Thinking about nonlinearity, digital writing.
Tenure and Promotion
Leads me to my tenure and promotion packet, which is now required to be digital.
One format is a blog.
I can see how to organize it fairly linearly (hierarchically) with categories, posts, and links.
I can also see how to organize it in a fairly nonlinear manner into categories (even parent and subset categories), posts, and links.
Example of Categories:
Service
Teaching
(subset: courses, evaluations, improvements/changes, technology integrations; evaluations subset: types of courses, levels of courses, types of evaluations, semesters)
Research
(subset: presentations and publications; publication subset: books, articles, book reviews, creative work)
Science Fiction
(relates to publications, presentations, and teaching)
Medieval Literature
(relates to publications, presentations, teaching, technology)
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
(relates to publications, presentations, teaching, technology, and rhetoric)
Rhetoric
(relates to publications, presentations, teaching, technology, science fiction, medieval literature, and scholarship of teaching and learning)
Technology
(relates to all of the above, including service)
However, if it is organized in a nonlinear manner, then it is likely to create a block for the T&P committee examining it, as they are used to and expecting linear work. But a pedagogical and research argument could be made for creating a nonlinear presentation.
If I presented the argument first (linearly) and then presented the rhetorically nonlinear work, that imposes a linearity on the work, but it is minor/minimal.
It’s an idea I want to consider seriously, both in terms of interest and time (their interest and mine, the time it takes to create it well and the additional time they might be required to use to read it well/completely/resourcefully).
A visual rendition of a mind map, which allows them to click on the various relationships and move through the work like that would be excellent. Can that be done with existing and approved software? I don’t think so, but it is something to consider and look for.
Prezi does something like this, a bit anyway. But it doesn’t allow them to move through the elements on their own path. There are not multiple entry points.
I wonder if a wiki is one of the options for the T&P portfolio.
Possible Courses
Adding the readings and assignments from Rhetoric of Cool to an advanced composition course would be interesting. I can certainly see how re-learning or learning differently about searches, writing, composing, and creating would be an advantage to a course like that.
It would also be particularly interesting, engaging, scholastically-stretching to add them (and other readings) to a graduate class on the topic of composition studies and new media.
One thing that would be particularly interesting/difficult (depending) would be how to structure readings nonlinearly.
Perhaps additional readings could be noted and students have to read a particular number of pages and/or readings in a particular span of time. (Five readings must be complete before midterm and five after midterm or one additional reading biweekly or one additional reading per topic or some such identification of requirements would be helpful.)
I haven’t ever created on/with a wiki, though I have used wikis for/on my own research. I would obviously need to have some experience with a wiki before asking them to compose with/in/for it.