COMMUNICATION AlDg Cpbpter S| AND STRATEGIES USING TOOLS OF TECHNOLOGY hey should be able nd/or web-based presentations for ing appropriate registers; When students have completed this chapte! 1. Convey ideas through oral, audio-visual, a different target audiences in local and global settings us and 2. Produce multimodal texts that take into consideration the prospective audience and the expected context. INTRODUCTION Whatever your field and whatever your job, making meaning and presenting them to the right audience are things that you need to pull through to sueceed as an individual, a student, a professional, or an entrepreneur. ‘These presentations, whether spoken or written and formal or informal, have become so common that they are performed at an astonishing number of “33 million timesa day” (Adler, Elmhorst, & Lucas, 2013). At present, creating and sharing them have even changed dramatically because of the development of digital communication technologies. Simple and easy-to-use media production tools and resources, along with the potential for immediate and universal online publication, are now also readily accessible on the World Wide Web. ’ CREATION AND PRODUCTION OF MULTIMODAL TEXTS ‘ Although multimodal texts are often associated with digital communication technologies, multimodal texts are not synonymous with digital. Their ereation can be of any medium: paper—such as books, comics, posters; digital-- from slide presentations, e-books, blogs, e-posters, web pages, and social media, to animation, "0 Communicate € Connect!data? sof YOU sour cuss this experience with a he yacknowledse ead is id you proper Tt your tes et «self (ett porta, ang seatmate. ‘ th ur seat i ¥ pate ascusion WHEY cc OU: ® ite ‘on the class > FB a of creating 2 text, pony w to avoid any serious the wha y now have on petter 2. with the knowledse Wo fore that you a" ences ssigned text? DISCUSS this what things did you Bi problem/s about cresting and producing Prvty withthe sare Searels: ausne neesed © produce # qalty 3. Having realized and understood at ties ad skill ‘What aspects do you multimodal text, examine YOUr need to develop oF enhance? THE ART OF MAKING POWERPOIKT PRESENTATIONS ns are so common that lecturers presentations effective? “Presentations can be among the ‘both school and the working world -- and that includes 2012). You can avoid being a party £0 such broken and smartand| simpleapproach to creating presentations 2012). PowerPoint presentatio and reporters use them al the time, But ase all these most painful experiences in listening to them” (Kangas, ineffective presentations by using “a that engage audience and inspire action” (Kangas, ‘A presentation is like taking your audience from one place to another, so make the journey lighter and more fun by never overloading it with too much content. How may you do this? There are only three things that you need to do before starting to make your PowerPoint presentation (Kangas, 2012): 7 1, Determine your goal. This is about you and ej your goal, whi achievable challenge. Ask yourself what opinion or fel aria soni me want to change. (For example, I want them to und. ig of the audience YoU buy... and so on.) lerstand..., ] want them (0 2. Convert your goal into one “big idea.” ‘ j ig idea.” This i your planting an idea into their heads, Moke them about your audience 294 they can act by moving toward your desired goal, Make thes barber | Make them understand ho they can benefit from the id ' ea, and lead them in what you wart Its al about them a to believe in what you say, » HOt you, "When doing the class activity of devising multimodal texts, it i moons for you (and the members of your geoup) to use your own voices to oe ne derack, to apply transitions between images to bring about rarest a wo no appropriate music to Tiven up the text. But this is not the only way to do this : technique is to collect material for the voiceover, a8 well as the images you ing to use, from sites on the Internet, like Facebook, Google, blogs and vlogs, wires, Spotify, iTunes, and YouTube. You can use whatever free web stuf you Bnd to mx image, sound, and text. Take the elements you understand, elements that will become your language to construct your meaning—your message, your text. ‘This method of gathering materials is merely copying (or cutting) and pasting, but during this process of collecting the materials you need to adapt and rearrange (or remix) the materials to suit your own purpose of creating the multimodal text. What you do, therefore, could not be just “copying/cutting and pasting” in its traditional sense, but what Ryberg (2007) has identified as “patchworking” in his dissertation (as cited in Godhe, 2014). ‘You do “patchworkirig” when you exploit certain threads in the materials you have gathered from various sources and stitch these together to create your own “patchwork” and your own particular understanding of the materials (Godhe, 2014) In other