In Alanna Frost, Julie Myatt, and Stephen Smiths’s chapter on mulitple modes of production (in Herington, Hodgson, and Moran’s edited collection), the theme is simple. Why should we teach only alphabetic literacy? If we want our students to explore rhetorical possibilities, they need to use all the semiotic resources available. This means going beyond writing, going beyond print.
On the job market this year, I saw many schools interested in going beyond print. Yet, at the same time, I also saw many colleges worried about what that would mean for students. Would they be losing something with all this multimedia? I don’t know the answer this question. But I do know that we cannot ignore digital literacies.
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