University of Illinois Research Park / EnterpriseWorks
Director, University of Technology Sydney / James Cook University of North Queensland – Centre for Workplace Communication and Culture
First Assistant Secretary and Director, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (Australia) – Office of Multicultural Affairs
Director, Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (Australia) – Bureau of Immigration, Multicultural and Population Research
Senior Research Fellow, University of Wollongong – Centre for Multicultural Studies
Visiting Fellow, Harvard University (Graduate School of Arts and Sciences; Graduate School of Education)
Visiting Fellow (Graduate School of Arts and Sciences; Graduate School of Education), Harvard University
Bill Cope is a Professor in the Department of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research and development focus on the pedagogical affordances of technology‑mediated learning environments, with long‑standing work on multiliteracies, learning by design, and assessment for learning. He co‑leads the Learning Design and Leadership programs and has helped develop the CGScholar multimodal writing and assessment environment. Recent work examines generative AI in education, multimodal meaning (“transpositional grammar”), and e‑learning ecologies. He has served as Chair of the AERA Journals Publication Committee (2010–2013), and he chairs the eLearning and Innovative Pedagogies Research Network.
A research and practice framework (emerging from the New London Group and advanced by Cope & Kalantzis) that re‑conceptualizes literacy as multimodal and situated in culturally and linguistically diverse, technologically mediated contexts; emphasizes design, transformation, and social futures in literacy pedagogy.
A theoretical framework proposing that meaning‑making operates through transpositions among functions (reference, agency, structure, context, interest) and across forms (text, image, space, object, body, sound, speech), offering tools to analyze multimodal representation and to inform pedagogy and AI‑era communication.
A pedagogical framework articulating knowledge processes (experiencing, conceptualizing, analyzing, applying) to design learning for diversity and multimodality; operationalized in classroom practice and platforms such as CGScholar.
A model identifying key affordances of e‑learning environments (e.g., ubiquitous learning, multimodal meaning-making, recursive feedback, collaborative intelligence) for designing innovative pedagogy and assessment.
Reading Research Quarterly • Journal
This open‑access article explores the consequences of generative AI for literacy teaching and learning. Part one situates generative AI historically—arguing its significance is comparable to the printing press and equally problematic. Part two proposes a revised “grammar” for literacy in the AI era. Part three describes an experimental application that uses generative AI to support literacy and learning, reporting findings and implications for what the authors call cyber‑social literacy learning.
Multimodality & Society • Journal
Analyzes the scope and limits of Generative AI through a “multimodal grammar,” arguing that AI processes non‑textual modes only via textual labeling and is thus constrained by both probabilistic statistics and the limits of written language. Maps what is gained and lost when AI engages multimodal meaning (text, image, space, object, body, sound) and discusses educational applications, proposing ways grammatical/multimodal approaches can complement text‑bound AI. Pages 123–152, vol. 4(2).
Multimodality & Society • Journal
Analyzes the scope and limits of generative AI from a multimodal grammar perspective. Part one characterizes LLMs as probabilistic token systems that lack a theory of meaning. Part two maps what is gained and lost when meaning‑making is constrained by text‑bound, statistical approaches. Part three discusses educational applications and how grammatical analysis can guide worthwhile uses of AI in learning.
Discover Artificial Intelligence • Journal
A theoretical and historical overview of binary computing and its relationship to human intelligence. The paper outlines five steps: historical background since Ada Lovelace; how binary computing extends and limits AI; a grammar for parsing meanings enabled by computing; situating computing across system transitions (industrial → informational → “cyber‑social”); and reframing cybersecurity risk via a program of cyber‑social trust. Open access.
Educational Philosophy and Theory • Journal
Educational Philosophy and Theory • Journal
Conceptually and empirically examines potentials and limits of AI in education. Argues AI will not “replace” teachers but can transform assessment and pedagogy through embedded, recursive feedback and multimodal evidence‑of‑learning. Reports findings from implementations in CGScholar and outlines human‑centered uses of AI for more individualized, formative learning.
AERA Open • Journal
Explores implications of big data in education using student writing as an exemplar. Defines big data in educational contexts and maps emerging sources of evidence of learning: machine assessments, structured data embedded in learning, and unstructured data incidental to learning activity. Discusses opportunities and challenges for instruction and assessment in computer‑mediated environments and outlines analytics embedded in the CGScholar platform.
E‑Learning and Digital Media • Journal
Outlines the Learning by Design intervention aimed at classroom and curriculum transformation and teachers’ professional learning. Grounded in multiliteracies, the article details knowledge processes (experiencing, conceptualizing, analyzing, applying), the use of social web technologies for design, and implications for engaged, differentiated, multimodal learning and continuous assessment.
