Skip to Main Content

Multimodal Communication: Types of Multimodal Communication

you have to see the picture to understand

does this caption make sense without the visual set up?[an image of two stick figures, the one on the left is thinking a complex pattern of interlocked ideas that extend beyond the border of the image and has the caption What I Think while the one on the right has a single thought bubble reading "oof!" with the caption What I Say]

t[a photograph of a children's reading group, where the reader is showing the children the picture that accompanies the text]he reader of this book is turning the book around to show the children the photographs, enhancing their understanding of the story visually

 

Which SUV is bigger?  How does this forced perspective change your understanding?

 

you have to move in someway (body, the eyes, the perspective) to understand

A reblogged poem.Why is this funny?  There are two modalities at play: the audience's expectation of the end of the poem and the randomness

if you saw[a multicolored pattern on the floor in a large room with people standing at one end] one line on this diagram read "this way to passport office," you will use tactile method to interpret the text 

This actress is interpreting written text, via costume and acting, changing written text into expressive drama.

you have to listen to understand

what is this symbol on the sculpture?  who signed this sculpture and why?  you wouldn't know the answers if not for the audio track

[a photograph of a child listening to a museum exhibit's description through headphones while her father stands and looks away]

for this child to understand the text, she must be standing in front of the children's exhibit and listening, but her father - because he's not wearing the headphones - can't interpret the text at all, because the audio recording is required to understand the text

you have to immerse yourself in the experience to understand

did you cheer out loud? did you make any movement, like pumping your fist in the air?   -- multimodal reaction (more than one mode of communication - visual, auditory, kinetic)

these players react in the real world to something that is happening on the game, in a static environment.  for the video, the loud sound at RyyGaming and the wet droplets over MiniLadd (with the sad piano) are the editor's choice, and YOU'RE in multimodal learning mode.   They enhance your understanding of what is happening.