"Multimodal Projects: An Exercise For Your Brain"

As I was working on the draft and the final revisions for my teaching philosophy infographic, I began to understand how this assignment involved just as much time and attention to detail as an alphabetic text does. I still need to set aside a good deal of time whenever I am working on essays and research papers, but the process of composing alphabetic text has been such a standard practice for so much of my academic life that it feels like my brain goes on auto-pilot at times when completing them. It is as if the process for composing alphabetic text happens more naturally or more swiftly because how frequently I have had to do it. Turning ideas and thoughts in my head into words on a page is ingrained and habitual, and I have conditioned my brain for that kind of work.

The infographic assignment required me to switch gears and utilize a different part of my creative brain. I enjoy opportunities to be creative and inject colors and visuals into my work, but most assignments usually require the run-of-the-mill words on paper approach. Therefore, when I do get the rare chance to do something creative or use a new imaginative strategy, it takes more time for the connections in my brain to rev up and get going. I have to dust the cobwebs off my brain muscle and train it for a new kind of exercise. I never knew about software programs like Canva or Piktochart before taking this class on multimedia writing, but I thought that I would be able to navigate it with ease because I already had an investment in and excitement for creative outlets. However, I found that the minutes and hours quickly passed as I began working on my first draft of the infographic assignment. My brain even became exhausted since there was “quite literally, infinitely more stuff…to handle” (Shipka, 296). Taking steps to learn all the capabilities and features of Canva became my first priority. As I continued working with the tools and developed familiarity with the Canva software, I began to see what was possible (and I am sure there are even more possibilities that I have yet to discover). The creative doors in my mind opened further and further. My process aligns with Jody Shipka’s description of multimodal assignments in her article, A Multimodal Task-Based Framework for Composing. She says, “A multimodal task-based orientation requires a great deal from students, to be sure. Making the shift from highly prescriptive assignments to multimodal tasks is challenging for students unaccustomed to thinking about and accounting for the work they are trying to achieve in academic spaces. Even those eager to assume more responsibility for their work and/or to explore various materials, methodologies, and technologies often find the tasks more challenging than they had first anticipated” (292).

While I was happy with the content on my completed infographic draft, I made slight changes with placement, alignment, and color on my final draft to help with overall readability and understanding. I particularly focused my energy and effort on the placement of words and images, translating the vision from my head onto the infographic template. These revisions and re-revisions took several tries to get to the finished product I desired. Despite the time involved in such minor changes, I now feel an ease and comfort with maneuvering through the Canva software and ready to use it for future tasks with students and teachers. Shipka emphasizes that “even those who make the smallest adjustments to their work begin demonstrating a more nuanced understanding of as well as a greater appreciation for the productive tension that often exists between knowledge and action, an understanding that often leads to greater communicative flexibility” (291). She goes on to cite Charles Keller and Janet Dixon Keller’s work, explaining that “knowledge is continually being refined, enriched, or completely revised by experience” (291). Ultimately, I felt that my knowledge of Canva and my presentation on the infographic were both continually changing based on my experience working with the software and talking collaboratively about it with others. My hope is that during this school year, I can give students opportunities to complete multimodal assignments and use infographic software programs so that their brains are ready to actively and educationally engage with the new technologies that await them in the future.