Multimodal

Genres, Tools,
and Platforms

Example

Practical
Affordances

Pedagogical
Affordances
(Specific to
Learning &
Teaching Writing)

Assignments,
Resources, and
Student Work

Social Media
Facebook
Twitter
Linked In
Google +

Twitter

1. 140 characters
2. Publish feature
3. Comment
feature
4. Retweet
5. Multiple
modalities
(including links)
6. Hashtags
7. Following and
tagging other users

1. Enables students
and teachers to
share knowledge,
analyze, and /or
engage in dialogue
with the public
2. Fosters
discussion
3. Teaches writing
for public/authentic
audience
5. Teaches writing
with constraints
6. Teaches
rhetorical
awareness
7. Teaches
audience
awareness
8. Teaches genre
awareness
9. Teaches
multimodal writing

1.A Framework for

Teaching with
Twitter
2. Practical Advice
for Teaching with
Twitter
3. How to Start
Tweeting (and Why
You Would Want to
Do So?)
4.Twitter
Experiment
Assignment
5.Twitter Essay
Assignment

Blogs/Websites
Wordpress
Blogger
Tumblr
Vine
Penzu
Square Space

Tumblr

1. Publish feature
2. Reblog
3. Notes
4. Multimodal
5. Tags
6.Follow or
subscribe
7. Virtual
communities

1. Teaches writing
for public/authentic
audience
2. Teaches source
integration
(reblogging posts
within context of
original posts)
3. Teaches
multimodal
composing
4. Teaches
audience
awareness
5. Teaches genre
awareness
6. Fosters dialogue,
allows and
encourages peer
engagement

1. Why Using
Tumblr for Class
Makes Sense
2. Teaching With
Tumblr
3. Follow, Heart,
Reblog, Crush:
Teaching Writing
with Tumblr
4. Tumblr Post
Assignment

Multimedia
Aggregator
Storify
Hootsuite
Feedly (RSS)

Interactive
Timelines (Tiki Toki,
Dipity)

1.Embedded
multimedia
2.Interactivity
3. Linear,
chronological

1. Teaches source
integration and
source handling
2. Teaches
arrangement

1. Tiki Toki Tutorial

2. Dipity Tutorial
3. Interactive
Timeline
Assignments for

Tiki Toki (Interactive

Timeline)
Dipity (Interactive
Timeline)
Pinterest

organization

3. Teaches
narrative
construction (for
both multimodal
and alphabetic
writing)
4. Teaches students
how to
contextualize

History
4. Interactive
Timelines in
Philosophy
5. History of Public
Relations
Assignment Sheet
6. Student Tiki Toki

Images/Slidesho
ws
Pechakucha
PicLit
Storybird

Pic Lit

1. Image gallery
2. Word bank and
freestyle options
3. Sharing
4. Rating
5. Comments

1. Teaches
rhetorical
awareness &
appeals
2. Engages visual
learners
3. Teaches
feedback strategies
4. Teaches writing
with constraints

1. PicLit and Visual

Rhetoric
2. PicLit as a Web
2.0 Teaching Tool
3. PicLit Video
Tutorial

Moving Images
iMovie/MovieMaker
Animoto
GoAnimate
Wevideo
Magisto

WeVideo

1. Online video
editing program
(accessible from
any computer
connected to
Internet)
2.Collaborative
video creation

1. Teaches
multimodal
composing and
multimodal
awareness
2. Teaches rhetoric,
rhetorical appeals
& awareness

1. WeVideo Tutorial
2. WeVideo FAQ
Handout
3. Remix
Assignment
4. Animoto
Rhetorical Appeals
Assignment

Audio
Audacity
VoiceMap

Audacity

3. Caters to novice
and experienced
video creators
(storyboard &
timeline feature)
4. Create video
with images,
videos, audio,
transitions, effects
(upload from your
own computer or
Internet)
5. Publishing
feature

3. Teaches genre
awareness
4. Teaches
arrangement,
transitions,
coherency,
argument
5. Teaches source
use (invites
discussion of
plagiarism, creative
commons, public
domain)
6. Invites and
fosters creativity

5. Concept in 60
Assignment
6. Student Remix
(published in
TheJUMP: The
Journal for
Undergraduate
Multimedia
Projects)
7. Concept in 60
Undergraduate
Student Examples
8. Concept in 60
Professor and
Graduate Student
Examples

1. Free
downloadable
audio editing
software
2. Cut, copy, splice,
or mix sounds
3. Record live video
4. Change the
speed or pitch of a
recording
5. Create multitrack recordings
6. Import sound

1. Teaches focus,
unity, clarity, voice,
tone, dialogue,
source use
2. Teaches rhetoric,
rhetorical choices
and appeals
3. Teaches oral
genres such as
audio drama, oral
history, radio essay

1. Audacity Tutorial
2. Sound Projects
for Teaching Writing
3. This I Believe
and Digital Literacy
Narrative (with
student work)
4. Student work can
also be found at
The Digital Archive
of Literacy
Narratives

files
7. Automatic Crash
Recovery
8. Built-in vocal
effects
Material/Physical
Objects

Personal artifacts

1. Non-digital
2. Tactile
3. Can be drawn
from wide variety
of sources or
constructed with
provided materials

1. Accessible
without technical
expertise or
equipment
2. Reaches
interpersonal and
kinesthetic learners
through direct
physical interaction
3. Multimodal
composing (may be
layered with other
modes such as
photo, video,
performance)
Troy Hicks, author of The Digital Writing Workshop, also has a list of websites and apps
digital writing on his books companion wiki.

1. Connecting with
Personal Artifacts
2. I Live Here: A
Reflective Artifact
Project

for the teaching of