Multimodality

The thought of introducing a visual element to communication in an educational setting is, in my opinion, placing a limitation on visual literacy presentation. In Jody Shipka’s A Multimodal Task-Based Framework for Composing, Shipka argues that this kind of presentation gives “students with the opportunity to begin structuring the occasions for, as well as the reception and delivery of, the work they produce” (279). Too habitually, teachers panic when they become aware of certain aspects they feel that their students are not learning of the curriculum and thusly, they impose excessively narrow assignment   restrictions that severely limit a student’s overall ability to effectively complete the assignment.

It leads to a failure at creating an understanding of what exactly the student needs to accomplish for the assignment and how to go about completing these assignments. Shipka states that the limitation of assignments creates an environment where teachers “predetermine goals and narrowly limit the materials, methodologies, and technologies that students employ in service of those goals” (285).  Shipka goes on to elaborate how stressed the multimodal framework has become. She states that a working environment where “students are able to prove that, beyond being critically minded consumer of existing knowledge, they are also extremely capable, critically minded producers of new knowledge” (292).  

In Pamela Takayoshi and Cindy Selfe’s Thinking About Multimodality, the endorsement for multimodal approaches in composition classes is very clear. Takayoshi and Selfe outline five points that illustrate the need for composition courses going forward to keep up the pace with the new technology becoming available. As with the numerous readings we have read this semester, Takayoshi and Selfe assert that in a rapidly evolving technological based world, students must be skilled and have knowledge in composing and reading in numerous multi modalities.  The 5 claims Takayoshi and Selfe summarize are as follows:

1. In an increasingly technological world, students need to be experienced and skilled not only in reading (consuming) texts employing multiple modalities, but also in composing in multiple modalities, if they hope to communicate successfully within the digital communication networks that characterize workplaces, schools, civic life, and span traditional cultural, national, and geopolitical borders.

2. If composition instruction is to remain relevant, the definition of “composition” and “texts” needs to grow and change to reflect peoples’ literacy practices in new digital communication environments.

3. The authoring of compositions that include still images, animations, video, and audio—although intellectually demanding and time consuming—is also engaging.

4. Audio and visual composing require attention to rhetorical principles of communication.

5. Teaching multimodality is one pathway to accomplishing long-valued pedagogical goals.

I believe that Takayoshi and Selfe’s text is a great introduction into bringing more multimodal techniques and ideologies into the classroom. I think one of the main claims being made by Takayoshi and Selfe is that instructing composition requires an evolution with the change and integration of new technology if it ever hopes to retain relevancy in the classroom.

Takayoshi and Selfe also go into detail when explaining if they are any repercussions of installing a multimodal focus in the classroom. One concern is the fear of giving up the fundamental instruction of the written word. However as Takayoshi and Selfe go on to state: “we also believe that teaching students to make sound rhetorically-based use of video, still images, animations, and sound can actually help them better understand the particular affordances of written language—that such instruction can, moreover, provide students additional and instructive strategies for communicating in writing.”