I started my post with this definition because this is the first reading that I have done for this week. I have not read the FYC and GCP chapters yet (and am realizing that was not the best choice), so I honestly wasn’t sure what multimodal instruction was. I understood that it had to do with varying formats and presentations, but I didn’t quite understand the depth that it went to. I thought that I understood it until I watched Professor Cole’s video for the week, where she explained that it is not simply creating digital worksheets. Clearly, I had a lot to learn and needed to start with a basic definition.

The most important part of this pedagogy that I took away is that its purpose is to provide a learning environment for all learning styles. It is extremely learner-centered.

Looking at “Integrating Multimodality into Composition Curricula: Survey Methodology and Results from a CCCC Research Grant,” a theme that is common to a lot of other topics caught my attention: lack of preparation.

This article focused on a survey that was put out to professors and students to research the way that multimodality was realistically acted out in the classroom. Although this was not the focus of the story, I was surprised by the amount of confusion. 

At the time of the survey, different professors explained that “they hadn’t agreed on a single definition that would support pedagogical applications of multimodal composition” (69).

“One hundred percent of the teachers who responded (n=42) to how they learned the technologies they needed to teach multimodal composition were primarily self-taught” (73).

“The definition and practices of multimodal composing may still be emerging and are most probably shaped by a constellation of factors, among them the accessibility of professional development opportunities, technology support, institutional incentives, instructional materials, and hardware” (79).

It is not okay that teachers are not provided with accurate support to carry out what is expected of them. How can we create a multimodal classroom when teachers aren’t even fully aware of what that means?

Going back to the beginning, the entire focus of this is on meeting individual learning needs. If we want to do that well, we need to do the back work.

As I said in my post for Anderson’s text, Multimodality is all about meeting learner needs. It is important to remember that is not just in regards to providing different modes of communicating, reading, and writing. In addition, it is about what you bring into the classroom.

In regards to multilingual practices, the following quotes from Fraiburg’s text were interesting:

We should “[partner] with speakers of other languages in local and global contexts. Forming partnerships also means working closely with multilingual writers in our classroom… Incorporating our students’ multilingualism into the classroom could help move them from deficit positions by (re)locating them as experts in their own language with knowledge and experience that they can share and contribute to the class” (111).

I love how Fraiburg was even willing to take a moment away from the topic at hand to discuss how multilingualism can and should be incorporated. 

I also think about the ways that multilingualism can boost multimodality in the classroom instead of distract from it. Perhaps students from different cultures may have unique ideas and perspectives that they can bring into the class to provide more modes of learning. 

For some reason, this article had me thinking of career day in elementary school- when a local fire fighter or doctor would come in and do a show-and-tell for the kids. Those volunteers are viewed very highly by the students and seen as complete experts whom the students look up to. In the same way, providing our multilingual students with access to authority could help them gain agency.

“Ultimately, we hope this study has shown that “our students have a much richer imagination for what we might accomplish. . .[with political remix] than our journals have yet to address” (89).

After reading the studies conducted over the assigned project for this Composition course, it appears as though the professor was hesitant to assign the project- would the students know enough about technology? Would they go too far with it? Will they understand the lessons they are trying to get across? Clearly, the students were more than capable to tackle this unique project.

This taught me a lesson to never doubt my students. Noted, I do teach mainly ninth grade classes in the middle of a pandemic. I should probably not be throwing extremely difficult and overwhelming assignments at them. Nonetheless, I should not question if they can handle new forms of multimodal assignments. If it fails, it fails and we move on. But more than likely, they will conquer it.

Moving on to an entirely different point- I was so intrigued by the topic of this article. Any time a title talks about Putin and Peter Griffin together, I am immediately confused and a read is necessary. 

I did enjoy the way that the offers talked about the cultural context of political video remixes. I had never thought of them as a genre on their own until I read this article. Honestly, perhaps I took them too lightly to see the actual composition that it took to create them. 

I have typically been scared of political remixes. Although I am (typically) able to see through them to the truth (or know enough to do my research), I am nervous that others are not. That has been confirmed when my own Father has sent me clips from the “Hillary4Prison” YouTube account to convince me to change my vote. Even when I find these videos funny, I have been hesitant to give them much screen time because I do not support some of the action that they are causing.

This article, however, helped me to see them in an entirely new light. These videos are a means of communicating and creating. They should be taught and talked about, especially since that is the way that a lot of our students communicate in modern times.

Looking back on my experience of async/sync learning, I had honestly never heard of those concepts until I started grad school in the Spring of 2020- right when COVID hit. I had only done in-person learning and trainings throughout the rest of my career, so it is important to make a preliminary note that asynchronous work is not necessarily easy work. Often times, it can be even harder than synchronous. It takes more motivation and focus as well as time-management. You have to be pretty independent, even when you do have a wonderful professor.

