Jo Ann Griffin's contribution to Cynthia Selfe's Multimodal Composition: Resources for Teachers,identifies both the need for support among such networks as well as the particular obstacles instructors may face when attempting to gain such support.
"Making Connections with Writing Centers,"
"In most institutions," Griffin acknowledges, "writing center resources are stretched thin, and many writing center directors, when faced with the prospect of helping teachers and students on multimodal composition assignments, will express concerns about time, attention, and material resources" (153)
To respond to these attitudes, Griffin recommends that instructors be able to demonstrate the many instances in which "rhetorical issues" (audience, purpose, context, etc) "cross forms" (genres/modes) (155).
I think Griffin offers some useful advice; but I wonder about the type of support most needed by instructors attempting a multimodal curricula for the first time. Is it, perhaps, even more necessary that these instructors "build bridges" with students and professors in other departments: communication, video production, graphic design, etc? It seems that the particular elements of this curricula that require a sustaining network are those elements that other English-Studies professionals have least experience with: namely, technology, graphic design, audio /video production.
A particular strength of multimodal texts,
those that are effective at least, is the broader levels of accessibility they provide. The transmission of information in multiple semiotic channels should enable the reception of that information on multiple semiotic levels.
The multimodal text is useful because it can be understood by a wider audience, right? If this is true, instructors need to build bridges farther, to consider widening their network to gain support beyond that available within their own department.
I agree with you, Mathew. I also believe that instructors of multimodal compositions need to “‘build bridges’ with students and professors in other departments: communication, video production, graphic design, etc.” However, I don’t think that such bridges can be built easily. Scholars in other departments might see composition teachers as intruders in the fields of communications or graphic design. Unfortunately, that might result in competition rather than collaboration.
ReplyDelete"The multimodal text is useful because it can be understood by a wider audience, right? If this is true, instructors need to build bridges farther, to consider widening their network to gain support beyond that available within their own department."
ReplyDeleteMatthew, I think you're onto something great here. Isn't this what cross-listed classes are all about? What if schools were able to list even three or four classes together, exposing the student to even broader views and ideas with greater support?
Lana, you also make a great point. Academia creates a unique situation where if one expert protests to such an amalgamation, his/her knowledge will be cut off. But maybe if all the parties were amenable...? Probably wishful thinking.
Matt--
ReplyDeleteThe "Reactions" boxes at the end of your post cracks me up. Cool. For sure.
I know I always talk about my undergrad institution, but a school of 1,800 students changes the classroom dynamic quite a bit from a school of 18,000.
My writing center employed two (maybe three?) "adults" and the rest were work study students or writing peers. If a student needed help on a multimodal project, they would be better off going directly to a professor in the communications department.
The relationship of a writing center and a professor/instructor/class seems more feasible at a smaller school where everyone knows everyone else and collaboration is almost required between faculty and staff. When a writing center has thousands more students to worry about, their help in a few English classes--which would require that someone had knowledge of technology and the rhetorical implications of different modalities--does seem like wishful thinking (as Claudia mused).
I think this has potential to diffuse "compartmentalization" of Universities--writing across the curricula proponents should be all over this right? It aims to achieve an incorporating of these different disciplines into one holistic learning experience.
ReplyDeleteOr maybe I am being too hopeful again.