Special Issue on Digital Compositions, Literacies, and Pedagogies
Special Issue Editors:
Dilli Bikram Edingo, York/Ryerson Universities, Canada
Roland Dumavor, Michigan State University, USA
Denise Troutman, Michigan State University, USA
Marohang Limbu, Michigan State University, USA
Call for proposals/papers
The ever-increasing significance of digital composition practices and communication systems has been remarkably evident in the diverse professional, research and academic activities carried out in transcultural contexts. Leading-edge technologies, digital networks, and mediated publics have offered novel ways of designing, composing and communicating content. Designs of digital composition primarily rely on the affordances of digital media, digital writing tools, and interactive spaces as well as digital literacy practices such as using multimedia, hyperlinking, applying computational skills, and collaborating. Jones and Hafner (2012) elaborate on digital compositions as dynamic, interactive, collaborative, and networked in their production and globally accessible in terms of the knowledge they disseminate and as the compositions, different from the traditional ones, fundamentally characterized by the three native attributes of new media such as hypertext, interactivity, and multimedia (pp. 35-49). Crawley (2013) argues that digital compositions occasion opportunities for incorporating written texts, images, audiovisuals, and voice narrations that “all work in tandem to construct meaning and influence mood” of their audiences and “can be more widely distributed, engaging, and accessible” (p. 51). Writing in the digital age has become multimodal using the affordances of mediated and hyperlinked texts and images, visual spaces of a screen or user-friendly interfaces and sounds combined to make meaning and enhance the proficiency of authors and writing instructors and students’ confidence in competent composing and their critical understanding of the knowledge multimodally embedded in digital texts (Foxworth, et al., 2019; Jones & Hafner, 2012, pp. 50-66; Schmidt, 2019, pp. 5-6).
Emerging digital technologies, multimodal compositions, and digital literacy practices have occupied a central space in knowledge creation, preservation and dissemination, as well as in scholarship and pedagogical approaches to new transcultural literacy studies. In the current technology-saturated global society, digital technologies like smartphones, personal computers, tabloids, iPads, and the Internet-based interactive networks like social media have become very productive writing tools in our digital lives in and across diverse cultural contexts— metaphorically, they have become a new appendage to our bodies. Consequently, multimodal composition and digital literacy practices have predominantly pervaded every aspect of our everyday lives in relation to communication with and for diverse publics. In academic and professional communities, these practices pervade a wide range of scholarly and academic activities such as literacies research, composition studies research, preparation of teaching materials, and preparation of students as global digital citizens who can engage themselves in creative and innovative problem solving, critical thinking, and informed decision making. Critiquing “digital literacy” in transcultural contexts offers us a broad analytical framework for understanding, at the deeper level, the creativity, complexity, productivity, and novelty introduced by digital technologies to diverse areas of our daily lives. According to the BC’s Digital Literacy Framework (n.d.), digital literacy is “the interest, attitude and ability of individuals to use digital technology and communication tools appropriately to access, manage, integrate, analyze and evaluate information, construct new knowledge and create and communicate with others” (p.1). It is critical for scholars and teachers of composition to be concerned with digital literacies as digital literacy practices and applications have also mostly occurred in transcultural contexts because of the global mobilization of people and transnational students in the scenario of current global academia. Kim (2015) reminds us that transcultural digital literacies refer to the phenomenon of multimodal practices such as “using new technological affordances to learn, imagine, and create knowledge that traverses national boundaries and conventional cultural borders” (p. 1). With this in mind, we are moved to consider deeply how digital literacies impact composition at the intersection of transculturalism, composition pedagogy (in class and beyond), and composition research.
As we take up this question, we are of the view that digital composition and literacy practices and their social, educational, and cultural implications in transcultural contexts need to be continuously investigated in order to keep researchers, instructors and students updated, confident, and competent in their professional fields in the ever-evolving transcultural digital environment. However, the digital compositions and transcultural literacy practices as well as their pedagogical implications are at no time free of complexities because new media and/or digital technologies always go through a process of advancements, re/tweakings, and changes, requiring users to consistently upgrade, learn new skills, and explore further in the field (McEwan, 2015). Highlighting the problems of constructive and destructive impacts of digital technologies, many institutions, scholars, and educators are called upon to address issues of diversity, equity, and inclusivity (DEI). The question that remains is: how are the institutions incorporating DEI theories into pedagogical practices? This calls for continuous and further research in digital compositions, literacies, and emerging pedagogies.
