Multi-genre vs. Multimodal

Like many others in the class, I am relatively new to requiring multimodal projects as part of my course. For the past few years my students have had to complete a “multi-genre” paper where they chose a topic and informed, presented, synthesized, etc. the information they found using a variety of different genres (such as print media, visuals with words, a visual display, an informational piece, creative writing, and a structured essay). Despite this multi-genre approach, very few students went so far as to use multimodal discourse, and those that did stuck to relatively familiar programs such as PowerPoint to create slideshows or trivia games (one student, however, did produce a commercial using iMovie). Secretly, I wanted students to generate audio and video essays, but I lacked the necessary technical knowledge (and viable of assessment tools) to facilitate such projects. Selfe’s text provided me with both, a basic technical knowledge of certain programs and techie-speak (particularly in the glossary) and the rubrics. One aspect of the text that I also found inviting was the constant reassurance that what was being outlined (whether it pertained to the types of assignments, evaluation criteria, etc.) could be altered to suit the teacher’s purpose; consequently, such a contention makes me think that, once I noodle with a few programs, I could require one genre of the paper to be completely multimodal or (dare I say) eventually convert the entire paper into a multimodal project.

I will say that, at times, I found the text difficult to read. Not difficult in terms of comprehension, but because (as Casey mentioned in his posting) the sheer repetitiveness of how to utilize multimodality in the classroom. It seems like the type of text that I would pull off of the shelf, thumb through a chapter as a refresher or photocopy certain resources, and then put it back. But I suppose that’s the point…