Resource+4

=**// Resource 4: //**  Australian Broadcasting Commission. (2007). //‘Dust Echoes: Ancient Stories, New Voices’//. Retrieved October 2, 2009 from [] =



Produced by the Australian Broadcasting Commission in conjunction with Deakin University and Djilpin Arts Aboriginal Corporation, ‘Dust Echoes: Ancient Stories, New Voices’ is an interactive website which provides a medium for viewing 12 Aboriginal Dreamtime stories. The stories which have been collected from the Wugularr (Beswick) community in Arnhem Land, have been recorded as audio and reinterpreted as short animated movies. The website allows viewers to explore these stories, and in turn learn about and develop an appreciation for Aboriginal culture. Each of the 12 stories is complemented with a study guide in order to gain a fuller understanding of the story, and an interactive glossary provides definitions of and translations of words used in the story from Aboriginal dialects. ** Relevance to the outcome: ** This website is relevant to the HSIE outcome ENS2.6 which states that students should be able to ‘describe people’s interactions with the environment’ and more specifically, ‘recognise that Aboriginal peoples have a special relationship with the land and sea’ (NSW Board of Studies, 2006, p. 33). This resource provides students with the opportunity to understand this special relationship through the 12 Dreamtime stories which show some of the beliefs of creation, ways of caring for the land, and the beauty and the dangers of nature for the Wugularr community. It highlights the Aboriginal peoples’ interactions with the environment as they used nature and natural phenomena as a way to explain their belief systems and moral codes. As the scope of traditional literacy changes to include vehicles of communications such as CD-ROMs, websites and even mobile phones, students need practise in ‘reading’ these kinds of literacies as they often require ‘non-linear and simultaneous processing’ in order to understanding the meaning of the text (Walsh, 2006, p. 43). This resource allows students to be engaged in an interactive website, thereby enhancing their knowledge of multimodal texts and explicitly looking at how different modes work together to create meaning. This text allows students to engage in the four roles of the reader as they navigate their way around the website. This occurs through using conventions of screen layout as they search for and follow links (code-breaker), and view a variety of modes working together (verbal, visual and audio) to decipher the moral of each story (text-participant). They could also consider purposes of the text and think about why Aboriginal peoples and other stakeholders may want to promote these stories (text-user), and contemplate why people interpret texts differently (text-analyst) through the deconstruction of modes (Luke and Freebody, 1990, cited in Winch & Holliday, 2006, p. 53). Participating in these four roles whilst they interact with the website and the narratives should allow for a balanced development of reading skills for the students. Students also have the opportunity to manipulate the verbal, visual and audio features of the stories using the ‘Mash it up’ feature. This is a practical and explicit way for students to see how meaning is changed depending on the modes that are used. The website also provides a glossary of terms used by the Wugularr people which feature in the stories. Not only is a definition provided, but a pronunciation function is provided so that the correct pronunciation of the word can be heard. This website is a worthwhile resource to utilise when incorporating multimodality into the classroom. It enables students to interpret meaning from a variety of Dreamtime stories through the combination of visual, verbal and audio modes, and the study guide and activities provides some ideas to help teachers to devise a meaningful unit of work.
 * Explanation of the resource: **
 * Aspect of Literacy suitable to be explored: **