Remixing Composition: Discussion

[John]

"Resisting the rhetoric of 'progress' that is often used to market new educational technologies, numerous computers-and-writing scholars have argued persuasively that we must remain vigilant about the way new technologies can be employed to reinforce both problematic pedagogical practices and material inequalities of race, class, gender, and disability. Yet at the same time, computers-and-writing scholars have also powerfully critiqued the tendency of some humanists to simplistically dismiss all digital forms of composing as inherently harmful for students' development of writing and critical thinking skills" (10-11).

[John]

Reading Chapter 2, I enjoyed Palmeri's reconsideration of Freire and Shor's critical pedagogy in terms of actual spoken dialogue . It's funny-- of course "dialogic forms of knowing" (67) are fundamental to Freirean critical pedagogy, but in adapting Freire we've privileged alphabetic/print literacy and, in a sense, lost sight of the more "multimodal" aspects of his pedagogy:

"Although Freire does seek to teach students how to read and write print texts, he is very careful not to set up a hierarchy that privileges print forms of knowledge over aural, dialogic forms of knowing--a hierarchy that would reinforce the notion that 'illiterate' peasants are mere empty vessels to be filled with knowledge from their print-literate teachers" (67).

Carrying this idea forward, I start to see Palmeri's work aligning with my own: "In engaging Shor's work, I ultimately hope to consider ways that multimodal composition pedagogies might be designed to help students come to both critically analyze and attempt to transform material hierarchies of class, gender, race, disability, and sexuality" (66).

What can I say? I'm really digging this book.

[John]

I'm intrigued by the 1970s textbooks Montage (Palmeri 100 - 103) and the Comp Box (103-108).

The Comp Box "offers students a box of unbound photocopied materials as well as an author's guide that explains ways that students might draw upon the materials (cutting, pasting, rearranging, adding, deleting) to make their own texts" (103).

[John]

"I also think it important to remember that our ultimate goal in the first-year course should not be to teach students to become professional 'new media' producers but rather to engage them in reflectively considering how theories of rhetoric and process can travel across modalities" (Palmeri 153).

[John]

More quotes:

On graduate rhet/comp education:

"Rather than positioning multimodal composing as a supplemental topic only relevant to graduate students who profess a specialty in 'computers and writing,' we might instead seek to demonstrate ways that all scholars of composition and rhetoric can benefit by incorporating visual and audio elements into their research. For example, qualitative literacy studies researchers might create video documentaries based on interviews or historians of rhetoric might develop online, multimodal archives. In order to prepare all graduate students students to produce multimodal scholarship, our masters and doctoral curricula will likely need to feature at least one core course in which students gain hands-on experience composing multimodal arguments using a range of digital technologies" (Palmeri 157).

[John]

Once again, I appreciate Palmeri's rereading of Freire and Shor's work:

"When we relisten to the voices of Smitherman, Freire, Shor, and others, we can be reminded that we have an ethical responsibility to resist the hegemony of print forms of knowledge in the academy--an ethic responsibility to value and support all the diverse auditory, visual, and alphabetic ways of knowing that students bring to our classes" (Palmeri 158)

and

"By enabling students to emily multiple forms of composing to critically rehear and resee the world, we might increase the likelihood that they will come to recognize and attempt to transform the unjust material hierarchies of race, class, gender, sexuality, and disability that prevent the realization of transformative democracy in our nation and our world" (159).

[John]

yes yes yes

"When we remember our field's historic and ongoing commitment to advocating for democracy and social justice, we can come to realize that making a multimodal turn should not simply be a matter of teaching students to compose 'effective' and 'appropriate' digital products that serve the interests of dominant power structures. Rather, a truly critical multimodal pedagogy must entail a process of teaching students to analyze and contest the ideological implications of corporate media" (159).

[John]

bump