Multimodality comes into the picture in the with the emergence of photolithography which helps put image and text together on the same page or space. But, now we have technology and media that help us communicate across distances becomes feasible in the digital world thus expanding the horizons for knowledge representation and learner-generated knowledge. And in the times where everything is digital what with the world being crippled with a pandemic, the content that ends up curated online is of great variety – audio (Sound Cloud files tagged and labelled for example), video (YouTube or any podcast, audio and video or both really), article text, visual materials like infographics etc. These materials, in turn, facilitate learning. So now the speaking, reading, writing or listening which were once considered as sperate entities, modes and/ or domains in the way they were used and approached both in teaching and learning have bled into each other, and these modes help bring out meanings working in tandem, together.

And I would like to discuss this in the context of one of the multimodal meaning concepts, specifically the multimodality in the media that is made available for the learner in a mobile learning environment – Microlearning. Microlearning is trending today as it helps is one of the most adaptable practices which can help and aid personal learning goals in today’s fast-paced world.

“Micro-learning or Micro-eLearning education is often referred to as “bite-sized” because the entire educational process is detached in small chunks that usually last no longer than a few minutes[1]” and due to its brief nature it “increases retention by 22% as it focuses on a particular concept intensively[2]” Of the many multimodal learning trends that have been picking up this past year, Microlearning caught my eye because of my experience in and with it in the language learning app – Duolingo.

Microlearning as an experience, according to researchers are “highly transferable and unobtrusive of the learner’s activities, Easily available and user-friendly, enabling anytime-anywhere access, persistent, Adaptable and/or adaptive to learners’ need. Also, it should capitalize on learners communication abilities as a way of supporting the social production and reconstruction of knowledge during learning and working activities…”[3]

The app Duolingo, delivers byte-sized learning modules on a daily basis with prompts and whatnot. One can choose the time he or she has and is willing to commit in a day for learning. And this is important, more so for language learning if for nothing else, but continuity. Duolingo is slightly gamified with levels that open after completion and with the use of the point-scoring/ rewards system that it employs to keep the learner engaged. And on the multimodality front, the lessons have audio, where you are required to listen and identify the words and later speak the phrase or sentence given.

You also need to choose answers and write them when prompted. Here are a few screenshots (this is Day 5 of my French lessons!) The landing page of Duolingo – you can see gamified elements here. The progress report also has elements of gamification as shown below.

Next is an example of where you need to ‘speak out’, then a listening activity, an exercise where the learner has to choose based on the text provided and finally, a translation exercise where the learner is required to type in the answer.

References

[1] Giurgiu, L. (2017). Microlearning an Evolving Elearning Trend. Scientific Bulletin, 22(1), 18–23. https://doi.org/10.1515/bsaft-2017-0003

[2] eLearning Evolves into Multimodal Digital Learning in 2019. (2019, March 16). Retrieved April 20, 2020, from Six Degrees Medical website: https://sixdegreesmed.com/2019/03/16/elearning-evolves-into-multimodal-digital-learning-in-2019/

[3] Gabrielli, S., Kimani, S., & Catarci, T. (2005). The design of microlearning experiences: a research agenda. na.