In this special issue, international scholars are cordially invited to submit proposals/papers that make critical inquiries into emerging opportunities and challenges associated with digital compositions, literacies, pedagogies, and DEI. Up-to-date and original research articles may address but are not limited to the following issues/topics.
- Digital compositions, cultures, and literacies; impacts of digital networks on knowledge production and dissemination in transcultural contexts.
- Multimodal composition courses and assessment literacy practices in a transcultural classroom.
- Emerging approaches and pedagogical practices in FYW
- Pedagogical implications of Big data in digital literacy practices and/or digital composition
- Media convergence in digital compositions: Convergence of multimedia and cloud technologies in digital writing practices; its implications and role in the composition classroom
- Digital technologies and interactive network spaces in teaching and learning environments.
- Impacts of digital technologies and interactive network spaces on sociopolitical and cultural locations.
- Sociopolitical issues from DEI theoretical and practical lenses in pedagogical practices and approaches.
- Digital/social media algorithms and APIs and their transcultural effects in behavioral patterns in the composition classroom and beyond.
- Artificial intelligence and machine learning: Critical approaches to composition research and pedagogy.
- Artificial intelligence and machine learning: Impacts of algorithms and/or algorithmic digital technologies on sociopolitical and cultural locations.
Interested scholars can submit proposals and full-length manuscripts between 6,000 – 8,000 words including references, tables, and figures within the due dates outlined below. Additionally, this special issue also welcomes teaching artifacts and reports between 2000—3,500 words including tables, illustrations, figures, and references within the due dates.
Timeline for Articles/Teaching Artifacts Submission
- Proposals/abstracts due (250 words): January 2, 2022
- Proposal/abstract review complete and notification to contributors of manuscript acceptance/rejection: January 15, 2022
- Submission of full manuscripts (6,000—8,000 words): June 15, 2022
- Double-blind peer-review period: June 16, 2022 – August 15, 2022
- Submission of revised manuscripts: September 30, 2022
- Proposed publication date: By December 15, 2022
Please refer to JOGLTEP’s author guidelines for details.
Queries, proposals, and papers for consideration should be emailed to jogltep@gmail.com.
Some Useful Resources
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BC’s Digital Literacy Framework (n.d.). https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/education/kindergarten-to-grade-12/teach/teaching-tools/digital-literacy-framework.pdf
Berry, D. M., & Fagerjord, A. (2017). Digital humanities: Knowledge and critique in a digital age. Polity Press.
Berry, P. W. (2019). Doing time, writing lives: Refiguring literacy and mass incarceration. Southern Illinois University Press.
Beveridge, A., Figueiredo, S. C., & Holmes, S. (2020). Introduction to “Composing Algorithms: Writing (with) Rhetorical Machines.” Computers and Composition, 57, 1-5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compcom.2020.102594
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Jones, R. H., & Hafner, C. A. (2012). Understanding digital literacies: A practical introduction. Taylor & Francis Group.
Khadka, S., & Lee, J. C. (2015). Special Issue on multimodality. Journal of Global Literacies, Technologies, and Emerging Pedagogies, 3(1), 234-235. http://jogltep.com/published-issues/
Kim, G. M. (2015). Transcultural digital literacies: Cross-border connections and self-representations in an online forum. Reading Research Quarterly, 51(2),199–219. doi:10.1002/rrq.131
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Mills, K. A., Stone, B. G., Unsworth, L., & Friend, L. (2020). Multimodal language of attitude in digital composition. Written Communication, 37(2), 135–166. https://doi.org/10.1177/0741088319897978
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Pandey, S. B., Ding, A. E., Khadka, S., & Kang, S. M. (2021). Special issue on multimodal composition in multilingual contexts.Journal of Global Literacies, Technologies, and Emerging Pedagogies, 7(1), 1188-1197. http://jogltep.com/published-issues/
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Unsworth, L., & Mills, K. A. (2020). English language teaching of attitude and emotion in digital multimodal composition. Journal of Second Language Writing, 47, 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2020.100712
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