Designs for learning: a multimodal social semiotic perspective

The introduction of the concept of Design into educational debates is a response to changed social and therefore pedagogical circumstances. These are indicated by, among others, the shift in emphasis from teaching to learning, from centrally imposed curricula to user constructed content, etc. Those who have responsibility for shaping environments for learning - whether in traditional pedagogic institutions or elsewhere, whether as someone with a designated responsibility to do this for others or whether the learner her/him self, all now need to pose the twin questions of rhetoric and of design explicitly. Rhetoric focuses on the social givens which obtain in the environment of learning, and social semiotic theory deals with that; design focuses on the apt shaping of the environment for learning and a multimodal approach to representation best responds to that.The issues put forward in the talk will be explored and exemplified on hand of examples from recent and current research by myself and my colleagues in the Centre for Multimodal Research at the Institute of Education.

Gunther Kress is professor of English at the Institute of Education, University of London. His latest research has been focused on social semiotics, meaningmaking and learning. His latest books are Literacy in the new media age (2003) and English in urban classroms (together with Carey Jewitt, 2005).