DR JAMES LAMB
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Additional resources for the lit review

26/3/2013

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I've been shadowing the Online Assessment discussions this week and have discovered and rediscovered some resources:
These are the core and secondary readings (click to visit course site):
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This is Clara's transforming assessment seminar covering the Manifesto (link):
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Here's the transcript from my own EDC assignment with some useful links:
http://multimodal-assignment.weebly.com/uploads/2/0/7/0/2070115/edc_transcript_from_voice_over.pdf

Here's a link to Sian's OA session from last year:
The audio:


The slides: http://www.malts.ed.ac.uk/staff/sian/assessment/p01.htm
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Finally, here's the text from the site about assessment in creative crisis:
Our core reading for this week, McKenna and McAvina (2011), argues that while digital writing is a regular part of communication online (discussion board posts, emails and the like), it has tended to keep the linear, conventional expression of knowledge. The authors draw on Goodfellow and Lea’s (2007) point that ‘many digital texts occupy new ‘sites’ of writing production but they do not represent fundamentally different writing practices’.

However, there are some forms of digital writing that challenge this linear, traditional approach. You might remember a reading from ‘Introduction to Digital Environments’ by George Landow (2006) on hypertext. Landow (2006) argues that creates a new way for readers to engage with the text, one where the text becomes ‘part of a network of navigable relations’, encouraging critical thinking by evaluating and making connections between the different ideas. Landow says hypertext opens up the kind of ‘multisequential’ reading that is more like what academics actually do – venturing beyond the text to read footnotes, follow up references, gather other sources, and so on. Importantly, also, in creating hypertext, students engage in new genres and new forms of writing. Landow (2006) notes the use of juxtaposition and comparison in hypertext writing, ‘one of which involves joining what one might consider academic and so-called creative writing’ (p. 304). This kind of writing has implications for the reader and, since we’re thinking about online assessment, the assessor, as the meaning behind links, juxtapositions and the connections being made are no longer laid out for the reader and instead depend on a more interpretative act in reading.

And, of course, digital work extends well beyond text. Gunther Kress (2005) talks about the idea of ‘reading as design’. He compares reading a prospectus to that of reading his institution’s website home page:

The traditional page had one entry point—though being so naturalized by centuries-long convention, it was not even noticeable as a feature. It was an entry point given by convention and used by the author (and the readers), who, remember, knew about the world of the audience. Access to the power of authorship was strictly governed. Here, on the webpage, the presence of thirteen entry points speaks of a very different principle: the author(s) of this page clearly have in mind that visitors will come to this page from quite different cultural and social spaces, in differing ways, and with differing interests, not necessarily known to or knowable by the maker(s) of the page. There is no pregiven, no clearly discernible reading path, either of the home page or of each individual page, or of the site as a whole (the issue of navigation, where maps are relatively unreliable). The existence of the different entry points speaks of a sense of insecurity about the visitors, a feeling of fragmentation of the audience—who now are no longer just readers but visitors, a quite different action being implied in the change of name. (Kress, 2005).

Kress (2005) argues that ‘Sequence has effects for authorship and for reading’, as the audience depends on the unfolding of the argument. In images, space works differently and all the elements of an argument are presented simultaneously. In a case like his institution webpage, the reader must find their own path through the material, based on their own subjective decisions on what to prioritise. He suggests that the combination of image and text on a screen are dominated by the logic of the image (seeing the whole first) and thus the interest of the reader, not the author, is dominant. In other, three dimensional works, perhaps this emphasis on the interpretative act of the reader/assessor (as arguably, any act of reading is an act of assessment) is even more explicit as we have the embodied experience of moving in and through the work we are attempting to assess.

So, with these thoughts about how digital writing can both transform our practice and our understanding of what constitutes writing and reading, we turn to this week’s theme of ‘assessment as a creative crisis’. Do new forms of academic writing, like hypertext, challenge our ideas of what constitute academic discourse? And if so, what are the implications for assessing such works?

Perhaps the subjectivity of the assessor is not new – undoubtably our Arts colleagues will see these dilemmas as more common than we might – but they do bring to the forefront something that is always implicit in assessment and that is the subjectivities that we, as assessors, bring to the work. In our Manifesto for Teaching Online (2012)*, Ross, Bayne, Macleod and O’Shea have suggested that ‘Assessment is a creative crisis as much as it is a statement of knowledge’ as it brings that subjectivity to the fore. (Indeed, the Manifesto itself acts as a useful example of a recent work that challenges what constitutes academic discourse – so for those who would like to, do check it out at http://onlineteachingmanifesto.wordpress.com. It also offers a few other statements around assessment that might inform your approach to this week’s theme.)

