The digital poster as a multimodal artefact in teacher education: an exploratory study

This study examines the digital poster as a multimodal artefact commonly used in academic contexts for research dissemination, reinterpreted within an educational and professional framework. Digital posters have been adopted as a form of final documentation for practicum experiences of fifth-year students in the Primary Education degree programme at the University of Xxxx, since the 2022–2023 academic year. The affordances of the poster were analysed to explore its role within the training pathways for students (future teachers) and their mentor teachers. The poster represents both an opportunity to present internship experiences to peers and an authentic task transferable to professional contexts, fostering transversal skills in content selection and visual representation, also through the use of multimedia and AI tools. Data collected via questionnaires administered to 96 student teachers and a convenience sample of tutors (29) focused on the technologies used, metacognitive value, and perceived communicative effectiveness. Findings highlight strengths and weaknesses of digital posters: as tools integrating creativity, digital technologies, and multiple languages, they effectively support embodied reflections; however, they may not fully capture experiential complexity, suggesting the need to integrate them within broader documentation and reflective practices.