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Uncovering Theories & Practices of Multiliteracies & New Media Pedagogies

Participants
Daniel Anderson, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
Anthony T. Atkins, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana
Cheryl E. Ball, Utah State University, Logan
Krista Homicz Millar, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Cynthia Selfe, Michigan Technological University, Houghton
Richard Selfe, Michigan Technological University, Houghton
Dennis Lynch, Michigan Technological University, Houghton
(*Dr. Lynch is assisting our group, as his grant group has cross-over interests)
 
Summary
This group is conducting a survey to discover what sorts of instruction is happening at institutions with a nascent or established curriculum of multimodal pedagogy especially as it relates to student and faculty production of multimodal texts. Our aim is to produce a snapshot of various programs working to integrate multimodality into their writing classes. From this data, we hope to provide the CCCC audience with a set of standards/guidelines (via an edited collection) for best practices within this growing field.

The Survey
Our survey contains eight sections

  • Multimodality and Praxis, which addresses how these schools are defining multimodal/new media within classroom settings
  • Assessment of Multimodal Compositions, in which we hope to discover what rubrics/heuristics, if any, teachers are using to assess students’ multimodal work
  • Teaching Resources, which focuses on textbook and instructional materials, asking survey participants to address their use of such materials (and whether such materials are useful)
  • Technology Resources and Infrastructure, in which we ask about lab settings, administration, and available hardware/software/peripherals
  • Training, where two groups (graduate students and faculty members) respond to how they are (or are not) trained to use available technologies at their institution
  • Assessment of Technology Training follows up on each of the two groups’ experiences with technology training for assessment purposes
  • Scholarship and Tenure/Promotion, asks faculty members/lecturers to address their production of multimodal compositions within scholarly/publishing guidelines for their institution
  • Individual and Program Demographics, in which we get basic information such as the responder’s name, school, program name, and years’ teaching, etc.

We end with an Appendix to the survey that asks survey participants to send us copies of syllabi, teaching assignments, and their vita, among other items that will help us round out the picture of multimodal teaching and research.

Methods

Choosing Survey Responders
We have chosen survey participants in two ways: (a) personal invitation to individuals in schools/programs who we know are working with multimodal pedagogies and (b) general call to related listservs (TechRhet, ATTW, WPA) for volunteers.

Usability Testing
The survey has been through three rounds of readings by the grant participants and one reading by a group of faculty members at Utah State University. Participants plan to get additional feedback on the sections and individual questions during sessions at the CCCC, including one grant participant sharing her questions at the Research Network Forum. The group will test the survey online in early April and have the survey ready for distribution by the end of April.

Distribution
We have decided to use NCTE’s survey engine, zoomerang, for which Cheryl Ball has been in contact with Sue Galliher and Mark Rowe at NCTE to work on inputting the questions we have compiled.

Getting Responses
Because the survey is lengthy (25 pages in Word), the group has elected to use some of the grant money to pay participants to respond. We hope that this will encourage the highest response rate possible. For tax purposes, participants will receive Internet gift certificates (i.e., iTunes, Amazon, etc.) rather than cash/check.

Preliminary Findings
We have no preliminary findings to report yet. We expect to begin receiving survey results in early May.

Timeline for Completion
March (mid) - group meets at CCCC to discuss final changes to survey and 
                    deliverable (book project)
March (end) - survey is placed online into zoomerang
April (early) - survey goes online for testing
April (mid) - survey URL distributed to prospective participants
May (early) - send out book proposal
May (end) - survey results returned
June (early) - survey results compiled and distributed to grant participants
July-August - participants work on chapter(s) based on results
September - preliminary drafts of research results
December - expected completion of book collection

Primary Contact
Cheryl E. Ball
3200 Old Main Hill
Department of English
Utah State University
Logan, UT 84322-3200
(435) 797-2735