Transliteracy and My Capstone

This week, thinking about transliteracy and being competent in communicating across multiple contexts, medias, and technologies has made me look at my capstone more carefully.  The work we have all done this past year adding to educational research is important, and needs to be communicated. In the past, a written thesis would be read by professors and colleagues and then stored in libraries or published in journals for limited audiences.  Today, how we choose to communicate the information we have learned is crucial to determining who will receive it. With our capstones, we have the ability to reach so many more people who can potentially learn from our experiences and all that we’ve been taught in this program.  We need to keep in mind that our audience is unlimited and diverse--so we should be presenting our capstones in diverse ways for their consumption. The careful consideration of how we use visuals, audio, print media, and even symbolism can open up the material in our capstones for a wider population.

My thoughts on how transliteracy has evolved my plan to present my capstone:

• Visuals: The mindful use of graphs, photos, logos, and videos can help me communicate my message visually.  WSINYE offers many guidelines for visual communication.
• Audio:  Videos, talk overs, music, and even sound effects added to my capstone could add interest and render an intended mood of optimism.
• Print Media:  For my poster presentation, graphics should clearly demonstrate my data, text should be succinct, color schemes should be planned carefully, I shall avoid all layout sins as defined in White Space Is Not Your Enemy.
• Symbolism:  My logo, visuals and audio or video should all communicate a feeling of potential for growth, community, diversity, collaboration, fun.

When considering the incorporation of transliteracy teaching methods to increase student inclusion and engagement,  three things come to mind: Universal Design for Learning, TPACK, and the Padagogy Wheel.

In a way, the audience is like our students.  UDL tells us that we want to present information in multiple ways to reduce barriers and improve access for everyone. We also want to provide multiple means of engagement for our audience.  

TPACK reminds us that we have to think carefully about how we are using technology to communicate our content--this also applies to our consideration of how we present our capstones and transliteracy.  

Finally, the Padagogy Wheel comes to mind because it reaches across so many types of media.  The Padagogy Wheel helps teachers consider how they use different media in their teaching, and the various levels of learning that can be applied to each app.  There are different versions of it available, as apps are always changing and new apps appear all the time! Using the Padagogy Wheel would be great to offer students both familiar media for learning, as well as extending their skills beyond what they are familiar with already.

My closing thought on transliteracy tonight is a question: Will we explore different ways to share our capstones using different media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc...:)?

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