simple or straightforward, is potentially complex and even ambiguous. It is argued, therefore, that the teaching of 'reading' must also embrace visual literacy and the critical analysis of the meanings being communicated. In the text considered in this article, whilst a straightforward 'words only' moral is presented by the author, a range of meaning-making resources in the 3D environment reveal potential generalisations and possibly unintended meanings.