Make Cycle Three: R-Cubed

Week Three! We’re heading down the home stretch, each of experiencing with digital writing. Most of our "makes" blending image and text. We’ve taken our own words and transformed them by adding images, working that “transmediation” that Hundley writes about in her essay “Set in Stone or Set in Motion?” For many of us, that’s a huge accomplishment! Doing so, we broke out of the boundaries of text and experimented with how images can support, clarify, or complicate the message expressed by our words. 

For Make Cycle 3, we encourage you to “up the stakes” of your digital expressions by experimenting with sound, motion, or both. We’ve begun playing with images, including the visual. Now we’re challenging ourselves to leverage technology to include aural and kinesthetic appeal to our writing.

Paul’s spoken poetry set against animation is an excellent example of the kind of texts we’re asking you to produce. Remember, his multmodal text was created by professionals,so let’s give ourselve permission to experiment with mixing words, sounds, and animation. There are several relatively intuitive web-based programs, along with some old favorites like iMovie and SoundCloud that allow us to experiment with adding sound, video and.or animation to our words. 

As we’ve been reminded in our readings, we want to encourage our students to think of themselves as writers, people with a voice. This make cycle challenges us to do the same, to take on the role of “multimodal writers,” composers who complement written word with visual, sonic, and kinesthetic elements. 

For this Make Cycle, consider revising one of the poems we’ve drafted during demos, perhaps revising a “juicy excerpt” or passage to “multimodalize.” 

Another possibility might be to compose a portrait of yourself as a teacher. You’re basically answering the question, “How can I use digital media to both show and tell others about my educator-identity?” The inspiration for this multimodal text come from an article from the digital magazine Introspection entitled “What Makes a Portrait a Portrait?" This essay complements the identity work that many of our demos have explored and may stimulate your creative juices. 

Of course, you are welcome to select any of your own topics that derive from your own thinking and writing over the course of the Summer Institute. 

Below is a list of web based programs that allow you to add sound and/or animate your multimodal texts. Explore. Experiment. Comment on each others’ work (generous reading!). Don’t forget to refer to online tutorials. And don’t obsess about the product. We know that for many of us, leaning into digital writing can freak us out. Here’s our chance to “feel the burn” of exploring a new genre and to practice paying attention to your own writing/creating process. You got this! 

• Soundcloud is an audio platform, free apps for Google and Apple. 

• Garageband is another audio platform for Apple devices

• iMovie for Apple devices

• Flipagram is a free app for creating videos with music on Google and Apple

• PicPlayPost is free video collage app available on Google and Apple

• Powtoon is a free web-based animation program that allows you include audio

• Videoliscious is a free app for Google and Apple that lets you add vocals to movies and images. 

Here are two resources that curate a bunch of of digital tools:

• CLMOOC Make Bank - This link takes you list of digital tools to use to “multimodalize” texts. You'll find plenty of samples to inspire you. 

• Digital Toolbox - this link takes you to a spreadsheet full of digital tools along with ideas for using them. In addition, the table features several social media tools we can use for instruction.

Below are some samples, including Paul's work and a one-minute trailer produced by one of his students. I've included a sample (sloppy copy) of a Powtoon I attempted awhile ago as well as a PicPostPlay clip. Cheers!