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Miscellaneous multimodal jiggery pokery

22/3/2013

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EDC multimodality assignments
  • James Mackay's essay on multimodality from EDC2012. From what I gather, Sian holds this in high regard, although I haven't looked through it myself yet: http://online.education.ed.ac.uk/gallery/mackay_multimodal/
  • Another EDC assignment, this time from 2009: http://www.sarahpayne.co.uk/Maze.html
History of scholarship and print references from Sian:
  • Ong, W. J. (1982) Orality and literacy: the technologizing of the word, New York: Methuen.
  • Lebvre, L. and Martin, H.-J. (1976) The coming of the book: the impact of printing 1450-1800, London: Verso.
  • Bolter, J. D. (2001) Writing space: computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print, Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  • Eisenstein, E. (1980) The printing press as an agent of change: communications and cultural transformations in early-modern Europe, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Some of my rambling thoughts contesting the newness of multimodality and the the suggestion that it deprivileges writing as the mode that matters:
Multimodality within evolving scholarship (from draft lit review)
The focus on how hypertext essays, visually-rich artefacts and other emerging forms of composition are different from their proposed essayistic predecessors is simultaneously helpful and misleading. They are valuable in encouraging us to reflect on the dynamic nature of literacy and communication within the academy, however they offer a false impression of the historical and contemporary ubiquitousness of the traditional essay. If we walk the corridors of the university and peer into the laboratories, performance spaces and tutorial rooms we will observe students of music, drama, mathematics, physical sciences and other disciplines participating in assessment exercises where ideas, knowledge and ability are already being demonstrated without calling for the power of the written word (or to a much lesser extent than we might understand from some of the literature). We evidently need to avoid framing multimodality in term of how it differs from an essayistic approach when the written word is by no means ubiquitous as the sole means of representation within the academy. Or to put it another, multimodality cannot be seen to deprivelige the essay in disciplines where it does not already hold sway.

In his influential study of the relationship between orality and literacy, Ong (1982) describes how the roots of academic tradition within western civilization saw Greek scholars listen to speeches before going on to study the transcripts of what had been said. Elsewhere [bit here oral assessment being the original method of testing in the university].

The comparisons between digital and traditional approaches to composition can also be seen as misleading as they encourage us to think in terms of new and old media, with the advent of digital communication technology as a threshold point that represents the birth of multimodality. Just as discourse surrounding multimodality is heavily influenced by work published in the pre-digital era, including Halliday’s work on semiotics (1978,1985) and Gibson’s work on affordances (1977), the representation of ideas across modes pre-dates the digital era. Jewitt (2006) makes a vital point when she reminds us that although the multimodal label may be a contemporary creation, print-based reading and writing have always been multimodal and instead invites us to see multimodality as blending new and old technologies (2005). Once again, Ong’s work on the history of scholarship and literacy is valuable in demonstrating that books and images – what we might describe as pre-digital multimodal artefacts – have formed the basis for education and learning for centuries (citation). More recently, in their comparison of pre- and post-digital science textbooks, Bezemer and Kress (2008) recognise that the use of image alongside explanatory written text is a tradition that pre-dates current discussion of multimodality.

Once again there is value in applying these ideas to assessment practices taking place within the academy. If we continue our walk through the university we might visit the art school or design studio where we can observe an Intermedia student using a communicative collage of orality, visuality and body language to present her ideas within the ‘crit review’ exercise. The simultaneous representation of ideas across a range of modes predates the digital era and need not be the product of digital communication.

Scolari (2009) adds to this discussion by question the efficacy of regular references to ‘new media’ within the literature. In his work on mapping conversations about digital media, he suggests that ‘new media’ can only ever be a relative term, and asks at which point we should refer to a weblog as ‘old media’? Clearly, the written word has never been the sole mode that matters within the academy and we need to avoid thinking in terms of old and new modes. Rather than conceptualitising digital multimodality as causing a seismic shift in literacy that destabilises written language, we should see it as the continuing evolution of how ideas and knowledge are communicated within the academy.

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Architecture review details

20/3/2013

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Dear James

Thanks for this - could I ask for you to make a couple of amendments? Its important to note that reviews have no direct role in assessment. That is carried out later and without the students present. The review is a teaching and learning exercise aimed mostly at giving feedback on work and how it might be improved/developed prior to the final submission. I don't want to confuse the students so please remove references to assessment. 

"As part of my research I am interested in exploring whether the 'crit' used within architecture can help to inform assessment practices within other academic disciplines. To this end, I will sit in on the review day to observe what happens. I will not be involved in the review in any way and the names of participating students will not appear within my dissertation.

Out of courtesy, I wanted to explain my presence in advance (and naturally, if you would prefer for me not to be present during your review, I will step out for that part of the session)."