Speaking of professors, I appreciated the below section on what it means to be an asynchronous professor:

“Doubtless, asynchronous teachers must engage their students interactively often and thoughtfully. The difficulty for many online teachers is that they have learned their craft in traditional classroom settings where they can talk to their students about assignments and content, looking to facial and body cues for interest and comprehension. In the purely asynchronous setting, however: ‘Though many writing teachers may have the skills to communicate content and assignment instructions to students online, few have the sophisticated communication skills necessary to connect with students interpersonally, to build trust and rapport in unfamiliar virtual environments’ (Sapp and Simon 478’” (200). 

Clearly, these professors are not taking the easy route. They are not posting stale comment and Word documents for students to complete. They are not submitting empty grades. They are not sitting back enjoying time at home while not teaching.

Instead, they are having to reinvent the career that they have known for so long. They are researching new tools, spending time experimenting, lamenting the exciting new trick that completely fell through, and preparing everything behind-the-scenes so that it appears simple and clear for their students.

 Professor Cole is a perfect example of this. Her weekly videos, interactive syllabus, easy-to-navigate course page, and much more show how she has been spending time learning the art of asynchronous courses. She has found ways to make the course interactive, even when I live all the way in Pennsylvania!

Education is definitely shifting and I am curious to see the ways that asynchronous courses and work options continue to take off over the next few years!

I had never experienced this before- the person whose knowledge I placed very highly questioning and figuring out a new teaching method. She was no longer an expert.

This anecdote is why the fourth principle of New Media, “New media replace expertise with exploration and engagement,” caught my attention (182).

“Teachers must abandon the notion that all expertise must flow from the front of the classroom, particularly when it comes to technology. Even those who are considered experts… cannot expect to master every single program or application, and many of the platforms associated with new media lend themselves to (and indeed encourage) collaboration” (182).

Sure, I had seen teachers and professors admit weakness or learn something from a student before. But it was not until I watched my advisor, Kerry, literally sit side-by-side with the students and figuring out this new media that I realized the power in that action.

I think the students in that class had a greater respect for Kerry after that moment. It allowed them to see her not as a “perfect educator,” but as a student herself.

Furthermore, it gave them more freedom to learn and to experiment. They were not held to some (unreal) belief that they cannot mess up because of her perfect standards. She was learning too and wanted to watch them experiment to help her learn.

Furthermore, the students seemed to learn a lot more about the content that they were recording. They were excited about this new media and the lack of a final paper.

This was a great experience for me in regards to new media. New media is not only beneficial due to the varying assignment styles, but it is beneficial in helping teachers and students learn new roles in the classroom and learn to work together. It gave everyone more agency and freedom.

“I believe strongly that students who are able to see… the ideas, tools, techniques, and strategies their classmates employ while working on major projects benefit tremendously, both in terms of understanding that there is more than one way to accomplish a task and in thinking about how the adoption of similar tools, techniques, or strategies might potentially impact their own work” (226).

To begin with, I connected this section back to our study on plagiarism. Plagiarism is so engrained in us that, at least for me, it almost feels wrong to know what my classmates are doing for their work and how they are doing it- let alone taking ideas from them! The opposite is true, however. It is so incredibly powerful to learn alongside peers. When one student helps another, that newly learned student can help so many more- including themselves. I love that Shipka encourages students to know what is going on in their classmates’ work instead of staying isolated.

So, what might this look like in a classroom?

I honestly got to thinking that I do not do this enough. I do not allow or provide space for students to teach each other and learn from each other. The only time that my students interact with work that is not their own is during a peer review. I place a peer review at the end of the writing process, where there is no room for the reviewer to learn for themselves.

What if, instead, I inserted peer check-ins throughout a project? As students come up with topics, they bounce ideas off of their peers. As they begin to write, they can go to their peers for inspiration. Sources, technology issues, it is limitless!

Now I do realize that this is not really multimodality. I promise that this would not be the end of the line, but merely a starting point for experimentation in this realm.

I found it Ironic that the chapter “New Media Pedagogy” spent so much of its time explaining how it is futile to attempt to write about best technological practices within the teaching realm as everything runs on internet time. Then later, when reading “Fully Online and Hybrid Writing Instruction,” the entire chapter explains practices that feel somewhat outdated after the lightspeed jump we have made into distance instruction over the past year and a half. What is the best way to discuss New Media and online instruction within text? There must be certain practices that are objectively effective when heavily integrating technology into our curriculum. There was a section in “New Media Pedagogy” that referenced Prezi. It outlined a lesson plan centered around allowing students to use Prezi to make connections between sources. It could be seen as a new way to produce an annotated bibliography. While this is an excellent idea, in theory, Prezi tends to feel cumbersome in a classroom setting, if not a little outdated. Today, students prefer using shorter edited together video clips to connect disparate sources to be more effective in integrating technology into the classroom. One universal idea I took away from these chapters was that it is a good idea to think about how one should weave new media into classroom instruction. This will actually be one of the focuses for the unit I am writing for my portfolio. 

Don’t get me wrong; I still believe that we should have students write about writing as they need to understand why writing is critical, but metacognitive assignments like this should only be half of the course load. Writing about the type of writing you are about to do in an upcoming expressive assignment about a subject you love is how I believe composition should be taught.