Event Title

Multi Lobes, Multi Modes; I am UCF Digital Storytelling

Presenter Information

Garrett Colon
Stephanie Wheller
Amanda Hill, University of Central Florida
Elizabeth Horn, University of Central Florida

Location

CB1-307

Start Date

4-11-2017 8:15 AM

End Date

4-11-2017 9:45 AM

Description

Multi Lobes, Multi Modes: Fostering Student Engagement and Learning Through Multimodality (Garrett Colón)

As academics seek to discover new ways to engage diverse bodies of students across classroom contexts, an opportunity for digital humanists to craft more culturally sustaining pedagogies emerges. Accommodating the needs of students in the scope of the classroom can be approached in a number of ways. Multimodal composition, as I plan to make evident through my research, offers students the opportunity to make meaning and create new meaning in ways that may have close ties with their discourse practices—either in terms of the cultural and linguistic diversities that they bring into the classroom, or the professional/academic literacies that they inherently exercise in their respective disciplinary niches. The interactive project that I'd like to share was composed during the fall semester of 2016 as my final project submission for a graduate Visual Rhetorics seminar at Michigan State University. It presents itself as a poster board sporting a hands-on model of a brain at its core, with respective pieces designated to different areas or "parts" of the brain, branching out across the board's capacity. Each component of the brain model is given its own branch, with a picture of the individual structure and an accompanying QR code (total: 13). Engaging a roundtable with this poster board project involves participants scanning QR codes with their cell phones to explore and experiment with the different areas of the brain in different ways. Here's how: once a QR code is scanned, different components of the brain model are supported by either a brief YouTube video describing the given area of the brain, a still visual representation, a text-based description, or audio feature to promote a multimodal learning space. Those engaging with the project may find that they prefer certain modes over another as they learn about different components of the brain's makeup. This direct exposure to different modes, their affordances, and their limitations works to communicate the different ways in which knowledge and material is learned and comprehended, while also suggesting the cognitive and sense implications of multimodality and student learning. This project, at the height of its merit, places a group of participants in the student learning position. This experience could allow for a follow-up discussion on how pedagogues might go about adapting to the available modes of composition and meaning-making that look beyond standard text and essayist practices in courses incorporating any degree of student writing. I trust that the work of multimodality, as its situated in my home field of rhetoric and composition, overlaps with practices in the digital humanities as I've experienced them during my undergraduate digital humanities work at the University of Central Florida from 2013-2016. Given the nature of the theme for HASTAC 2017, it is my goal to communicate the importance of working toward a future of more inclusive classroom opportunities in the digital humanities and beyond.

I am UCF Digital Storytelling Database Panel Presentation (Stephanie Wheeler, Amanda Hill and Elizabeth Horn)

I Am UCF is a cross-disciplinary effort to create digital stories representing the diverse narratives of the University of Central Florida's (UCF) campus body. As a digital narrative initiative it works to create a digital archive of personal digital stories created by UCF students that reflect the diversity on UCF's campus. Spearheaded by faculty in the Theatre, Digital Media, and Writing and Rhetoric degree programs and the Social Justice and Advocacy center, students share their unique story through digital storytelling, a medium that fuses together writing, audio, visual, digital, and performative elements. Collectively, these stories will be made available online to provide a virtual campus map to promote a greater appreciation of the breadth of student perspectives at UCF. The panelists each approached the project from different perspectives: writing, theatre, and digital media. They will discuss their unique viewpoints on the creation process and the product including benefits and areas of opportunity for growth. The I Am UCF digital archive showcases the voices and creations of the students and additionally will create a visual and sortable campus map for users to view the digital narratives. I Am UCF asks: In what ways do the multiple disciplines (writing, digital media, and theatre) influence one another and the digital storytelling process? How does the project address the need for greater accessibility and inclusion on campus? What is the "second life" of these stories as they are shared through social media? Through this project we seek to create a visual online exhibition featuring diverse student voices that can help students see their own experiences reflected back to them in a way that is empowering and reassuring. We believe sharing diverse stories such as those collected in I Am UCF will help to establish a broader campus narrative that enables all students to see themselves within this community. Keeping students engaged and engendering an atmosphere of support is key to student retention, success, and well-being. Through this project students collaborated with interdisciplinary faculty and staff to help create this online repository of support and affirmation. These digital narratives were initially developed within select groups of students and classrooms, but we aim to create a model that can be used by various classes and campus organizations, allowing the diverse body of students to self-advocate by having their stories represented on this public digital archive. Sharing our digital archive in a project demonstration would help us advocate for this important campus tool and spread the word to inspire further participation and partnership.