LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION: Expanding Beyond Remediated Text in Online Learning

THE CHALLENGES Most information exchange in online LMS is text-based: papers, discussions, tests, .

CHALLENGE 2 Assignments requiring more visual and aural technologies may become a barrier to non-traditional students within online classrooms. Even though they use such remediated text as s, some of these students may already be facing a very steep learning curve in navigating the Learning Management System (LMS) and may be intimidated by seemingly simple projects such as posting a photo.

CHALLENGE 3 Technological access/ reliability, growing reliance on mobile phones, which show a document but not the comment bubbles on the margins. Check this sentence for a comma splice.

MOVING STUDENTS BEYOND REMEDIATED TEXT Required assignments Instructor models Extra credit Opportunities

REQUIRED ASSIGNMENTS An Example Directions: “This week's reading is about understanding the visual artifacts that surround us, especially on the internet. Find online visual and share the link, explaining why you choose it. I'm posting something as well. Remember to respond to at least two others.”

INSTRUCTOR MODELS Here’s my post on that discussion: Selfies at Funerals : A Tumblr blog compiles self-portraits taken at funerals and shared with the world.self-portraits taken at funerals and shared with the world. I found this Tumblr site through the online archives of the Atlanta Monthly magazine. Here are a few of those selfies that were copied in the magazine, interspersed with more traditional efforts at celebrating life and publicly reflecting on mortality:

CONTINUTED…. Why I chose this: If I were analyzing a visual, I would select this site. There are so many cultural norms at work here, including a gap between the non-digital generation (me and perhaps you) and the digital natives (those who grew up with technology like my younger son). Questions I would focus on: What is the ethos the self-photographers are aiming to suggest? Did they even think about ethos? [Ethos is the term we use for the image they are trying to project, the group they belong to, and similar ideas]. Who is the audience for the selfie, generally speaking? Who is the audience for the Tumblr site that collected these? What does the selfie taken by the President say about his ethos? Where’s the pathos [the term refers to the emotional impact] in these photos? I’m having trouble even thinking about logos [a term for reason and logic] in this context. How does this trend connect with the choice of the word “selfie” as the word of the year in 2013 by the Oxford English Dictionary? How does the second web site comment on and challenge the trend?

ADDITIONAL MODELING STRATEGIES Prezi Power Point mix Podcast

EXTRA CREDIT Posting a photo [In recent classes, a third to a fourth of students did not post a photo.] Using other visual and/ or technology: wiki groups to outline major points of the reading or to create a glossary [I have tried this strategy in my brick and mortar classes—to get students to construct a glossary from Fall ENG 1010.

RESOURCES Atkins, Anthony T. Collaborating Online: Digital Strategies for Group Work, Writing Spaces, vol. 1, p. 235 Barton, Matt and Karl Klint“A Student’s Guide to Collaborative Writing Technologies” Writing Spaces, vol. 2, describes how two students use free online technologies to discuss, research, schedule meetings, and write their project.A Student’s Guide to Collaborative Writing Technologies Writing Spaces

OPPORTUNITIES TO GO BEYOND TEXT Offering to meet via online video Skype Google Hangout Adobe Connect