A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies

This is a rather difficult article, here is what I understand of it.

1. Overall, what is the point that this article attempts to make?

I think this article attempts to make us aware that literacy pedagogy is no longer like what we are used to and exposed to as students in schools where the focus was on “learning to read and write in page-bound, official standard forms of the national language” (pg. 9), but is moving on to an era where “understanding and competent control of representational forms that are becoming increasingly significant to the overall communications environments, such as visual images and their relationship to the written word” (pg. 9) and teachers are designers of their classroom practices to work towards this changing world.

2. What aspects of 'multiplicity' do multiliteracies attempt to accommodate?

I am still unsure how to answer this question even though I have read the article a few times, can someone help?

3. What do the NLG mean by 'design'?

There are 3 elements to NLG's designs of meaning: Avaliable Designs, Designing and The Redesign. Avaliable designs are like templates which people are familiar with and often use with little variation, Designing never reproduces avaliable designs and involves "new use of old materials, a re-articulation and recombination of the given resources in avaliable designs" (pg. 22) and The Redesigned is based on prior received patterns of meaning and at the same time a totally new product which can become an avaliable design for future use.

4. How do you imagine multiliteracies pedagogy, as the NLG describe it, might operate in the contexts in which you have taught (e.g. your practicum experience(s))?

In my practicum experience I have always included PowerPoint slides with animation and used BrainPop (a website) in my lessons, but I have never considered that I am using multiliteracies in the classroom. I was using these as I knew that these will appeal to the students and will be able to capture their attention better.