Introduction

Space

Operation and Practice

Connections

Production

Reality Check

Conclusion

Multiliteracy Centers: Writing Center Work, New Media, and Multimodal Rhetoric

Edited by: David M. Sheridan and James A. Inman

The third section of this book provides readers with a sense of how to use multiliteracy centers in classrooms and explores outreach initiatives. George Cooper and Troy Hicks also give readers the sense that MLCs have to market themselves through working closely with teachers.

The first article “Writing ain’t What it Used to Be: An Exercise in College Multiliteracy” by George Cooper gives readers the connection of the relationship between instructor and student to a multiliteracy center at the University of Michigan. Partnering with the multiliteracy center during a semester where Cooper taught a service-learning module in his composition course, Cooper situates his course by explaining the overview, schedule, community partners, books, and results of the project. He is careful to note that the Sweetland Multiliteracy center “were not generic seminars on how to use Dreamweaver and Photoshop” (149), but they were rhetorically dynamic interactions where consultants engaged students in conversations about their projects to understand the context of the projects.

Troy Hicks’ “Multiliteracies Across Lifetimes: Engaging K-12 Students and Teachers through Technology-Based Outreach” touches on the relationship between Michigan State University’s Multiliteracy Center and constituent educators in K-12 settings. Providing contextualization of K-12 multiliteracies, Hicks situates the conversation among two outreach projects he coordinated from 2003-2007, framing the outreach work through the New London Group’s work of “recursive literacy practices,” which include “situated practice, overt instruction, critical framing, and transformed practice” (159). Hicks concludes his chapter with three implications for mulitliteracy center outreach work: collaboration, capacity building, and cross-disciplinarity as visions for conducting outreach work. 

 

Multiliteracy Centers

Hampton Press, Inc., Creskill, NJ,
2010, 248pp. ISBN
978-1-57273-899-7
Review by: Estee Beck,
Bowling Green State University
"Because the theory and practice of teaching writing has changed over the past decade, writing programs have embraced digital, networked writing." - Troy Hicks (159)