Michael Harker and Matthew Sansbury
Georgia State University
Department of English
Introduction
This study investigates audio literacy narratives uploaded by two former Digital Media and Composition Institute (DMAC) affiliates to the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives (DALN). Hosted by The Ohio State University’s Department of English and the Digital Media Project, DMAC “is a two-week institute on the effective use of digital media in college composition classrooms” (DMAC). The DALN “is a publicly available archive of personal literacy narratives in a variety of formats (text, video, audio) that together provide a historical record of the literacy practices and values of contributors, as those practices and values change” (DALN).
Employing a theoretical lens indebted to literacy studies, this webtext highlights varied and distinctly complex attitudes about literacy and professional development evident in the following narratives: “American Pie” by Joseph Harris and “Metaliteracy Narrative” by Melissa Ianetta. We examine these narratives specifically because we believe these stories reveal how initiatives like DMAC and the DALN work together to give voice to progressive understandings and applications of digital technology in higher education. Furthermore, these narratives also lend insight into the types of assignments DMAC fosters--pedagogical tasks that do the double work of offering professional development and influencing how participants characterize literacy and its relationship with technology.
The authors of this study are connected to the Digital Media and Composition Institute (DMAC) and the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives (DALN) in various ways. Harker is an assistant professor of English at Georgia State University and an incoming co-director of the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives (DALN). He is a former DMAC planner, digital pedagogy assistant, and technology wrangler. Sansbury is a Ph.D. student working at the intersections of multimodal composition and literacy studies. He is Georgia State University’s first DALN research fellow.
Navigation Statement
This study uses a linked menu as the primary method of navigation. To interact with the text, click along the highlighted buttons on the menu bar; otherwise, follow the link at the bottom of any section. We encourage readers to annotate the audio file (e.g. mark additional quotations) by clicking on a specific moment along the waveform within the SoundCloud player.