Multimodal alignment of scholarly documents and their presentations

Master'sMASTER OF SCIENC

Increasing Collaborative Communication Regarding Proper Positioning: A Photographic Guide

Approximately 98,000 people die annually in the United States due to medical errors (Institute of medicine, 2013). These medical errors are most often due to miscommunication between healthcare providers (Sutcliffe, Lewton, & Rosenthal, 2004). Impaired positioning is one type of medical error, which leads to severe complications such as contractures, pressure ulcers, and occupational deficits (Amidei, 2012; de Jong, Nieuwboer, & Aufdemkampe, 2006; Gordon, Gottschlich, Helvig, Marvin, & Richard, 2004). The purpose of this scholarly project is to provide a communication tool that will increase interprofessional communication and collaboration in regards to client positioning needs in healthcare settings. A literature review was conducted on positioning guidelines, communication strategies and barriers, and teaching strategies. The five target diagnoses of this scholarly project were traumatic brain injury (TBI), cerebral vascular accident (CVA), spinal cord injury, burn, and orthopedic injury. The goal of this program is to decrease secondary complications related to improper positioning that will impede occupational performance by providing consistent and evidence-based positioning strategies. The Model of Human Occupation (MOHO), Social Learning Theory, and Dynamical Systems Theory were utilized to guide the creation of this scholarly project. The resulting product was an adaptable interdisciplinary communication tool to guide positioning of clients with the aforementioned diagnoses as well as other individuals with limited mobility. Through implementation of this communication tool, clinicians can provide consistent and evidence-based positioning to their clients, increase interdisciplinary communication and carryover of care, and assist in prevention of secondary medical complications related to improper positioning

Multimodal Composing Across Disciplines: Examining Community College Professors’ Perceptions of Twenty-First Century Literacy Practices

Providing a close examination of how professors approach twenty-first century literacy practices and production of multimodal texts, this project focuses on community college professors’ perceptions and expectations of students’ composing abilities pertaining to academic discourse across disciplines. Participants included 24 professors from a variety of disciplines at a large community college. The project examined survey responses, assignment guidelines, course syllabi, course outcomes, and video interviews of five of the 24 participants. Video interviews provided greater insight into participants’ perceptions and expectations. Additionally, research questions targeted course and assignment design, course outcomes, and assessment practices. Data findings suggest that despite access to technology, increased availability of mobile devices (for both instructors and students), and ample information technology support, student production of multimodal texts is occurring minimally at the site in question. Participants appear to struggle with meeting course outcomes and addressing course content when attempting to integrate modes other than written or alphabetic; therefore, they do not actively pursue a multimodal pedagogy. Recognizing the value of integrating digital technologies into course and assignment designs is often challenging for community college instructors who might struggle with understanding the technologies available to them or who do not possess the skills or time to develop technologically advanced courses. However, literacy practices today include producing texts in written, visual, aural or digital modes, all of which encourage the use of digital technologies and production of multimodal texts. Most recent scholarship has not fully examined whether making meaning of and producing multimodal texts is congruent with academic discourse in a community college setting. Indeed, community colleges enroll “43% (7.5 million credit students) of the postsecondary education student population, yet they continue to be the most understudied” (Kater & Levin, 2013, p. ix). Reporting on faculty perceptions across disciplines, this study provides a valuable analysis of the challenges community college professors confront and confirms an interest in developing a multimodal pedagogy, but recognizes that resistance occurs due to limitations in time and ensuring alignment with course outcomes

09051 Abstracts Collection -- Knowledge representation for intelligent music processing

From the twenty-fifth to the thirtieth of January, 2009, the Dagstuhl Seminar 09051 on ``Knowledge representation for intelligent music processing\u27\u27 was held in Schloss Dagstuhl~--~Leibniz Centre for Informatics. During the seminar, several participants presented their current research, and ongoing work and open problems were discussed. Abstracts of the presentations and demos given during the seminar as well as plenary presentations, reports of workshop discussions, results and ideas are put together in this paper. The first section describes the seminar topics and goals in general, followed by plenary `stimulus\u27 papers, followed by reports and abstracts arranged by workshop followed finally by some concluding materials providing views of both the seminar itself and also forward to the longer-term goals of the discipline. Links to extended abstracts, full papers and supporting materials are provided, if available. The organisers thank David Lewis for editing these proceedings

