In the last few chapters of On Multimodality: New Media in Composition Studies, Alexander and Rhodes provided two examples of bringing technology into the classroom, and examples of how to use it as critical pedagogy. One example they provided was in not only playing a video game, but in recognizing the technological literacies that students must possess in order to master them effectively. The other example offered a critical pedagogy that investigated how technology influenced the Virginia Tech shootings and how Cho used technology to more quickly disseminate information, compared to when the Columbine shootings took place.
I appreciate the need to understand and respect multiple technology literacies that our students (may) have. However, at the same time, I also think that we need to be leery of assuming that any and all students have those literacies and abilities. I know that many do, and many possess the capacity for learning them, even if they don't have much experience in it. Still, I think that there is an inherent danger in assuming that any student would flourish when met with a multimodal assignment or in using various digital programs to construct a composition text assignment. For this reason I appreciated how Alexander and Rhodes emphasized the need to teach students how to work with these programs, highlighting that instructors need to teach both critical selection and rhetorical effectiveness when constructing digital texts.
Though I appreciated the efforts Alexander and Rhodes made in providing the examples of social media surrounding Cho and his attach on Virginia Tech, I find myself a bit hesitant to know how exactly it constitutes critical pedagogy. Furthermore, I'm unsure how I could proceed in constructing my own form of critical pedagogy that used technology or investigated social media, etc. It still seems rather nebulous to me what they did, why it was critical pedagogy and how I could design something similar for my composition course.
To end, though I still have many insecurities, fears and hesitancy about using technology within my own composition classroom, mostly because of my own inabilities, I recognize the benefits that multimedia, technology and multimodality have in the composition classroom. Furthermore, I appreciate these authors' critical stance on the issue, acknowledging and warning against techno-illusionism.
Hi Danielle: I have to admit the discussion of Cho and Virginia Tech was tough for me this week, in light of the Oregon tragedy. I did like their discussion of games, and how they had the potential to foster a sense of collective and critical literacy through the reading of games as a type of text. With regard to integrating multimodal pedagogy, I think it's a matter of finding those points of entry for yourself and for your students. A&R in a single book focus on video, image manipulation, and gaming, a lot for a single course for sure, and they are talking about multiple courses, projects, instructors, etc. What would be the point of entry for you with various tools, where would you feel comfortable starting, and how would it mesh with your pedagogical values? How could the use of technology foster your operational definition of critical pedagogy, be it through tools that integrate the verbal and the visual? How might the use of technology and multimodal tools allow students to talk back to larger cultural value systems that empower some and alienate others? Just throwing some ideas out there that might help in forming an techno-educational philosophy and unit plan later in the term. Best, Kris
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