The Multiliteracies Model seems like an effective pedagogical framework because it accounts for the rise of new, multimodal genres. Cope and Kalantzis describe in Chapter 1: Conceptualizing e-Learning the various examples of multimodal genres: “the social media feed, the website, the app, the infographic, the data visualization” (p. 26). I recently learned about a multimodal activity under the “website” genre that doubles as a learning game: a digital escape room. This activity is super cool and I wanted to share it with our community, since Piaget’s learning theories teach us that play is a foundational element of learning.

An escape room is created using Google Slides and Google Forms. Students are presented with one Slide that has a background image and various objects on the page that students can click on. Once students click on hyperlinked objects, they are taken to a Google Form to answer a series of questions on the course material. Each submitted form leads to the clue for uncovering the next answer in order to “escape” the room and unlock all of the hyperlinked objects. This learning game can be done as an individual assignment or as a small group.

The successful completion of this game requires a toggling back and forth between images on Google Slides and text on Google Forms. The farther students get into the game, the more images and forms they unlock. Providing such a rich and colorful 2-dimensional, multimodal environment engages the learner through play, which is a necessary element of learning. As a multimodal method of learning, it also engages in Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligences of spatial reasoning, as well as the expected linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligences.

In this way, students enter a situated practice of the Multiliteracies Model (The New London Group, 1996) where they are immersed in the experience. As we continue to explore discursive dimensions of learning, we should continue to provide research and frameworks for studying how players learn to play in digital gages (Pelletier & Oliver, 2006).

Click this tutorial to learn how to create a digital escape room using Google Slides and Forms.

Pelletier, C., & Oliver, M. (2006). Learning to play in digital games. Learning, Media and Technology, 31(4), 329-342. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439880601021942
The New London Group. (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard educational review, 66(1), 60-93.