Pedagogies: An International Journal • Journal
Revisits the case for a pedagogy of multiliteracies, addressing changing social and technological contexts of communication and learning. Develops a language to describe representation/communication in educational contexts and argues for literacy pedagogies attuned to contemporary conditions, expanding beyond print to multimodal, culturally and linguistically diverse practices.
Pedagogies: An International Journal • Journal
Revisits the case for a pedagogy of multiliteracies first articulated by the New London Group (1996). The paper describes changing social and technological contexts of communication and develops a language to talk about representation and communication in educational settings, addressing what constitutes appropriate literacy pedagogy for contemporary times.
Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice • Journal
Argues that standardized, ‘back to basics’ testing cannot adequately capture the skills required in the knowledge economy. Proposes a ‘new basics’ emphasizing autonomy, collaboration, diversity, and multimodal literacy, with corresponding assessments such as portfolios, performances, projects, group work, and embedded analytics.
• Book
Companion to Making Sense that extends the multimodal grammar with two surrounding functions—context and interest—and advances a ‘transpositional grammar’ accounting for movement across forms of meaning. Weaves philosophy, semiotics, social theory and history of ideas with cross‑cultural examples, particularly relevant to digitally mediated communication.
Cambridge University Press • Book
Develops a transpositional grammar to describe elemental patterns of meaning across modes—text, image, space, object, body, sound, and speech. Moves beyond language‑centered models to a multimodal framework with parts on Reference, Agency, and Structure, offering a cross‑disciplinary account relevant to education, media, design, and cultural studies.
• Book
Proposes a multimodal grammar that moves beyond language‑centered understandings of meaning to analyze reference, agency and structure across forms such as text, image, space, body, sound and speech. Provides histories of media and succinct syntheses of key thinkers in linguistics, semiotics and communication, offering a cross‑disciplinary framework for analyzing multimodal meaning.
• Book
Edited volume proposing an analytical framework for distinguishing educational technologies that reproduce legacy pedagogy from those that are genuinely innovative. Articulates eight dimensions of an “e‑learning ecology” (e.g., ubiquitous learning, multimodal meaning, recursive feedback, collaborative intelligence, metacognition, differentiated learning) and presents case studies from K‑12 and higher education.
Routledge • Book
This edited book examines how e‑learning ecologies can reconfigure pedagogy. It differentiates learning technologies that reproduce traditional, didactic relations from those that enable genuinely innovative practices. Through cases across K‑12 and higher education, the volume develops an analytical framework for collaborative intelligence, recursive feedback, multimodal knowledge representation, and embedded assessment to support transformative learning.
Cambridge University Press • Book
A comprehensive introduction to literacy pedagogy in today’s new‑media environment. Beyond reading and writing, it addresses multimodal communication—oral, visual, audio, gestural, tactile, and spatial—and integrates practical design of learning experiences and assessment. The second edition expands treatment of grammar, phonics, spelling, standards (e.g., US Common Core; Australian Curriculum), and equity‑focused chapters.
Palgrave Macmillan • Book
Edited collection by two members of the New London Group, bringing together authors who apply the multiliteracies pedagogy. It foregrounds the Learning by Design framework and reports on implementations across contexts, focusing on knowledge processes and learner diversity.
Cambridge University Press • Book
A comprehensive treatment of contemporary debates and challenges in education, balancing theory with practice. With classroom examples, case studies, and online resources, it addresses educational psychology and cognitive science perspectives, assessment, and curriculum developments, offering a framework for rethinking learning in times of rapid social change.
Cambridge University Press • Book
An introduction to literacy pedagogy for today’s new‑media environment, encompassing not only reading and writing but also oral, visual, audio, gestural, and spatial modes. Using real‑world examples, it maps practical methods for designing learning experiences and assessing outcomes across diverse sociocultural settings in school, workplace, and community.
Chandos Publishing (Elsevier) • Book
Addresses how knowledge is documented and how ‘semantic publishing’—from a technically defined semantic web to broader semantic practices—could reshape scholarly communication, authorship, and access. The book examines current representations in journal articles and books and explores implications for changing knowledge ecologies.
• Book
Edited collection that consolidates the New London Group’s multiliteracies agenda. Contributors address premises of literacy pedagogy, effects of technological change, multilingualism and cultural diversity, and implications for language teaching. Concludes with practice‑oriented case studies, positioning literacy teaching within rapidly changing communicative and cultural landscapes.