Multiliteracies through post-literacy lenses

The complexities, uncertainties and changing understandings of education are hotly contested across the globe amongst educators and the public alike. There is a growing acceptance that we are living in an era in which information technology and multimedia are increasingly shaping how we teach and learn. The concept of multiliteracies embodies attempts to understand the complexities of the multimodal universe. I argue in this paper that post-Literacy (which links to elements of multiliteracies) is also a lens through which to engage differently in this changed educational environment. I use a case study of my involvement with teaching an e-learning or online course at an Australian regional university that engaged university students in a partnership with a local primary school. This course was taught in a multimodal manner that included intensive, virtual and face-to-face contact at university and immersion in school and community contexts away from university. The paper outlines one attempt at navigating the complexities of how today's children and teachers are beginning to put into place post-Literate understandings of learning in local and global contexts and the potential this has to begin to reconceptualise traditional constructions of face-to-face, virtual and distance education.