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Composing in multiple dimensions: Understanding research and production practices in Web-based multimedia development
DISSERTATION

, Michigan Technological University, United States

Michigan Technological University . Awarded

Abstract

Until recently, most theorists writing about digital multimedia have focused on how such texts differ from print and how these new media can be utilized by readers for innovative ways of understanding. Little attention, however, has been given to the composition and production of multimedia texts, particularly those which aim to communicate about complex technical or scientific subject matter.

To address this gap, my dissertation examines the iterative development process of a science-based educational web site aimed at fifth to eighth grade students. My research reveals that the ultimate success of the web project was dependent not strictly on my knowledge of technological practices, but upon my ability as the designer/composer to first get to know the subject matter and then to determine modes of communication that made it accessible and appealing to the target audience.

In Chapter One, I outline my research project in relation to scholarly discussions about the communicative and educational potentials of web-based multimedia. In Chapter Two, I discuss my qualitative methodology as well as the U.S. Forest Service Research Station setting in which this project was situated. In Chapter Three, I review literature related to multimodal literacy practices, particularly as they connect to the underlying importance of situated learning in the process of understanding and communicating about technical subjects regardless of mode or medium. I also address the academic and professional shift from an information transfer model of communication toward one that emphasizes the active construction of knowledge and understanding. In Chapter Four, I examine tactics used to collaborate with subject matter experts and strategies for gaining access to, understanding, and communicating specialized subject matter knowledge. This work illustrates the value of using a repertoire of research strategies for tapping into the tacit and explicit knowledge of specialists within a community of practice. In Chapter Five, I investigate the multimedia production practices I used as a way of arguing for their intellectual, rhetorically and technologically complex, context-bound, nature. Finally, in Chapter Six, I conclude by offering a series of recommended practices, grounded in theory, which are intended as guidance for teachers who are integrating multimedia composition into their pedagogy.

Citation

Sheppard, J. Composing in multiple dimensions: Understanding research and production practices in Web-based multimedia development. Ph.D. thesis, Michigan Technological University. Retrieved March 28, 2024 from .

This record was imported from ProQuest on October 23, 2013. [Original Record]

Citation reproduced with permission of ProQuest LLC.

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