Introduction

 

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Click on the image to watch “MODE Video guide: Digital and online environments” by Dr. Bezemer

“I am not unaware how great a task I have undertaken in trying to express physical movements in words and portray vocal intonations in writing. True, I was not confident that it was possible to treat these matters adequately in writing. Yet neither did I suppose that, if such a treatment were impossible, it would follow that what I have done here would be useless, for it has been my purpose merely to suggest what ought to be done. The rest I shall leave to practice.” (Cicero, Ad Herennium, Book III, Chapter 15, Section 27)

This article is a networked series of pages, otherwise a good old website. Admittedly, this site is much simpler than the usual conglomeration of websites we encounter, anything from Google News and Twitter. I hope that the simplicity of the information, in other words my learning experience about digital composition as a mixed bag of ethnographic insight and semiotic ensembles, will help future educators who wish to create their own digital texts. I hope that I “replay” the experience clearly and in a direct manner describe how I examined three experienced professors–named, JJ, BB, and WW throughout the article–designing digital texts, or, simply put, a series of videos, over the course of a semester. I begin by illustrating a multimodal ensemble created by one participant in this study as to help audiences understand what is a multimodal ensemble. I, then, proceed by providing JJ, BB, and WW’s teaching and technology background as to emphasize the importance of participants as experienced educators, as opposed to novice educators. I, then, continue explaining the ramifications of understanding multimodal ensembles and their design processes for teachers of writing. Lastly, I look at salient elements from this study and relay the message, for theorists and practitioners alike, to pursue digital composition of texts from a rhetorically articulated perspective. In other words, I would like others to further engage with the structural relationships of multimodal ensembles as a productive art.