“We must recognize that English Departments no longer sustain culture behind impenetrable walls of print. Culture, the product of our human relations, now produces texts in multiple, often overlapping forms. If it has become acceptable to recognize the work of scholars in English
Departments who use cultural studies approaches to texts in everything from film to clothing to museum exhibits, it should be part of an English Department’s mission to regard its students as capable of composing intellectual work in forms other than traditional print essays. And we should also recognize that other disciplines across campus are increasingly moving to multimodal texts in their courses and that our students need to know how to write to learn and write to inform and persuade in these forms as well as they do in print. We need to teach the forms of literacy that are producing the culture on our campuses and in our communities.” — Bronwyn Williams
Many of us in composition, literature, and creative writing classes are using new media and and ever-expanding array of digital tools to support our teaching and our students’ learning. This list is by no means comprehensive, but it is meant to be a starting point for instructors interested in learning more about the logistics, ethics, pedagogical value, and theories of multimodal composition, digital rhetoric, and digital humanities pedagogy. (And if “multimodal” is a word you keep hearing people say but doesn’t seem to mean something specific, you’re not alone! The term is contested, but for a mainstream approach to its definition in composition studies, check out Claire Lauer’s [2012] piece on defining multimodality and new media, including the difference between “modes” and “media.”)
As always, if you have any questions, or if you have suggestions to add to the list, please let us know in the comments or by email (see contact info below).
UW Resources
English CIC
- Workshops on Teaching and Multimodality – check out this introduction to design and assessment principles
- CIC Faculty Guide for Teaching with Canvas
- Navigating FERPA law and digital tools
- Contact the Assistant Director (Ann Shivers-McNair through the end of Winter 2016; Jacki Fiscus beginning Spring 2016) or Director (Kimberlee Gillis-Bridges)
- for support designing, implementing, and assessing assignments and activities
- to reserve one of the CIC labs for a hands-on/workshop day
UW-IT
- Ongoing free workshops on digital technologies for UW faculty, staff, and students
- Free customized in-class workshops for UW instructors – also check out our blog post on English department lecturer Elizabeth Simmons-O’Neill’s experience with a UW-IT custom workshop on presentation software
- Online tutorials on web publishing, graphics and design, digital video, digital audio, and documents and spreadsheets
- Digital Audio Workshops in the Odegaard Sound Studio
- Contact UW-IT by phone (206-221-5000), email, or in person at the UW Tower, C-3000, for advice on technologies and teaching tools
Pedagogical materials
- Writer/Designer (2014) by Kristen Arola, Cheryl Ball, and Jennifer Sheppard – note that instructors can order a free exam copy; supports a multimodal writing/rhetoric course, focuses on digital media
- Understanding and Composing Multimodal Projects (2013) by Dánielle DeVoss – note that instructors can order a free exam copy; supports multimodal writing/rhetoric with a focus on digital media and helpful discussions of fair use and copyright
- The Available Means of Persuasion: Mapping a Theory and Pedagogy of Multimodal Public Rhetoric (2013) by David Sheridan, Jim Ridolfo, and Anthony Michel – check out the Appendices for a multimodal public rhetoric sequence; you can access this online for free with a UW netID
- “Between modes: Assessing student new media compositions” (2006) by Madeline Sorapure – free online access
Online resources for vetting multimodal and new media teaching tools, technologies, and pedagogies
- The Hack and Yack section of the Sweetland Digital Rhetoric Collaborative blog
- MLA Commons Digital Pedagogy in the Humanities: Concepts, Models, Experiments – note that the keywords are open for review until January 18, 2016, and check out our post on the multimodality keyword and MediaBreaker
- Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy – especially the PraxisWiki section (free online access)
Overviews of the history and theory of multimodal composition, digital rhetoric, and digital humanities
- Multimodal Composition: A Critical Sourcebook (2012) by Claire Lutkewitte – note that instructors can order a free exam copy
- Multimodal Composition in Kairos: A Rhizomatic Retrospective (2016) by Rachael Ryerson – free access
- Digital Humanities Pedagogy: Practices, Principles, and Politics (2012) by Brett Hirsch – note that the PDF and HTML versions are available for free
- Digital Rhetoric: Theory, Method, Practice (2015) by Douglas Eyman – you can read it for free online through the UW library if you have a UW netID
Engaging critical issues in/with multimodality
- Multilingual learners and multimodality: “Multimodality, Translingualism, and Rhetorical Genre Studies” (2015) by Laura Gonzales – free online access
- Disability and multimodality: “Multimodality in motion: Disability and kairotic spaces” (2013) by Melanie Yergeau et al. – free online access
- Queer rhetorics and multimodality: “Butch rhetoric: Queer masculinity in rhetoric and composition” (2015) by Casey Miles [free online access] and On Multimodality: New Media in Composition Studies (2014) by Jonathan Alexander and Jacqueline Rhodes [print copy available through UW libraries]
by Ann Shivers-McNair