Blog Post #8

A New Style of Rhetoric
Many Greek and Roman classical philosophers studied rhetoric. Several of them wrote instruction manuals for teaching students how to communicate effectively through discourse and dialect. I wonder what the most influential ones such as Aristotle, Plato, and Cicero would think of today’s rhetoric. A rhetoric which, as a result of technological changes and our dependency on the internet, has evolved from paper and books and now revolves around multimedia writing.

Enhanced technology has made many changes to the world of writing and reading. A major contribution is the wealth of knowledge available at our fingertips which can be used to explore our beliefs and ideas through creditable sources and data without leaving home. Another major contribution is the speed in which we receive new and updated information. Through our digital environment, we can gain information immediately as it changes, and we can view events live from across the globe. Equally as significant, it allows us to collaborate with others and to infinitely share our ideas. But internet users do not rely on text alone for communication. Today, there is a new genre in writing that combines auditory and visual literacy which results in multimedia writing.

We see multimedia writing all over the internet for the same reasons that classical philosophers viewed writing 1000’s of years ago to persuade or sway, to inform, and to please. Many of the classical concepts are still taught today, such as Aristotle’s cannon that rhetoric includes: invention, organization, style, memory, and delivery. These principles carry over to multimedia writing as well. But this type of writing calls for a different pedagogy, as Richard Miller points out in his videos This Is How We Dream Parts 1 and 2. In the video, Miller says that today’s writing has the workspace of a desktop. Pencil and paper are no longer the only tools used. With the workspace of a desktop, writing has come to include graphics, videos, and voiceovers. These components enhance the proofs of writing, logos, ethos, and pathos; I believe even the classic rhetoricians would agree.

Miller says the problem is that we do not have the proper pedagogy to teach such writing. He strives to inspire teachers to teach virtual literacy and enable students to write in today’s form without the need of contacting a videographer, graphics expert, and so on. Seems to me that Miller is striving to make writing students technologically well rounded, and in today’s world it has become a necessity to do so. The internet is prominent in all fields, and no website consists of merely just text.

I think Miller’s dream of teaching students to write using multimedia is inspiring. In addition to there being little to no pedagogy for teaching multimedia writing, there is little in the area of a list of concepts, rules, or regulations on such writing. Most styles of writing have a proper form or etiquette to follow, with the exception of text messaging and such, which seems to be blurring the rules for grammar, mechanics, and syntax across the board. Multimedia writing would fall under a combination of AP or MLA with a twist of visuals and auditory. Such writing calls for writing, auditory, and visual skills in addition to creativity. Developing pedagogy for such an assignment would certainly prepare today’s students for tomorrow’s world.

Again the question arises, "How do we teach students to do this?" We teach the basic steps in combining such components and to many the creativity will follow. But what about those students who struggle with creativity. We have to find a way to inspire them. Students can be provided with examples. For an introduction to such an assignment, students can be paired according to their strengths and weaknesses.


Carly Pugh's Post
I enjoyed reading Carly Pugh's blog post #12. Carly's assignment calls for communicating through text, auditory, and visual components which is exactly what Miller talked about in the videos I mentioned above. It would be really neat to put such a playlist together and make a video which shows my teaching philosophy, goals, and attributions, in order to add it to a portfolio for future review by a potential employers. With the world moving to multimedia writing, I believe portfolios should do the same. I also like the idea of having my students use this assignment to create an about me presentation.


Jamie Lynn Miller's Projects
The Chipper Series and EDM310 for Dummies videos are hilarious. Though it is sad, a lot of people think like Chipper did before her "cleansing." I have never been able to wrap my mind around such thinking. It would be nice sometimes to let go of the stress and pressure and procrastinate from time to time, but I am unable to bring myself to do it.

I think it would be interesting to make a video depicting the importance of a deadline, in particularly in group activities. When working on a group assignment, you have a final deadline. If each member agrees to complete a certain task before a deadline in order to complete the project on time, but the said deadline is missed, someone in the group is going to be inconvenienced. Students in college have families, jobs, church activities, and so on that they have to schedule around as well. When a student misses a group agreed deadline and then the group experiences a difficulty during the project, the project's final deadline is threatened.

For example, in my group's podcast assignment we set Tuesday as a deadline to have our parts done. There were some issues, and for one reason or another the work was not completed until Thursday. On Friday, I was told there were more issues with the podcast, and I needed to help another group member put everything together. I had purposely finished my week’s work ahead of time, in order to spend time with my son on his birthday. Because our deadlines was not met in the beginning, we were not aware of the issues at hand until later, which inconvenienced me. I respect that things come up. But for the most part deadlines are made for a reason, and even a “flexible” deadline should be respected. Though we may have days to complete a project, we never know when something will go wrong. Especially when working in a group, procrastination is inexcusable. Luckily, my group set the first deadline in advance enough to accommodate for difficulties along the way, and I did not have to take too much time from my little boy's birthday.

A video depicting how such neglect can interfere with other members' lives would be informative especially with such an emphasis on deadlines in EDM310 and group work.


Learn to Change, Change to Learn
Just as schooling underwent reformations in the eighteen and nineteen hundreds, I believe it is time for one now. The world was experiencing changes and growing just as it is today. We have to change with it. Technology is a way of life, and we have to teach students how to make use of it. It is sad that education is below coal mining on the list of technology inclined. But I suppose coal miners appreciate the safety advantages technology provides. As the video points out, students are actively using messaging and networking for communicating, but the schools do not allow for it. I’ve mentioned before that my English professors have not allowed electronic devices such as ereaders. I learn more from an ereader simple because of the define-a-word option. I am not likely to ask what a word means in class, but on an ereader, I am constantly checking the definition of a word. A lot of instructors say the urge to check your messages on a device is too strong. Do they not remember the days when students pretended to take notes while they were actually writing letters? It is definitely time for a change. It may happen slowly and evolve from one region to the next, but I believe the traditional classroom style will soon expire.


Justin Cometti's Scavenger Hunt

1. Poll

Create a poll anywhere at Polleverywhere.com. Take my poll here.

2. Comic Strip

View my comic strip here. Make your own at Make Beliefs Comix!

3. Video Tool

Animoto provides users with a variety of tools for creating videos. Its focus is for videos in the classroom and enhancing the digital classroom. Animoto offers a free unlimited video account for educators. Some of the features included are:

Cinematic A.I.
Animoto basically analyzes media for the user, so that the user is free to focus on content and narration of the video.

Spotlight
This allows users to highlight a specific image and give it prominence during the video.

Text and Images
Users can incorporate text, quotes, stats, images, and more in videos.

Sharing and Downloading
Animoto makes emailing, sharing, exporting, and downloading videos easy.