"Weblogs as Deictic Systems: Centripetal, Centrifugal, and Small-World Blogging" - a blog by Collin Brooke

In the continuous effort to obtain research concerning the use of multimodal compositions in the classroom, I recently investigated Collin Brooke's blog Weblogs as Deictic Systems: Centripedal, Centrifugal, and Small-World Blogging. As part of his investigation, Brooke looks at the increasing number of technological innovations and social softwares and how their implementation in the classroom can change the dynamics of the learning environment.

What particularly interested me about Brooke's study was his post entitled "Classrooms, networks, systems." In this segment, the author discusses the classroom as a "network of knowledge" and describes the teaching practices therein as being "embodied in documents that [circulate] throughout departments and disciplines as well." Furthermore, Brooke describes the classroom setting as being "highly porous space" in which many ideas easily come and go based on the instructor's discretion. The post continues to point out the sociable nature of the classroom setting, saying “It’s no accident, given this context, that one of the primary uses to which technology is put in such classrooms is the building of community. Chat spaces, MUDs and MOOs, bulletin boards, listserves—there are any number of applications that predate the development of “social software” which can themselves serve social functions.”

As Brooke works to legitimize the teaching value of these many sociable alternatives to hardcore social software, he focuses specifically upon the use of blogs in classroom settings. He notes Steven Krause’s criticism of blogs (as part of Krause’s essay “When Blogging Goes Bad: A Cautionary Tale about Blogs, Email Lists, Discussion, and Interaction”), which details a disappointing teaching experience that the author of that essay had after incorporating a blogging environment into his classroom assignments. Because of this upsetting incident, Krause states, “we shouldn’t substitute blogs for other electronic writing tools that foster discussion and interactive writing, particularly email lists, commonly known as ‘listserves.’” Unsatisfied with this total dismissal of blogs, Brooke focuses his argument on clarifying Krause’s statement: “We shouldn’t expect from blogs the same kinds of discussion and interactive writing we associate with other electronic writing tools.” Brooke admits that while the difference in Krause’s statement and his more inclusive revision is subtle, it’s also relevant: “This observation, that weblogs are not as effective as listserves at doing what listserves do, leads productively to the question of what blogs qua blogs can accomplish for us in our classrooms.” Instead of shutting down all hope for the usefulness of blogs in the classroom setting, Brooke rewords the proclamation so as to encourage further investigation into this particular technology’s relevance.


Blogs as an Arena for Multimodality:

Brooke’s revision of Krause’s original complaint invited me to consider useful ways to implement blogs as teaching tools. Having worked with blogs, I can definitely see some avenues for this particular environment to function as a teaching resource.

When considering multimodality in the classroom, what better way is there to present original multimodal compositions to a class than a blog? Using an online environment, teachers may develop full lesson plans as blog postings and can allow students access to texts, pictures, videos, links, and even music. Furthermore, in presenting materials through this method, instructors encourage additional (and efficient) communication from students. By building a blog correctly, teachers can give students access to a public discussion forum on the posted material via the Comments section under each post. Also, through the template options for some blog publishers, it’s possible to include an email link which allows readers to send specific postings electronically to others, if they should have the desire.

To echo Brooke’s addition to Krause’s original thought, weblogs function as a totally different resource that can supplement listserves, MOOs, wikis, etc. in bringing more information and alternative means of communication to students.

More Real-World Multimodal Investigation

[Note: This message has been postdated so as to continue with the current conversation regarding multimodal pedagogy. The actual date of the post is December 8, 2006.]

Soon after speaking to Mrs. Hudson and Mr. Etheridge about their independent uses of multimodal presentations for classroom teaching (see Multimodal Examples), my colleague, mentor, and instructor, Dr. Cynthia Haynes, contacted me with a website that further investigates the real-world implementation of multimodal pedagogy. This website describes how researchers from the Universities of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and at Wilmington, the University of Michigan, the Ohio State University, and Utah State University collaborated to compile a recent article and survey that investigate “how [post-secondary] instructors use multimodal composition practices in their writing classrooms and research.” Their research, including the detailed empirical data collected via the survey, was published online by Matt Bemer and is hosted by Texas Christian University.

This research is of particular interest to our discussion, as it gives us careful insight into the current state of the art, so to speak. By that, I mean that in considering the responses given by the 45 survey respondents, we can gain a glimpse of the current popularity and effectiveness of multimodal pedagogy.

What becomes clear after investigating the survey results is that multimodal teaching practices are being spread among teachers, who are taking the initiative to try these practices out in their own classrooms without much support from their institutions. Now, this isn’t to say that institutions are hesitant to support such teaching practices. On the contrary, it may suggest that this pedagogical structure is so new and innovative that institutions have not been allowed sufficient time to develop program committees or specific classroom guidelines as standards for practice. In the meantime, it seems that these institutions are doing whatever is economically feasible to provide these teachers with enough technological resources (most at the teachers’ requests) to facilitate such discussions.

I suspect that as more and more teachers are turned on to these teaching methodologies, it will become necessary for individual departments and specific programs to implement some type of comprehensive multimodal structure within their curricula. Doing so will encourage increased communication and broader learning for students throughout their college career, as opposed to just the classes whose teachers are technologically savvy enough to move forward in this field on their own. I would be interested to see the results of a comparative study that asks the same questions three, five, or even ten years from now.

Multimodal Examples

Further considering the benefits of presenting multiple perspectives in the classroom, as suggested by Berthoff, I decided to contact a few of my colleagues to see how multimodal teaching has affected their classrooms.

Hillary Hudson
1st Grade Teacher
A.L. Lott Elementary
Knoxville, TN

In a recent phone conversation, Mrs. Hudson described to me how she uses multimodality to help teach her students about money and specific currency. She metioned how musical and PowerPoint presentations work as great supplements to her lesson plans and specifically referenced one song that she uses to help teach her students about quarters:

The biggest silver coin

Is the quarter, the quarter

The biggest silver coin

Is the quarter, the quarter

On the front is George Washington,

The back has an eagle, a really big one

And the quarter is worth 25 cents, oh yeah!

By exposing the students to these various modes of learning, Mrs. Hudson engages the children's minds and creates a foundation for more advanced learning.



John Etheridge
Instructor of English
Central Carolina Technical College
Sumter, South Carolina

In discussing the benefits of multimodal teaching with Mr. Etheridge, he recently provided me with one example of a multimodal lesson plan that he uses. For this particular lesson, Mr. Etheridge discusses several operas by Richard Wagner and then uses various video clips to showcase varying interpretations of Wagner's work. Afterward, Mr. Etheridge completes the lesson plan by asking the students to write a descriptive essay based on the video clips.

In showing these varying presentations, Mr. Etheridge helps the students apply their abstract understanding of multiple perspectives. His lecture forms a context for his students' study. His use of video clips adds another perspective to the students' understanding and helps them to visualize the discussed material. And finally, the descriptive essay assignment allows the students an opportunity to demonstrate their own generalized perspective by conveying their complete understanding of the material/lesson.


As we see in these real-world examples of multimodality in the classroom, diverse media can work as valuable supplements to more traditional lecturing.