Readings I will be discussing on this page:
1. “Digital Rhetoric: Theory, Method, Practice“- Douglas Eyman
2. “Multiliteracies: The Beginning of an Idea” and “A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies“- New London Group
3. “From Analysis to Design“- Diana George
4. “Made Not Only in Words“- Kathleen Blake Yancey
5. “The Movement of Air, the Breath of Meaning“- Cynthia Selfe

The Problem

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of things, here’s the main issue: There’s a huge and complex argument in the literacy world that affects numerous fields. Everyone credits this to the digital age and advancements in technology, which threw traditional teaching methods into chaos. The whole “OK Boomer” thing, I think, would be appropriated here.

Okay. So how does technology throw things into chaos?

Really, because people do not know how to define things. Well, people do, but they don’t always agree on it. And this is where we begin our journey in understanding Digital Rhetoric and Writing. With this in mind, we can begin to look at the first reading by Douglas Eyman, which spans over the course of my first few blog posts.

Eyman Reading

The first part of the Eyman reading is giving some general knowledge and making his claim to how technology affect literacy. Simple words such as “text” are now a raging topic on what it includes. For an example, traditionalist believe text is defined by printed media, but others such as Eyman, claim it has become much more than that. Eyman goes on to discuss the application of digital advances to rhetorical concepts and the benefits it can bring.

Similarly, digital rhetoric has also struggled to be defined because of the complex idea of literacy and its history. Originally rhetoric was used for public speaking, but Eyman argues that it can be used in any field, traditional or contemporary.

For videos talking about digital rhetoric, you can visit my 1/30 Blog Post 2. There are three videos there that aided me in understanding what rhetoric and how it has been used. My other two blog posts about Eyman’s reading can be found on my 1/30 Blog Post 1, and 2/4 Blog Post!

New London Group Reading

Now if you are going to do any of the readings, the Multiliteracies reading by the New London Group is the one you should do. All of the other articles relate back to and quote the New London Group and the term they coined, multiliteracies, to aid their own articles.

The idea of multiliteracies has two major points that were caused because of the digital era. The first concept is that more and more cultures are being observed in the media, which in return gives the second concept of the media having diversity in it. Their main argument for multiliteracies being so important is that the standard way of learning is in the past, and does not account for all the ways for learning literacy.

Yes, there are in fact a bunch of ways literacy can be used other than just printed text, just as Eyman argued. This would also be the main idea the New London Group explored. The 2/6 Blog Post 1 gives a summary of the text, as well as some terms that may help you to understand the text better. And although multiliteracies are a newer concept, there are a few good videos to watch to help you better understand it on my 2/6 Blog Post 2.

George Reading

In Diana George’s article “From Analysis to Design” she discusses the importance having different visual communications in a classroom setting. George justifies this by saying that visual and verbal communications are fundamentally the same in the way they are composed.

By only teaching students through printed texts, they are losing out on an understanding of technology and on resources that they may be able to use later on. George talks about the design, and how visuals are composed in a matter similar to text. The overall design of a webpage for example, should be coherence and easy to navigate on.

There are a few other theories George uses in order to prove her point for integrating technology into classrooms that can be found on my 2/11 Blog Post 1. Terms to go along with this reading can be found on my 2/11 Blog Post 2.

Yancey Reading

In Kathleen Blake Yancey’s article, “Made Not Only in Words” she reiterates that technology has caused this outbreak on literacy, just as the other reading have suggested. Also like the George reading, Yancey advocates for the change in school curriculums. Although she believes that most teacher have already adjusted to using technology, many are still against the idea of changing how writing is defined and taught.

With this though, Yancey notes a strange occurrence that has been happening within daily life, the fact that people have been able to understand topics of technology without having to go to school for it. She gives the example of language used in cinema, such as close up, and how people will know the vocab but never took a class on it. From this occurrence, there have been a decline in educational departments such as English. Yancey argues that there should be three changes when teaching composition, to prepare students.

The three changes Yancey makes can be found in my 2/13 Blog Post 1. There’s also a cute photo of my cats that should give you motivation to my summarized version of her ideas to change education. Terms from Yancey’s article can be found on my 2/13 Blog Post 2.

Selfe Reading

Cynthia Selfe, like the rest of past articles explain the importance of multiliteracies in her article “The Movement of Air, the Breath of Meaning” and the way students are learning literacy. Although instead of visuals, like most of the other articles, Selfe brings up the concept of sounds (or aurality as she uses) in learning. Aurality is a topic that is commonly ignored, even when it should be the focus of the learning. Selfe gives the example of students learning music in classrooms but still only focus on the written lyrics of a song rather than the song as a whole.

Selfe brings up many interesting points for multiliteracies, that no one else really focused on.Visit my 2/18 Blog Post 1 for more detail about the important of Selfe’s argument and real life examples of it. My 2/18 Blog Post 2 has more key terms that may be useful to know.