Multimodal Assessment in Action: What We Really Value in New Media Texts

As the Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing illustrates, writing teachers at all educational levels can no longer ignore multimodality and the challenges that come with incorporating multimodal writing—texts composed using a combination of sound, images, video, etc.—into the classroom (NCTE, Framework). A chief struggle most writing teachers face is how to evaluate the multimodal texts their students produce, texts that are inherently diverse. In answer to the calls of scholars such as Yancey, Herrington, and Moran for research exploring multimodal assessment in situated classroom practice, my dissertation examines what K-16 writing teachers are and should be valuing in multimodal compositions and why. By investigating what practitioners and theorists value in new media texts, we can better align our multimodal assessment theories and practices to support effective instruction and assessment of multimodal writing. My study brings together theory and practice to provide guidance for writing teachers to navigate the challenges of multimodal assessment. My findings culminate in a multimodal assessment heuristic based in “design” that allows for the evaluation of not only the product, but also the situated composing practices of writers (Purdy). First inspired by my analysis of the multimodal assessment scholarship, then validated by both my analysis of the assignment sheets and interviews, my design-based assessment model provides a flexible, theoretically-grounded approach to multimodal assessment that reflects what this study suggests writing teacher-scholars most value in their students’ new media texts. My design-based multimodal assessment model integrates the three primary theoretical orientations that most influence multimodal assessment: multiliteracies/multimodality, rhetoric and composition, and new media. It forefronts the importance of valuing students’ situated composing processes and highlights multimodality’s goal of developing writer’s metacognitive awareness and sense of agency. A design-based approach to multimodal assessment emphasizes materially aware composing practices that introduce students to new composing technologies and the principles of graphic design, while not overemphasizing the technology itself. And it places rhetorical savvy as the primary objective. Finally, a design-based approach to multimodal assessment helps break down the dichotomy between print-based and digital texts, pushing writing teachers to embrace the notion that all texts are multimodal

Multimodal Writing of University Students: The Case of Academic Posters

After having been marginalized for a long time as a second-class genre or “the poor country cousin of papers” (Swales & Feak, 2000), academic posters have recently received remarkable attention as a special multimodal genre that is indispensable for the membership of the academic community. In line with the currently growing interest in multimodal writing, the present study seeks to contribute to the limited body of knowledge on academic posters in two ways: first by investigating the textual and visual communicative strategies employed by novice multimodal writers to facilitate the comprehension of their multimodal texts and guide readers through their discourse and second by exploring the perceptions of those young multimodal writers towards that special genre. To accomplish the first objective, a corpus of 100 academic posters gathered from freshmen university students enrolled in a second language research writing course was compiled and analyzed textually and visually drawing mainly on the framework of D’Angelo (2016a) that distinguishes between interactive and interactional resources. To fulfill the second objective, a questionnaire was filled out by 66 students, and four interviews were carried out. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used in the analysis. Descriptive statistics was employed in the multimodal analysis of the posters as well as the analysis of the questionnaire responses, and a qualitative thematic analysis was conducted to interpret the responses of the interviewees. The quantitative textual and visual analysis revealed a clear dominance of the interactive resources and, to some extent, a lack of making the best use of all the available visual resources. The analysis of the self-reported data unveiled that young multimodal writers hold quite positive perceptions towards the academic poster as a multimodal genre. Further, they tended to decode the interrelation between textual and visual resources as an illustrative or code mixing relationship where both text and visuals complement each other to communicate the intended meaning. The study has pedagogical implications relevant to introducing novice multimodal writers to the available semiotic resources

Self-directed multimodal learning in higher education

This book aims to provide an overview of theoretical and practical considerations in terms of self-directed multimodal learning within the university context. Multimodal learning is approached in terms of the levels of multimodality and specifically blended learning and the mixing of modes of delivery (contact and distance education). As such, this publication will provide a unique snapshot of multimodal practices within higher education through a self-directed learning epistemological lens. The book covers issues such as what self-directed multimodal learning entails, mapping of specific publications regarding blended learning, blended learning in mathematics, geography, natural science and computer literacy, comparative experiences in distance education as well as situated and culturally appropriate learning in multimodal contexts. This book provides a unique focus on multimodality in terms of learning and delivery within the context of self-directed learning. Therefore, the publication would not only advance the scholarship of blended and open distance learning in South Africa, but also the contribute to enriching the discourse regarding self-direction. From this book readers will get an impression of the latest trends in literature in terms of multimodal self-directed learning in South Africa as well as unique empirical work being done in this regard

Rethinking the literacy capabilities of pre-service primary teachers in testing times

This paper demonstrates how teacher accreditation requirements can be responsibly aligned with a scholarly impetus to incorporate digital literacies to prepare pre-service teachers to meet changing educational needs and practices. The assessment initiatives introduced in the newly constructed four year undergraduate Bachelor of Education program at one Australian university are described and analysed in light of the debates surrounding pre-service primary teachers' literacy capabilities. The findings and subsequent discussion have implications for all literacy teacher educators concerned about the impact of standardised assessment practices on the professional future of teachers