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Abstract A growing body of research suggests that digital multimodal composing can provide students multiple points of entry for making sense of local climate change issues and sharing their voices through digital activism. Building upon this scholarship, this study examined the processes of 32 small groups (n= 55) of 7th- and 8th-grade students as they co-created a wide range of multimodal projects (e.g., videos, podcasts, infographics, posters, and cartoons) that explored the environmental, ecological, and sociopolitical impacts of inequitable access to urban tree canopy and greenspace in their city. In particular, scholarship on onto-epistemic heterogeneity, critical place-based learning, and multimodality were integrated to gain an interdisciplinary understanding of how digital multimodal composing mediated students’ sensemaking about urban forestry impacts on community health and ecological well-being. Data sources consisted of field notes, audio and video recordings, survey data, student interviews, and students’ final multimodal projects. Through qualitative and multimodal data analysis, five main themes emerged for how multiple modes mediated students’ sensemaking about critical urban forestry: (1) embracing tree equity for compelling stories, (2) engaging authentic audiences through storytelling, (3) perspective-taking through multiple modes, (4) exploring affective dimensions of urban heat islands, and (5) developing solutions for critical urban forestry issues. These findings contribute new insights into how digital multimodal storytelling can provide a productive way for students to make sense of climate justice issues and gain agency by experiencing multiple ways of knowing.
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This content will become publicly available on September 1, 2026
Multimodal Analyses and Visual Models for Qualitatively Understanding Digital Reading and Writing Processes
As technology continues to shape how students read and write, digital literacy practices have become increasingly multimodal and complex—posing new challenges for researchers seeking to understand these processes in authentic educational settings. This paper presents three qualitative studies that use multimodal analyses and visual modeling to examine digital reading and writing across age groups, learning contexts, and literacy activities. The first study introduces collaborative composing snapshots, a method that visually maps third graders’ digital collaborative writing processes and highlights how young learners blend spoken, written, and visual modes in real-time online collaboration. The second study uses digital reading timescapes to track the multimodal reading behaviors of fifth graders—such as highlighting, re-reading, and gaze patterns—offering insights into how these actions unfold over time to support comprehension. The third study explores multimodal composing timescapes and transmediation visualizations to analyze how bilingual high school students compose across languages and modes, including text, image, and sounds. Together, these innovative methods illustrate the power of multimodal analysis and visual modeling for capturing the complexity of digital literacy development. They offer valuable tools for designing more inclusive, equitable, and developmentally responsive digital learning environments—particularly for culturally and linguistically diverse learners.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2329408
- PAR ID:
- 10634346
- Publisher / Repository:
- Education Sciences
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Education Sciences
- Volume:
- 15
- Issue:
- 9
- ISSN:
- 2227-7102
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1135
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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