Critical Connections: Multilingual Digital Storytelling Project. Introduction and research methodology.

In part one of this book we examined how understandings about language and literacy learning have evolved during the late-modern period taking into account the significance of the digital media and online communication. In relation to the multiliteracies model, we have looked at both multimodal and multilingual strands highlighting how the latter has hitherto been under-researched, no doubt due, in part at least, to the fact that most studies have been carried out in English dominant countries. At the same time we have discussed the important role played by stories in the way we make sense of experience and in the way we learn. Foregrounding dialogic modes of thinking in relation to working with the digital media and in exploration of culture, we have explored different ways in which creativity and criticality can be fostered. This has involved interrogation of notions of learner agency and voice and recognition of their significance in relation to identity construction and active citizenship. We have also looked at ways in which learning takes place outside of school – in the home, in the community and online – and how boundaries between spaces of learning, social interaction and entertainment have become increasingly blurred especially for children and young people.