the converging literacies center

CLiC 

 "Convergence occurs . . . through . . . social interactions. . . . Each of us constructs our own personal mythology from bits and fragments of information extracted from the media flow and transformed into resources through which we make sense of our everyday lives." (Henry Jenkins, Convergence Culture, 2006)

Clueless

Donna,

18 years old

Clueless

Shannon , 18 years old

State Mandated Testing

High School• Texas Assessment of Basic Skills (TABS)

• Texas Educational Assessment of Minimum Skills (TEAMS)

College • Texas Academic Skills Program (TASP)

Eric

Literacy Sponsors

“Sponsors…are any agents, local or distant,

concrete or abstract, who enable, support, teach, model, as well as recruit, regulate, suppress or withhold literacy—and gain advantage by it in some way.” (Deborah Brandt, “Sponsors of Literacy”)

What the <bleep> is CLiC?

an interdisciplinary site (virtual and physical) where educators work with students and scholars work with one another to reimagine literacy education in ways that embrace multiple, diverse literacy experiences and multiple modes of communication--from the written to the aural to the digital.

Our Models

Questions Informing/Informed By CLiC

• What are the material realities limiting and shaping our student’s acquisition of new literacies?

• What do these realities have to teach us about literacy learning and literacy education?

• How do digital literacies inform (and challenge) traditional ones?

• When (why and how) are print-based, alphabetic texts absorbed by multimodal ones?

• What can we learn from all this about writing and the teaching of writing?

“

None of us can know everything; each of us knows something; and we can put the skills together if we pool our resources and combine our skills.” –Henry Jenkins, Convergence Culture

CLiC INFRASTRUCTURE

CLiC INFRASTRUCTURE

writing center

CLiC INFRASTRUCTURE

writing center

extensive web presence

CLiC INFRASTRUCTURE

writing center web presence

workshop/seminar series

CLiC INFRASTRUCTURE

writing center web presenceworkshops

composition programs

CLiC INFRASTRUCTURE

writing center web presenceworkshops

composition programs community outreach

CLiC INFRASTRUCTURE

scholarship

CLiC INFRASTRUCTURE

scholarship

CLiC INFRASTRUCTURE

scholarship

CLiC INFRASTRUCTURE

scholarship

CLiC INFRASTRUCTURE

scholarship

CLiC INFRASTRUCTURE

scholarship

CLiC INFRASTRUCTURE

scholarship

CLiC INFRASTRUCTURE

CLiC INFRASTRUCTURE

writing center web presenceworkshops

fyc/bw community scholarship

CLiC Committee

Shannon Carter (literacy studies, multiple literacies, prison literacy, basic writing)

Donna Dunbar-Odom (literacy studies, working class issues, ethnography)

Bill Bolin (rhetoric)

Shannon Carter (

Leah Wickersham (education, technology)

Greg Mitchell (library)

Vaughn Wascovich (photography)

Linda Matthei (anthropology/sociology)

Initial Plans – Year 1• Launch CLiC website• Create CLiC multimedia workspace in the Writing

Center (single station)• Present plans at regional and national conferences

and area workshops• National search for new Writing Center Director

(Assistant Professor)• Digital Media and Composition Institute (Ohio State

University)—Donna Dunbar-Odom (Summer 2008), Shannon Carter (Summer 2007)

• Examine MA/PhD program to determine CLiC’s place • Review English 101 curricula, textbook(s), and

materials• Develop plans for first CLiC workshops (2008-2009)

for A&M-Commerce faculty• Create student recruitment plan in response to

CLiC’s projects and findings

Year 2• National search for New Media Studies/Visual

Rhetoric specialist (Assistant Professor)• New Writing Center Director begins• First CLiC Workshops (for A&M-Commerce faculty, in

collaboration with the Professional Development Committee)

• Implement first CLiC-designed curricula for First-Year Composition program (English 101)

• Review English 102 curricula, textbook (Literacies in Context) and materials

• Develop grant support for new multimedia equipment/lab to support video/audio compositions as well as webtexts, innovative alphabetic texts and multimodal projects

• Refine and implement student recruitment plan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o