We encourage instructors to consider how their own curriculum might be broadened and enriched by adopting a multiliteracies pedagogy with a focus on digital multimodal texts. Moreover, with ever-changing technology, we urge instructors to ask how new ways of communicating will continue to affect writing and literacy education for university-level students. As technology continues to change and advance our practices, it becomes imperative that we learn how to restructure our curriculum to teach students in a variety of classroom settings—whether f2f, hybrid, or online—the important skills of multimodal composition.
When adopting a multiliteracies pedagogy with a focus on digital multimodal composing, instructors can encourage transfer to other domains beyond the first-year writing class (Nowacek, 2011). Students in our courses acknowledged this transfer as well, with one student stating, “I have a better understanding of multimodal forms of communication. I feel like I have walked away from this course with a better understanding of writing, and with the tools that will help me in real world writing and communication scenarios.” Another student expressed similar development with both writing and multimodal literacy. She stated that when she compared the first project with the final two, she could see the progress she had made during the semester, making her more confident in her “abilities as a university student in general.” She added, “I am also extremely proud of the new skills I have learned, such as developing this webpage and creating a video for my PSA. These are great assets to possess in life and I know they will serve me well in the future.”
We suggest instructors expand upon their existing curriculum, using the practices illustrated here to include the use of interactive media to further promote students’ critical thinking skills. We encourage instructors to take our examples and try to either enhance their own curriculum or shift existing curriculum to web-enhanced environments with digital tools. Overall, as we have shown, a variation of multimodal tools can enrich the students’ learning practices and the literacy skills students will need to thrive in the twenty-first century workplace.
A multiliteracies pedagogy that encourages students to develop multimodal texts can help students not only learn to develop skills important to their future, but to also understand the importance of learning these skills relevant to their lives beyond academia. Using the WPA Outcomes Statement as the foundation for a curricular design that utilizes a multiliteracies pedagogy will offer students the opportunities to engage in rhetorical concepts with digital tools that can expand their concepts of writing. To further emphasize this point, we’ll conclude with the words of one more student: “I walked into [the class] thinking that I would write a couple papers and be out on my way forgetting about the hours I put into it. However, this class has brought me to a point of realization that I will be using the materials I have learned for the rest of my life.”