Digital literacies & multimodal learning: writing in digital formats

This chapter surveys the landscape of research focused on adolescents and digital writing. First, I summarize three theoretical perspectives that have been influential. Next, I describe four prominent themes in the extant research, particularly how digital multimodal composing fosters (a) agentive identity expression, (b) reshaping of classroom spaces, (c) development of multimodal designers, and (d) multimodal composing-to-learn. I then synthesize the research by examining youths' processes when composing with multiple modes, including the collaborative, mediated, recursive, and affective nature of digital writing. This chapter concludes with a discussion of new directions for research on youth and digital multimodal composing.