What It Means to Be a Peer Reviewer
Instructor Guide
Created in partnership between the University Writing Program, the University Libraries Digital Literacy Initiative, and TLOS, this module ("learning session") introduces digital literacy and multimodal composition. This session is designed to take about 50 minutes and includes 2 short videos, 2 informal writing activities, and 2 digital creation activities. The session concludes with a discussion post as the final deliverable.
Learning Outcomes
Upon completing this learning session, students should be able to do the following:
Reflect on personal experiences with multimodal composition and digital literacy
Identify common misconceptions about digital literacy
Explain the principles guiding communication across five modes: linguistic, visual, aural, gestural, and spatial
Practice invention processes in creating digital and multimodal content
How to Use This Learning Session
This learning session was designed with potential connections to the ENGL 1105 literacy narrative assignment in mind, but could be used throughout composition or other Discourse courses.
The design of this session allows for students to complete most learning activities asynchronously, including two opportunities to practice crafting multimodal, digital artifacts.
The session is designed for students' informal writing responses to be private and ungraded; such opportunities are valuable for engaging students in earnest reflection and metacognition. Moreover, letting students choose the material conditions of their own writing space (e.g. handwriting in a personal notebook or typing in their preferred notes app or word processor) promotes agency in their literacy development.
Recommended Follow-Up Activity (15–20 minutes)
As an extension of this learning session, students could explore the Multimodal Gutter Project (http://gutter.bitcubby.com/#/home), either on their own or in small groups. Using the Multimodal Gutter Project tool, students can juxtapose text, images, and music in an iterative process. For example, they could select a piece of music first, and then select their image and text to create new meaning. Students would then reflect on their invention process, particularly the constraints and affordances associated with randomly matching media in the Multimodal Gutter. Reflection questions might include: How does the multimodal gutter shape or challenge your composing process? Did you privilege one medium over another? What pairing did you especially find difficult to make sense of? Why?
How to Incorporate Learning Sessions into Your Canvas Course Site
To incorporate this material into your existing Canvas course site, complete the following steps:
Navigate to your course "Modules" section and locate the unpublished Pathways Learning Sessions module.
Learning sessions are formatted as Canvas "Discussions." Select the "more" icon (three vertical dots) next to the particular learning session you want to incorporate, then use the "Move to..." command to add it to one of your existing modules.
By default, these lesson plans are ungraded with open availability. Edit the discussion to assign due dates and grade values and to change other settings in accordance with your teaching practices. Consider adding a hyperlink to any instruction pages or rubrics for discussions in your course, placing it near the "Discussion Prompt" at the end of the learning session material.
Anchoring Outcomes
This learning session attends to outcomes designated by Pathways, the University Writing Program, and the Digital Literacy Initiative. Outcome descriptions are included in the table below.
Table: Program Outcomes
Designation
Outcome
Description
Pathways
Discourse 3
Develop effective content that is appropriate to a specific context, audience, and/or purpose
Discourse 4
Exchange ideas effectively with an audience
University Writing Program
Multimodal Design
Compose written, oral, and digital texts, gaining awareness of the possibilities and constraints of oral presentations, visual literacy, and electronic environments.
Digital Literacy Initiative
Creation & Scholarship
Recognize that the creative process can involve a variety of emotional experiences
Examine how format, genre, discipline, and audience can affect creative choices
Practice an iterative design process towards specific goals
Engage in troubleshooting while using tools
Create original works and repurpose or remix existing works
Scholarly Context (Optional Further Reading for Instructors)
In the mid-1990s, the term ‘digital literacy’ emerged as a way to describe the shifting nature of reading and writing when mediated by the internet (246). Gilster, who popularized digital literacy as a term in his 1997 book by the same name, describes it as “the ability to understand and use information in multiple formats...when it is presented via computers” (1). Similarly, Lanham describes literacy in the “digital age” as the “ability to understand information, however presented” (198). Lanham uses the term digital literacy interchangeably with multimedia literacy, arguing that to be literate in the digital world means “being at home in a shifting mixture of words, images and sounds” (200).
Since its original conception, digital literacy has continued to represent a range of multilayered capabilities, attitudes, and skills. Digital literacy education reflects multiple emphases, including navigating and critically evaluating digital or digitally-mediated information (ALA; Sparks et al.); multimedia creation (Hobbs; Alexander et al.); and interpersonal communication, collaboration, and community participation (Alexander et al.; Hall et al.; Sparks et al.). In this learning session, we have attempted a broad understanding of digital literacy.
Much like digital literacy, the concept of multimodality has been understood and applied in multiple ways. In this learning session, we have defined multimodality in alignment with Arola, Ball, and Sheppard’s “Five Modes of Communication,” which in turn draws on the New London Group’s model. Arola, Ball, and Sheppard define any text that includes more than one mode as multimodal. For some scholars this definition is inclusive of all texts; even the visual formatting of a written document constitutes a second mode. For others, however, a text composed of written words only is a monomodal text (DeVoss). The existence of monomodal texts is a level of nuance and debate currently outside of the scope of this learning session, though it could be an important follow-up conversation.
Works Cited
Alexander, Brian, et al. Digital Literacy in Higher Education, Part II: An NMC Horizon Project Strategic Brief. 3.4, The New Media Consortium, Aug. 2017, https://library.educause.edu/resources/2017/8/digital-literacy-in-higher-education-part-ii-an-nmc-horizon-project-strategic-brief.
Arola, K. L., Ball, C. E., & Sheppard, J. (2014). Writer/designer: A guide to making multimodal projects. Macmillan Higher Education.
Bawden, David. “Information and Digital Literacies: A Review of Concepts.” Journal of Documentation, vol. 57, no. 2, Apr. 2001, pp. 218–59. doi:10.1108/EUM0000000007083.
DeVoss, Danielle Nicole. Understanding and Composing Multimodal Projects. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2013. Print.
Gilster, Paul. Digital Literacy. Wiley, 1997.
Hall, Richard, et al. “Defining a Self-Evaluation Digital Literacy Framework for Secondary Educators: The DigiLit Leicester Project.” Research in Learning Technology, vol. 22, no. 0, Apr. 2014. doi:10.3402/rlt.v22.21440.
Hobbs, Renee. Create to Learn: Introduction to Digital Literacy. Wiley, 2017, https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Create+to+Learn%3A+Introduction+to+Digital+Literacy-p-9781118968345.
The New London Group. “A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies: Designing Social Futures.” Harvard Educational Review, vol. 66, no. 1, 1996, pp. 60–93.
Sparks Jesse R., et al. “Assessing Digital Information Literacy in Higher Education: A Review of Existing Frameworks and Assessments with Recommendations for Next‐Generation Assessment.” ETS Research Report Series, vol. 2016, no. 2, Nov. 2016, pp. 1–33. doi:10.1002/ets2.12118.
Lanham, Richard A. “Digital Literacy.” Scientific American, vol. 273, no. 3, 1995, pp. 198–200.
Additional Resources
Digital Storytelling Guide: https://guides.lib.vt.edu/edci5784/digitalstorytelling (includes list of free tools, openly-licensed images/content)
Jenkins, Henry. “If It Doesn’t Spread, It’s Dead (Part One): Media Viruses and Memes.” Henry Jenkins,http://henryjenkins.org/blog/2009/02/if_it_doesnt_spread_its_dead_p.html. Accessed 8 Sept. 2020.
Juxtaposing Media: Multimodal Gutter