The Edge

Response — Multimodal Pedagogies (November 4)

In my MFA program, I once floated the idea of creating a “Choose Your Own Adventure” play.  In such a play, audience members would vote from time to time on what particular characters would do based on a list of predetermined choices.  (Sort of a “If you want Ross to tell Rachel he’s bisexual, turn to page 56,” but onstage.)  I was shut down by my playwriting workshop professor (also my thesis advisor):  no one would consent to memorizing that many lines that might not ever be said.

After I was accepted to ISU, I began to research the members of the faculty, including Dr. Kalmbach, on whose webpage I learned that hypertext (which I had previously thought of as a “fancy” programming language, like C++ or Visual Basic) was actually the idea of a text that was nonlinear.  I was astounded.  Choose Your Own Adventure books, magic 8 balls–my world abounded with hypertexts, and my own understanding of the term had blinded me to this fact.

Why, I wonder still, do we NEED to start with digital media?  Can’t we teach hypertexts without using a computer?  Can’t we encourage metadiscursivity without sitting at a keyboard?  Can’t we compose using visuals, sound, text, and texture, and not blog about it?  Don’t get me wrong–I love computers and what they can do for composition.  One of the frustrations I have for this class is that I haven’t been able to focus as much on the video and blog aspects of it as much as I’d like.

BUT…

To paraphrase a recent contributor to Kairos, perhaps multimodal composition needs to more strongly acknowledge and value its potential in lo-fi domains along with its relationship to digital technologies.