I asked Suzanne Soled, Chair of the Department of English at NKU and specialist on educational assessment strategies, if she had ever heard of multimodal literacy and/or composition but she hadn't (which really isn't much of a surprise to me at this point in the game.)
On the other hand though, she did offer some interesting input into assessment strategies based upon my explanation of multimodality to her.
More importantly though was that by listening to my explanation of multimodality, she immediately hit upon the metaphor of an academic presenting at a conference. Possibly this was because she had just returned from a week and a half of conference attendance - who can say? - but I'm not sure I can think of a more appropriate metaphor for multimodality than that. When an academic goes to a conference to present, they have the decision of in which mode should they present their "papers". Clearly, the delivery of a formal academic paper will acrue more cultural capital in some circles than a poster exhibit. Possibly, the results of a round table discussion will be result less deep connections to the topic of delivery than the other two, but will lead to a broader range of information being disseminated as well as a construction of social ties that otherwise would not have been developed in alternate modes. In some conferences, the mode could be imposed while in others it could be left open to the presenter. The rhetorical moment must be defined, the conventions must be adhered to (or at least navigated whether that means by accepting and then following them or by rejecting and subverting them) and etc.
I told her I was going to steal this for my own use.
On the other hand though, she did offer some interesting input into assessment strategies based upon my explanation of multimodality to her.
More importantly though was that by listening to my explanation of multimodality, she immediately hit upon the metaphor of an academic presenting at a conference. Possibly this was because she had just returned from a week and a half of conference attendance - who can say? - but I'm not sure I can think of a more appropriate metaphor for multimodality than that. When an academic goes to a conference to present, they have the decision of in which mode should they present their "papers". Clearly, the delivery of a formal academic paper will acrue more cultural capital in some circles than a poster exhibit. Possibly, the results of a round table discussion will be result less deep connections to the topic of delivery than the other two, but will lead to a broader range of information being disseminated as well as a construction of social ties that otherwise would not have been developed in alternate modes. In some conferences, the mode could be imposed while in others it could be left open to the presenter. The rhetorical moment must be defined, the conventions must be adhered to (or at least navigated whether that means by accepting and then following them or by rejecting and subverting them) and etc.
I told her I was going to steal this for my own use.
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