words, you recontextualize (or place in a different context) the materials you have collected from various sites to serve your own purpose of presenting them in a multimodal text in a classroom setting, and there is nothing anomalous about this. If you use this patchworking, however, be sure to acknowledge all your sources or you will be guilty of plagiarism. Plagiarism is the act of stealing and passing off as your own the any ather intellectual property produced by another person. For example, if you use another person's words in « research paper without citing your source, act of plagiarism. ideas, words, or you commit an Preparing multimodal texts in a classroom provides for new practices of reading, Producing, and disseminating texts (Jewitt, 2005), This means that you also apply in your creation of your class-ussigned multimodal texts whatever Titerucy practices (or abilities/activities connected to the use of technolo, ies) that you do at home or outside of the cl jassroom environment (Such as using computers and any other technical devices—mobile phones and tablets--to communicate and interact with others, readi hooks, watching film clips on YouTube, listening and downloxding music on Sp and producing home-made short films/videos on the Internet), | 82 Counanncare &¢ Connretlfilm, and video gamete 4 performance or an event;¢ir transmedia)-where the story is narrated uAing “multiple dlivery channels’ by means oFacombination of media platforms, for instance, book, comics, magazin film, web series, and video game mediums all working as part of the same story (O'Brien, 2037). Transmedi ; a highly contested term, is “what the word parts suggest it might be: 4 merging of media forms, here the digital with the narrative, but with the multiple platforms a part of the narrative” (Heick, 2018). To understand the term better, Henry Jenkins (2011) says that ‘ Transmedia is more than just multiple media platforms. It is about the logical relations between these media extensions, which seek to add something to the story as it moves from one medium to another, not just adaptation or retelling. Transmedia enables the further development of the story world through each new medium; for example offering a back story, a prequel, additional ‘episodes’, or further insight into characters and plot elements. It also can require a more complex production process. (as cited in O'Brien, 2017) . Glee is an example of a transmedia narrative in which the audience follows the characters and situations across media, but more often, its transmedia strategies focus on the transmedia performance, with the songs moving through YouTube, iTunes, live performances, and so on, which the audience reads against each other to make sense of the larger Glee phenomenon. (Glee is an American musical comedy-drama television series that aired on the Fox network in the United States from May 19, 2009 to March 20, 2015) As freshman college students, you are expected to develop the ability to produce and submit all kinds of texts, including (and especially) multimodal texts. With the current technological developments, you can accomplish the task of creating whatever kind of multimodal text is assigned to you that befits your chosen field without as much difficulty as it used to be. “The text you make is a literacy object because it displays your ability to express meaning, In the past, literacy was understood to refer only to the ability to read and write texts; at present, however, literacy includes making- meaning by using varied texts available through the highly accessible information and multimedia technologies. You construct meaning by creating your own expression of that meaning or idea. This kind of expression empowers you because you are able nor only to understand the idea but also to talk about it. Communicare & Connect! aNan, yon ealy; you feel more confident to stand before the audience and Awake yur presentation, Do not make a mess of it hy getting your audience bored and patting them to seep, PLE 1 d a 4, ~~ 10. uu. 12. 13. “4 16. pt 2. Philips suggests thatthe bright white background of the slide be changed to a 3. Comment on Philips’ beef that “The number of slides for one PowerPoint 4. Choose one of the 17 things that a speaker should do to avold giving a boring do the following (NanoNerds, 2012): Come prepared, Get the setup r Know your audience and adjust the content accordingly. Fo easy on fonts, Go easy on logos, . Go easy on colors. Make eye contact. Be kind to questioners. Be kind to folks in the back. Design slides for distance, Cell phone off. Do not go crazy with the laser pointer, Do not cram too much on each’slide. 