convergence between design theory & multimodal composition
In this webtext, I explore the interdisciplinary concept of “system organization” as a heuristic to promote awareness of the connectedness between a website’s digital infrastructure and the development of multimodal texts. The theory of system organization was developed by Robert Glushko in 2013 and emerges from a hybrid of disciplines including computer science, information systems, and cognitive science. While popular social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook appear to be modern developments, these sites organize their resources and utilize design practices tracing back to thousands of years ago (8). Situating this article within the context of the ever-evolving definition of writing, I hope to explore a future of writing by taking heed from the past: a past offering a potential reprieve from the pressures to “keep up” with new technologies by pointing to the relatively stable features of a website’s organizational features for analysis.
In addition to interdisciplinary scholarship ranging from computer science to rhetoric and composition studies, I will be drawing from my own pedagogical experiences to frame organizing systems theory as a generative method for multimodal composition. From my own observation, the pairing of multimodal composition with organizational systems theory has helped students work through their invention and revision processes. The latter will become evident as I draw from a particular experience working with students as they composed “viral” video clips for the popular site, YouTube. The social media juggernaut, YouTube, will be used as a case study in this webtext and will be explored in response to a set of design questions derived from organizing systems theory.
In addition to interdisciplinary scholarship ranging from computer science to rhetoric and composition studies, I will be drawing from my own pedagogical experiences to frame organizing systems theory as a generative method for multimodal composition. From my own observation, the pairing of multimodal composition with organizational systems theory has helped students work through their invention and revision processes. The latter will become evident as I draw from a particular experience working with students as they composed “viral” video clips for the popular site, YouTube. The social media juggernaut, YouTube, will be used as a case study in this webtext and will be explored in response to a set of design questions derived from organizing systems theory.
Note about site navigation: The webtext progresses in a left-to-right fashion—from the tab “Introduction” to “References.” Feel free to read in that linear fashion or to jump around from page-to-page.