For your information I have attached a copy of the student project brief. Please could you come to Lauriston Place Architecture Crit room at 9.15am on Friday 5 April? Crits are going on simultaneiouly in foru locations but I will be there to introduce you to the tutors.

Fiona

Fiona McLachlan
Professor of Architectural Practice
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OA discussion and links

20/3/2013

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Here's the spiel from the course site on assessment as a creative crisis:
https://www.moodle.is.ed.ac.uk/mod/page/view.php?id=4176

An interesting post from Simon Starr on the OA13 course forum:
https://www.moodle.is.ed.ac.uk/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=2135
It cover multimodality and assessment.

James Mackay's essay on multimodality from EDC2012:
http://online.education.ed.ac.uk/gallery/mackay_multimodal/


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Updated timeline (March)

17/3/2013

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Things are slipping a little on the timeline, however I don't think it's looking too bad. Could be worse, even if there's a lot more black type ('to do') than grey ('done'!):
dissertation_timeline_march_2013
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New arrangement for Sian's OA session

17/3/2013

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Sian's OA session won't be happening this week, instead however:
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Things to do this week (commencing 17 march)

17/3/2013

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Last week I did the following:
  • Interviewed Clara, Rory and Jen
  • Spent some time reflecting on format for dissemination
  • Continued to work on the affordances section of my lit review
  • Created an online consent form for architecture
  • Set up a date for my next meeting with Sian
This week I'm aiming to do the following:
  • Interview Hamish
  • Interview Marshall
  • Copy and return ECA assessment handbook
  • Contact Stephen Hunter and get crit observation date in the diary
  • Create ECA consent form
  • Contact Fiona Mclachlan at Architecture following response from Sian
  • Complete affordances section of lit review
  • Revisit Sian's lit review feedback and add notes to lit review
  • Find relevant sections from history of print texts and photocopy
  • Check when the new date is for Sian's OA session
  • Listen to audio from Sian's OA session on alternative assessment
  • Bookmark possible resources from EDC gallery
  • Update my timeline ahead of next meeting with Sian
Once completed, an activity will appear in pale grey. Additional activities will have their own section below.
  • Read Landow on hypertexts
  • Read through OA13 discussion
  • Explore different platforms for dissemination
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Ambient for iPad: investing in my dissertation

13/3/2013

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It turns out that the Brian Eno that I downloaded only works on the iPad. So I can write off the £3.99 or shell out a few hundred quid on an iPad.

Let's do the maths.

And now let's ignore the maths.

Well, it's an investment, isn't it. Isn't it?
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Using interview data to shape dissemination

13/3/2013

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To date I've carried out three of the seven interviews with members of the E-Learning course team. The conversations with Sian, Christine and Rory have all gone well, as far as I can tell. Some interesting themes seem to be emerging, even if I'm pointedly avoiding trying to reflect on the data after each interview to prematurely draw conclusions.

Having said that, one of the words - and themes - that was foregrounded within Rory's interview this morning however has stayed with me during the day. Rory commented that, in his experience, students tended not to present the MSc dissertation in a multimodal format. He went on to explain how it might be seen as 'risky'.

Neither of these points are new to me: the fact that nobody else has submitted a multimodal dissertation is one of the reasons that I want to do so. And it's also clear from my earlier attempts at multimodal work that these are risky, not least in terms of the effort required to put the thing together. What has stayed me however has been the idea that I might be able to use the collected data from the interviews to warn me of potential problems and challenges in submitting multimodal work, as seen through the eyes of tutors. In addition, I might be able to get a sense of what tutors generally think are good and bad examples of multimodal work.

This of course can help to inform my own work. If I know that tutors find it a challenge to navigate their way through non-linear artefacts (and I'm not saying that this is a conclusion that I've drawn), then maybe that should be something I avoid. Similarly, if there's consensus that images or sound are welcomed, those elements might be worth including. 

I'm not going to dwell on this just now, however when it comes to working through the interview data, I'll be sure to spend a bit of time applying some of these 
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Scape: the Brian Eno app

13/3/2013

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I'm just downloading the Brian Eno app that I might try to use to create ambient sound within my dissertation. The reviews seem good and it doesn't rely on traditional music instruments, so I might have a chance with it, then.
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What I have in mind - and I haven't given this too much thought or tried out the app  yet, obviously - is to create a different pieces of ambient background music to accompany each component of my dissertation. The idea would be that the ambient background music might reflect the content of a particular component.

It will be interesting to try out the app, and also to see whether I can take a completed from file and work on it in SoundStudio, perhaps adding other electronic chatter. The electronic chatter could also be aligned to what appears within the text within that component, for instance it could be typing, the sound of speaking, it culd be audio recorded during the observation and so on.

It's going to be fun trying to offer justification for all this in the 2000-word rationale that is required for the submission on non-traditional assessments.
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