However…

I also see this as a optimal opportunity for students to explore their perspectives while removing the the anxiety of academic writing. Similar to classroom discussion, multimodal composition could allow students to express themselves on topics they would feel uncomfortable with when writing an academic paper for a grade. As an auxiallary tool, it could extend dialogue beyond the classroom and allow students to engage and respond with alternative perspectives and opinions shared by other students. Also, as an ongoing project, I think that it could hold a level on interest for students that normal academic writing does not. Of course, like most things in the classroom, this depends on the teacher. If the teacher is not engaged in the project, as we all at one time or another have found out, it usually falls flat. However, a teacher’s enthusiasm and, above all else, equitable participation could make the project more memorable than an everyday writing comp class.

With regards to the tech support, I completely understand. However, you might need to simply devote an entire class to it. You could also try to elicit the help of a university or school computer lab that usually has some who is mildly tech savy. That could save you on t-support time.

I think I’m going to give them a fairly wide berth but never deviate from writing, too much. What I’m going to ask them to do is think about the design of an object or sign from their daily lives that could be improved in order to be more effective. They can accomplish this however they want, but there will be some written component.

I’m on the fence with the issue, myself. I’m going to be including some multimedia assignments in my composition class this summer, because I think these skills are important, too. One thing you’ll find is that it’s very hard to make incoming college freshmen better at writing because American high schools produce some truly abysmal writers and some truly talented ones, so you have to help the slower students and risk losing the ones who do a good job.

The reason I’m including more new media in my course, however, is because American high schools do absolutely nothing to prepare students for composition within the media-saturated environment of contemporary life. I find, amongst college engineering students when I teach Technical Communications, that these people lack even basic computer problem solving skills (like getting files to class or converting to a different Word Document format). Moreover, what I find really troubling, is that they have no idea how to find the answers that they need (which gets back to Gu’s high school class in Vinge (asking the right questions)).

So, for me, my inclusion of some tech elements is to get student accustomed to using the computer to solve problems, be they written or “new” media. Also, the approach of teaching problem solving gets you out of having to do handholding. Instead, you can assign a manual as “reading” and have them do exercises for homework. That way, it isn’t all tech support.

But, I understand your frustration.