Multimodal Dissertations: The Pedagogy of Multimodal Logic

 

As a multiliteracies researcher with particular interest in multimodality, I am intrigued about the future of new pedagogies in higher education.  Currently, the potent changes in communication and technologies are changing the ways professors and students teach, learn and disseminate their work in Canadian universities.  This leads me to question the dissertation genre (Graupner et al., 2009) as literacy is changing to literacies (Cope and Kalantzis, 2012), and there is a need to address research both “about and through multimodality” (Andrews et al., 2012).  The problem is that an essential ingredient of a dissertation is argument, which is conventionally communicated through printed text. At present, some academics cannot conceive argument in any other way (Andrews et al., 2012). I want to investigate the ways that multimodal logic is understood within the academy and question how multimodality can be used to support argumentation, representation and presentation of research.  My research will be a qualitative exploratory case study which will engage Canadian and American doctoral students across disciplines that have successfully defended their media-rich dissertations to critically assess students’ functional competencies, rhetorical and critical know-how of the “ways in which various multimodal components will effectively contribute to the knowledge-making process” (Graupner et al., 2009, p. 20).

 

 

Examples of multimodal dissertations

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Preliminary Research Questions:

 

1. In what ways do students understand multimodal logic of a media-rich dissertation?

2. What are the lived experiences of students who write media-rich dissertation?

3. What can we learn when we explore how multimodal logic/argument is implemented in multimodal pedagogy in higher education? 

4. How is argument successfully communicated in multimodal ways across disciplines?

 

 

What format will my dissertation be in?

I am continuously reflecting on my research and trying to decide what format my work will be in. When I attended a conference, I saw an interesting presentation on how iBooks were used to communicate ideas. I am still considering this format but I recently considered a website-thesis submission. This was inspired by this website and as well as the research in the literature  about this being a possibility. However, I still have a few hurdles (supervisor, institutional requirements, repository regulations) to overcome before I decide my format.

 

 

How will I intend to work on an alternative format?

I am dedicated to being a lifelong learner and thus plan to attend free programming classes in Toronto. More information can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/BitmakerHQ/?fref=ts

 

 

 

References

 

Andrews, R., Borg, E., Boyd-Davis, S., Domingo, M., England, J. (2012). The SAGE handbook of digital dissertations and theses. Portland: Ringgold

Inc.

 

Cope, B. & Kalantzis, M. (2012). Literacies. Melborne, Australia: Cambridge University Press.

 

Graupner, M., Nickoson-Massey, L., & Blair, K. (2009). Remediating knowledge-making spaces in the graduate curriculum: Developing and

sustaining multimodal teaching and research. Computers and Composition, 26(1), 13-23. doi:10.1016/j.compcom.2008.11.005