Objectives: The objective of this project is to have students compose texts using multiple modes of communication and to identify how and why such texts (from production to consumption) are rhetorically situated.
Research
Project
Overview:
The project, Integrating a New Media Pedagogy, is an ongoing study within writing/communication classes in Utah State University's English department. The project introduces writing students to the ways that authors have morphed into designers of multimodal texts in fields that once seemed to belong to written text exclusively (e.g., composition studies, technical and professional communication, creative writing, literary studies, etc.). A major goal of this project is to teach students to question and use multiple media and new media technologies in rhetorical ways and to understand why such texts and technologies are necessary to analyze and learn within English courses/majors.
In class, students read sample multimodal and new media texts, which can incorporate a range of modalities and media including written text, video, audio, animation, and so on. Students analyze the sample texts using a combination of cross-disciplinary, critical methods including rhetorical, cinematic, multimodal, graphic, and literary units of analyses. After reading the texts, students are asked to design a new media text from what they've learned in their analyses. The design process includes the following steps (not inclusive nor hierarchical):
- brainstorming what the audience and purpose of the text
will be
- choosing the media and modal elements the text will
include
- storyboarding/scripting
- gathering modal elements (via audio/video recording and
other methods)
- capturing modal elements (via audio/video-editing
software and other technologies)
- editing multimodal text with attention to chosen new
media technological system
- workshopping multimodal text (usability testing, etc.)
- preparing text for distribution (exportation to
audience-appropriate media/device)
The distribution process includes having students write about their design processes in a final report, which is collected with the exported version of their new media text. This report reflects on their design choices - like rhetorical choices in writing but with more media -- throughout the process in relation to the critical methods discussed when they analyzed sample new media texts.
The CLE Lab is the main site for production of new media texts for these classes. The lab provides technologies (hardware, software, and peripherals) that are not available in most English department computer labs. Students use software programs such as Adobe Video Suite, iMovie, Logic Express, Soundtrack, and other video and audio-editing programs provided in the lab. They also use peripheral equipment including digital video cameras (Canon ZR100 miniDV), still cameras (Olympus D590), audio recorders (iPods with iTalk attachments and microphones), and a high-resolution scanner (Epson 4180).
Participants:
- CLE, as a partner in the Department of Instructional Technology’s with Cheryl E. Ball, PhD, Principal Investigator
- Students enrolled in various English Department classes (3040, 3410, 5410, 5420, and others)
- English Department Computer Lab
Status: Study ongoing, additional funding in progress
|  |
