Diversity in Multimodal Composition

I found this weeks readings on minorities in cyberspace very interesting. I think it is important, when teaching computer-mediated composition, to recognize students will undoubtedly have different experiences with computers. It is not enough to simply recognize that some people will have used computers frequently while others will have not, but we also need to consider the reasons for this discrepancy. I thought all the articles for this week addressed important issues in the cyber-community especially concerning discrimination and bigotry. The article I found most interesting, probably because of my own relation to it, was "IM Me" by Shayla Marie Thiel.
In my highschool years, IM became the most popular form of communication, especially because cell phones were not yet a common thing for teenage girls to have. I can relate to many of the IM conversations or situations in Thiel's article as they are similar to ones from my own life. She frequently talks about how girls use IM to investigate their identities; but, I want to take this a step further. Is IM actually forming identies (both on and off the internet) for these girls, that would never have been formed otherwise? Does the freedom from parents, teachers, and control give these girls a way to not only explore who they are but actually discover it. Despite the many strides in feminism, girls are still expected to talk, act, and look a certain way. If these normalities are no longer required online, are young females discovering unique identities sooner? Or is IM just another way for girls to continue the catty social exercises that go on at school from the safety of their own home?
The other article that I found most interesting was "But I'm Just White" by Samantha Blackmon. It was very interested to see how self-exploration could be transferred into multimodal composition. I am not sure if she actually does this, but I think the most beneficial part of this class would be other students getting to view their peer's projects. If the class is as comfortable as she claims, then it seems students would be willing to share their projects. And I think for many young students it would be very beneficial to view the perspectives and projects of their diverse classmates. This is a great opportunity for growth in the academic, personal, and social sense.

Assessing Multimodal Composition

One of the many issues instructors have with incorporating multimodal composition is their ability to assess students compositions. However, once teachers become comfortable grading a website or video they will slowly become accustomed to this kind of assessment. The problem is not that there is not enough to grade or that it is too subjective, but rather, that instructors are simply not used to grading anything but words on a page. If these instructors think back to their first semester teaching, they will likely remember similar feelings that were then directed at writing. The problem of assessing multimodal composition is more a problem of fearing new rather than the actually absence of material to be graded.

 In Sonya Borton and Brian Huot's chapter "Responding and Assessing" they explain: "we have observed that teachers who have learned to design and produce at least one web site are more effective in structuring assignments that help students create and evaluate web texts" (103). This supports my idea that along with comfort, comes effective instruction. If teacher's are able to understand a students struggle, then they will also know how to help this student. Also, the more they create websites or other forms of composition on their own, the easier they will recognize how much students have done to improve their composition. 

When it comes to assessing multimodal composition, teachers will need to accept the fact that they will not be comfortable at first. However, the transition can be made easier if the old way they assess writing is compared to a new way to assess multimodal composition. Things like transitions, theses, and topic sentences are not entirely forgotten. However, they take different forms as navigation, home pages, and titles of pages within the site. We are not forgetting what our field has been teaching for so long, but instead taking what we know and applying it to something new and exciting. This process of change should not be viewed with disdain, but instead with excitement. Now composition teachers are being challenged to apply what we have taught for years to something new. This can be seen as an opportunity to expand our own personal knowledge while expanding the field we hold so dear.  

As I read through Jay David Bolter's "Writing Space: Hypertext and the Remediation of Print" I began to think about possibly multimodal assignments for a class.  To introduce my students to the power of images, I would like to have their first assignment be creating a webpage that only had images. The purpose of this webpage would be to give a biography about themselves, however, they could only use pictures to explain their life.  I think it would be both challenging and interesting for students to explain who they are without using words. It would be important to point out that it is not only the images they select that will define who they are, but the layout and background of the website will contribute to their image biography as well. 

I think this would be a beneficial first assignment because it will allow the teacher to get to know their students better. Also, because it will only be a single page, it would not take up that much time (students could spend 2-3 weeks on it in class).  When I think about forming my own website I realize that a lot of time can be spent on images. I have tried to pick images that directly and obviously reflect the text of my technology autobiography. I think by taking my students ability to use text away, it will force them to immediately consider how to use images to portray different things about themselves. It is also possible (and probably preferable) that later in the course they can use this webpage or the images from the webpage in later assignments that do include text.