This is just a note to revisit an earlier idea a had, which I was reminded of during Ray Land's presentation at the e-Learning@edinburgh conference last Friday. The following is drawn from my own notes taken during the presentation:

I could acknowledge Land's view here, making the point that the development of the Harvard university crest can be seen as representing the way that the book is longer the sole means of learning - it is part of the digital educational landscape. 

I wonder whether I could include this as part of a discussion of how university crests might be reimagined to reflect the multimodal nature of learning. I touched on this within my EDC assignment. This could come within the historical section of my literature review. It needn't be lengthy.

I could make the point that the Land draws our attention to the Harvard University crest as a recognition of the way that the digital influences our learning resources. The historical dominance of the bound text within higher education can be seen in the presence of books within university crests of the ancient mediaevel Western Universities. But as the digital has reshaped learning so these crests have been altered to reflect the new ways. Up to this point I'm not saying anything new. However I could move beyond this to suggest that the visual strapline accompanying the old crest implies  could be seen as reflecting the continued dominance of the book, or perhaps a reticence to move away from the certainties of traditional authorship and learning. Perhaps in the future the university crest itself might truly embrace multimodality with a visual representation of new ways of communicating ideas. Nevertheless, the proposed shift from page to screen is sometimes acknowledged, but not genuinely reflected symbolically in crests.

Hmmm. Is this appropriate for the literature review. I like the idea but maybe I'm wandering off towards speculation?

An e-mail conversation with Stephen Hunter from Intermedia art this afternoon:

So, there's still the possibility that I might be able to observe Intermedia Art taking place and also the subsequent assessment of the student's work.

Jeremy has been kind enough to respond with the requested reading list for the relevant section of the IDEL course, as follows:

All of the names here are familiar and I think I've read most of the resources on the Additional list. The Fitzpatrick however is new to me and was also recommended by Sian at our last meeting, so that's useful. 

I'm indebted to Marshall for making me aware of yesterday's Conference. In particular, Ray Land's presentation was directly relevant to my research as it touched on digital scholarship, the history of texts in Western universities, multimodality and other themes. Here are my frantically-typed-at-the-time notes:

I've e-mailed Marshall this evening to see whether I can get a copy of the full slides from his presentation.

Meanwhile, I've had a look at Ray Land's profile on the Durham University website and includes his publications list:

One of my tasks for this week will be to go back and reflect on some of the themes he touched on and consider how they might inform my lit review or research in general.

I came across this potentially useful resource today:

It looks like a nicely prepared document, perhaps even a lit review. I'll come back to this later on.

I'm attending this conference tomorrow:

Which will include the following potentially valuable session:

I've e-mailed Ian in advance to say that I'll make a point of introducing myself, after we failed to find a time to meet up earlier in the term. 

Also, Sian will delivering the following session which I don't imagine will be of direct relevant, but will be interesting all the same:

I've been a bit slow on this. Here are the notes from last week's meeting with Sian where we discussed my second draft lit review, dissemination, data analysis and a few other bits and pieces.

Some general comments:

• Really well written
  
• Nicely critical
  
• Done a great job on affordances – managed to say a lot in a short space
  
• Thorough
  
• Nicely structured
  
• Basically, it’s great and I should feel really good about it. It reads like a piece of scholarly work.
  

Gaps, weaknesses and room for improvement:

• There’s nothing on print dominance including the history. There is an identifiable print dominance in education. This needs to be acknowledged in my exposition section. If I’m going to make the point that it’s not all about print, I first have to recognise that it is significant. There’s a gap otherwise. What is essayistic linearity? Reshaping academic composition from what?
• Also in terms of historical context, maybe I need to talk in more detail about the way that texts were multimodal.
• I need to have more about the characteristics of multimodal text. What does multimodality do to text? This is what it can be like. I’ve only touched on authorship and there’s room for more.
• How have other people looked at how we assess multimodal artefacts? There might be some stuff out there. Worth looking for this, though. This should go within the ‘decomposing artefacts’ section.
• I need to write more directly in relation to my own research. At times it’s like I’m shying away from it. It’s OK to write directly – and in the first person – about the research project and questions within the lit review. I’m situating myself as a researcher, not aspiring to be objective – I’m doing some more interpretative.
  

Fitzpatrick?

• Is it worth looking at other examples of multimodal literature e.g. Darius Glass, Alisdair Gray, Tristam Shandy? I could maybe use screen shots.
  
• The dissertation form should reflect the content. Ideas should be presented in a particular way for a reason. For instance, there needs to be some significance to the use of soundtrack, even if it might take the reader some time to work it out.
  
• Is it risky to go for multimodal dissemination? No, it’s essential to present ideas multimodally considering my topic. Have a look at Matthew Preston’s web essay from IDEL a few years back (it will be on course gallery). Incorporates music. 
  
• Considering there are relatively few interviews, investing time in Dedoose might not be worth the effort as its purpose is to deal with data collaboratively. It also costs.
  
• Hyperresearch might be a better option than Dedoose, but maybe I should just use MS Word with hyperlinks for transcription.
  

Things to leave out:

• Stick to summative assessment frameworks, rather than trying to cover formative and summative.
  
• It’s OK to leave out the counter-linguistic turn due to lack of space
  
• Don’t go into digital authorship unless it’s a major theme
  

Over lunch, some quick thoughts on the constellation image to go on the front cover of my web essay for dissemination.

The front cover will be dominated by an image.
The image will depict a study-related scene.
The study-related scene will include a range of different artefacts.
Each artefact will represent a different section of the web-essay.

The pictured artefacts could include the following:
a pile of books to represent references
a camera including printed out photographs (of ECA observation) to represent observation
a Skype interview on screen to represent data collection

Other sections of the essay that will need to have a depicting image, including:
introduction
methodology
background
discussion of findings
conclusion

Other study related artefacts within the image could include:
CDs, ipod etc to represent the sound element. Maybe a CD that matches the nature of the research
pens, pads, post it notes and other study-related tools
coffee mug. Perhaps there's a Penguin mug that matches the subject matter.
an assessment handbook

Some other thoughts:
the depicting image will also appear as a signifier at the top of each page
images will also be used at the bottom of each page for navigation
I imagine the image being realised in grey and white with a constellation over the top of it
it will be interesting to think about whether the image could be created in another application and embedded into the html of the page, in a way that would enable particular hot spots or text to appear - could I embed a thinglink with links to the different pages of the web essay?

I like this idea.