7 Do not read from your notes or slides, Do not spew jargon. Do not demean audience members, Do not turn your back. MMUNICATE!, ‘Why do you think does Kangas suggest that the idea that you wantyour audience to embrace in your presentation be consolidated Into only three concepts? dark one to focus onthe text. What addtional reason can you gve for Philips’ partiality toa dark background? Presentation Is never the problem; Its the number of objects/items per slide that Is the problem.” PowerPoint presentation. Elaborate on It. Give concrete examples to support your explanation. ‘Communicate &¥ Connect!To effectively design and communicate rieaning through such rich and potentially complex sources of materials, you have to extend your multimodal literacy knowledge and skills. A quality multimodal composition requires new literacy design skills and knowledge that will enable you to make informed choices within and across the available communication modes and effectively construct meaning out of them (O'Brien, 2017). To create a digital animation, for example, which is a complex-meaning design Process, you are required to do a critical arrangement of a combination of “modes” (such as image, movement, sound, spatial design, gesture, and language). The process of constructing such a text is a “cross-disciplinary literacy process” because it involves the use of both digital information technologies and the arts (media, music, drama, visual arts, design) to bring meaning to life (O'Brien, 2017). In the traditional, established practices of writing texts in a classroom, students usually write texts with pen and paper or create the text in a word processing program ‘on a computer (Hull, 2003; Turner & Katic, 2009). In your application of new literacy practices when creating your multimodal texts, the computer is still a very important device that you cannot overlook, but the Web amplifies your text much more. COMMUNICATE! 5 Why is multimodal text not synonymous with digital? | 2. Do you think it is really much easier for students to create and produce texts nowadays? Explain. When is “copying/cutting and pasting” considered “patchworking”? What is plagiarism? How may it be avoided? What kinds of literacy skills are needed to create multimodal texts? How may you possibly develop these kinds of literacy skills? NO hw Why is creating such texts believed to be a “cross-disciplinary process"? PEON 1, Recall one instance when you were made to prepare and submit a written text | or to make and present an oral one. What preparations did you make? b. Did you need to cattect materials for the project? c. How did you put these materials together for a comprehensive whole? ‘What did you do before the submission or presentation? |. What difficulties did you encounter? Commumicare (7 Connect! 833. Consolidate your idea into just three concepts. For the audience to reach the place where you want them to go—to embrace your idea—go straight t0 the 1" point, 2"! point, and 3" point to the point where you want them to go and embrace it. Afterward, as you go about creating your presentation, optimize your “PowerPoint science” by bearing in mind five design principles that can help make the structure of your slides clear (Philips, 2014). 1. Outline first to control the number of slides and to provide balance. Allot 2 to3 minutes per slide (for example, a 30-minute talk may utilize 10-15 slides). Decide on only one story to tell or one underlying issue to address. Divide it into logical, hierarchical questions and subquestions, and make your talk a series of answers to these questions. Zoom-in your introduction; zoom-out your closure. 2. Have only one message per slide to allow the audience to understand it more. If you have many sentences on the slide, and you persist on speaking at the same time, the audierice will not be able to remember anything at all, and your effort will be useless. Enhance your presentation material by having just one short text and/or one image on a slide. 3. Payaattention to size. ‘The most important point of your PowerPoint should be the biggest, so reduce the size of the title, and make the size of the content bigger since the content is more important than the title. . 4. Apply the principle of contrast. Contrast controls your focus, so use a built-in functionality on the PowerPoint that dims or darkens the rest of the items and highlights only the item on the list that is being discussed, one at a time. You can do this when presenting a table; use contrast to focus on each item being discussed so that the audience can direct their attention to that item alone and avoid having their eyes all over the place not knowing what to focus on. Change the bright white background to a dark one, too, so the focus is on the rextalone, 5. Limit the number of objects/items per slide. The magical number is six. You can have less than six but not more. This means having more slides. The number of slides for one PowerPoint presentation is never the problem; it is the number of objects/items per slide that is the problem. There should not be any limit to the number of slides. If the number of slides is li is counterproductive—jamming too many objects/items per slide. Communicate & Connect!