So the rollercoaster is gaining momentum…This week it has been a case of holding onto the rails of this fast moving vehicle we call EDC. New topics and subjects of interest present themselves with every turn and I have had to find a balance between an exploration of these capillary routes and staying on the main line. Oftentimes the side routes won out…though reassuringly they always seemed to loop back at some point to the central trajectory.

This week my posts have centred on deciphering how these issues and concepts fit in with one another. Perhaps the most interesting [personal] result of this week’s interactions has been a perspective shift. My understanding of the relationship between the book [medium] and the reading/writing [mode] has altered, has been placed within the landscape of the social, economic and the cultural. The impact of multimodality on media provides an open, limitless platform of which the reader / writer may avail.

The concept of convergence, covered by both Kruss (2005) and Thomas (2007) helped to locate my understanding of transliteracy in contexts that I could relate to.

This week also introduced  the MOOC. This is all new to me but very exciting.

Indeed Kress (2005) recognises that our theories of learning, meaning and writing, if design focused, would take account of the social and cultural environments and consider communication requirements of materials, audience, resource availability and the practicality of the design in meeting these requirements. We need the convergence with these environments to provide engagement which will support and encourage active learning.

This video reminded me of what Thomas (2007) refers to as our transliterate lifeworld ” a combination of physical environment and subjective experience that makes up everyday life…an ecology which changes with the invention of each new media-type.” It reminds me of the connection between normal life and the media convergent environment.

References:

• Kress, G (2005) Gains and losses: new forms of texts, knowledge and learning. Computers and Composition. 22(1), 5-22.
•  Thomas, S et al (2007) Transliteracy: crossing divides. First Monday. 12(12). [web site]
• Henry Jenkins, 2001. “Convergence? I diverge,” Technology Review, volume 104 (June), p. 93

Books… every day I find myself physically surrounded by endless numbers of these wonderful media. In discussing framing, Kress (2005) identifies “our long domination in the West of writing as the culturally most valued form of representation: and more, the long association of the mode of writing with the equally dominant, valued and powerful medium, namely the book.”  I confess that this intrinsic relationship was one that I had not actively questioned until the realization of potential offered through multimodality. The nature of the book is changing in order to embrace a transliterate generation.

Thomas (2007) provides example of this flux through “Flight Paths”  (Pullinger, 2007- )a networked book which encourages user-generated  input and feedback. This project incorporates sound, video and text. Seeing all of these elements together within a single [digital] chapter illustrates the infinite possibilities offered by the multimodal realm.

References

Kress, G (2005) Gains and losses: new forms of texts, knowledge and learning. Computers and Composition. 22(1), 5-22.

Pullinger, K. (2007 – ) “Flight Paths” at http://www.flightpaths.net/accessed 02.02.2013

Thomas, S et al (2007) Transliteracy: crossing divides. First Monday. 12(12). [web site]

Although I am certain that I will consider and embrace different (perhaps opposing) perspectives of writing throughout this week I liked this quotation. Barthes has given me a base line to work from / on when pondering all things semiotic.

Barthes, R. (1994) The Semiotic Challenge. Translated from French by Richard Howard Berkeley: University of California Press