I have a technology-centered assignment– how can I (re)design this assignment using the principles of universal design?

To answer this question, it is first necessary to consider the learning outcomes. Is the learning outcome for multimodal composition technological literacy– or is it something different.

The goal is technological literacy– i.e. “adapt composing processes for a variety of technologies and modalities” (“WPA Outcomes”). 

  • Offer students an option in which technologies they use to compose (flexibility in use)
  • Ensure that the available technological resources are accessibly designed (equitable use). If not, then
    • consider different technological resources (the optimal solution), or
    • ensure that the technological resources allow for assistive technologies and that assistive technologies are available (the less optimal solution, since this requires students to access differently).
  • Make sure that user guides, technology workshops are accessible and delivered in multiple formats (perceptible information)
  • Minimize assessments that focus too heavily on error, glitches, friction in design (tolerance for error).

 

The goal is something different (not technological literacy):

Although many digitally driven terms, like new media and digital media, are often conflated with multimodality (Lauer 28-29), multimodality maintains flexibility toward the digital, and digital modes are not a privileged communicative mode (Selfe and Takoyoshi 10). This flexibility toward the digital is especially important when considering that not all classrooms have access to resources for digital composing, let alone access to accessible resources for digital composing. Toward this point, Diana George notes, “while some teachers have access to state of the art technology, many others have trouble finding a projector that works or arrives in the classroom on time” (32). Thus, this flexible understanding allows for integrating multimodality within the classroom using the available resources for composing.

Jody Shipka provides one such approach to this by allowing multimodal compositions to be made from anything or “any number or combinations of things: print text, digital media, live or videotaped performances, old photographs, ‘intact objects,’ repurposed (i.e., transformed or remediated) objects, etc.” (“A Multimodal Task” 300). This suggestion not only provides a resource-conscious way of implementing multimodality into the classroom, but also allows a range of options for composing, i.e. the Universal Design principle of  flexibility in use.

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References: 

  • George, Diana. “From Analysis to Design: Visual Communication in the Teaching of Writing.” The Norton Book of Composition Studies, ed. Susan Miller. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2009.
  • Lauer, Clair. “Contending with Terms: ‘Multimodal’ and ‘Multimedia’ in the Academic and Public Spheres.” Computers and Composition, vol. 26, no. 1, 2009, pp. 225-239.
  • Shipka, Jody. “A Multimodal Task-Based Framework for Composing.” College Composition, vol. 57, no. 2, 2005, pp. 277-306.