Multimodal Composition

At this moment, I can’t say I have much experience with digital storytelling or any other forms of multimodal composition. I’ve watched videos on YouTube and have seen book trailers but beyond that, my experience is limited. After further exploring the various types of multimodal composition out there, the two that I was most fond of was the digital poetry and text animation, and the interactive timelines and maps.



(digital storytelling - Bing images)


Within the classroom, I might have students create digital compositions in order to better engage with texts they’re reading. Rather than have students write summaries or book reports they could create interactive timelines for the events of the book, digital poetry could take the place of the traditional pen to paper poetry. Digital compositions might be used as a writing assignment on their own to help students better understand the writing process. As mentioned in “Digital Storytelling in a Place-Based Composition Course” by James Chisholm and Brandie Trent, “digital storytelling mediates students’ learning of traditional literacy skills including decoding, comprehending, and engaging in the writing process as they allow the writer to experience the power of personal expression” (309).

In “Reimagining A Writer’s Process Through Digital Storytelling” by Troy Hicks, Kristen Turner, and Jodi Stratton, we saw how the process changed but that it also forced her think beyond the text in order to find ways to make her video more compelling. During Jodi’s reflection of her time working on this piece she notes how the use of different transitions gave her story more depth; for example, “Whenever there was a page turn, it was symbolic of a new chapter occurring,” (Hicks, Turner, Stratton 179).



digital storytelling - Bing images


If I were going to use digital compositions to promote civic engagement, I might have students select a topic and create a composition to advocate for that topic. Another idea could have students actually go into the community and volunteer somewhere or get involved in some other way and document what they did, what was the problem they were trying to solve and how did they help.

I don’t consider myself to be an especially creative person but I can see the benefits of using multimodal compositions for any number of activities and assignments within a classroom. Knowing this inspires me to try to come up with ways that I could incorporate these compositions into my own classroom someday.

This is a really interesting video and website on E-poetry from Leonardo Flores who appears to be an expert on the topic

I ♥ E-Poetry: Discovering Digital Media Poetry | Leonardo Flores | TEDxUPRM - YouTube

I ❤️ E-Poetry – Short form scholarship on born digital poetry and poetics. (iloveepoetry.org)







Comments

  1. Olivia ParkerMarch 10, 2021 at 4:45 PM

    Hi!
    I'm interested in the types of digital poetry you have produced/been introduced to! It's not something that I have come across, personally, so I'd love to learn more about it! Did you enjoy it? Did you find it was any different from traditional poetry? What was your general experience?
    Thanks and great job!
    Olivia

    ReplyDelete
  2. Tyler SchaefferMarch 12, 2021 at 1:24 PM

    Hey Kelly,
    I too have very limited experience working with multimodal composition, but I liked how you talked about incorporating it into your classroom. By, possibly replacing the older stuff with new possibilities made possible my multimodal composition, traditional essays and summaries may be pushed to the side for interactive timelines or digital poetry. I'm curious to see how it pans out in your classroom.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Creating Multimodal Compositions

Image
Dry-Interactive Timeline I knew very quickly once I began reading Dry by Neal and Jarrod Shusterman that I wanted to create an interactive timeline for this book. The events in the book take place over a very short period of time and there are some major events. I also knew that I wanted civic engagement to be a component of my timeline since Dry is a cli-fi novel. Rather than incorporate images and videos that might have told the story of the book, I chose to use videos, images, and websites that would educate people on climate change while also highlighting the importance of water and how the world could potentially run dry one day. I used the dates from the novel with a short synopsis of what was occurring on that day and then included different media on climate change and water. I really enjoyed the process of creating a multimodal response, maybe a little more than I thought I would.  multimodal composition - Bing When I started to think about the types of media I wanted to incl
Read more

Technology in the Classroom

Image
When I was growing up, social media did not exist. Most of my friends didn’t even have computers in their homes, let alone access to the internet. In sixth grade, my school was able to buy about 30 desktop computers to be housed in a “computer room”. Teachers could sign up for specific time slots and take their class to the computer room where we mostly played games that kids today would certainly laugh at if given the opportunity. Back then, I don’t think anyone was aware at how essential computers and internet access would become in our everyday lives. Fast forward to today and I am currently active on a few social media platforms but my primary purpose is to keep in touch with friends and family. I primarily use social media to share pictures, and document experiences; however, I do occasionally read stories or articles relating to current events or pop culture. Most recently for a previous class’ assignment, I created a PechaKucha on the need for more mental health services in ur
Read more

The Writing Process

Image
 As I sit here and try to figure out what my writing process looks like I struggle to find one technique or set of rules I follow for every piece of writing I do. My writing process very much depends on what I am writing but typically follows a goal-driven process similar to the one outlined in “A Cognitive Process Theory of Writing” by Linda Flower and John R. Hayes. Flower’s and Hayes’ mention writers working under a “high-level goal or plan to explore: that is, to think the topic over, to jot ideas down, or just start writing to see what they have to say,” (382). This is certainly something I do but it takes many different forms, usually resulting from the question, “What am I going to say about this?” Depending on the topic or the type of genre being written, the first step in my process likely involves note taking, which I consider as part of “exploring”. I start by researching the topic with the hope to really narrow the scope of my topic. Once I’ve taken notes from several sou
Read more