National Trends in Multimodal Communication

When ISUComm was initiated in the mid-1990s, scholarship related to multimodal pedagogy was growing, as were explorations in WOVE by individual teachers around the nation, but no organized program of WOVE instruction existed. Institutions like Carnegie Mellon, Purdue, Louisiana State, Michigan Tech, North Carolina State, and Ohio State have introduced multimodal elements into their curricula, and other schools are following suit. In May 2004, ISUComm hosted the first national discussion of WOVE pedagogy at the Rhetoric Society of America annual conference. In 2008, we hosted the Great Plains Alliance for Computers and Writing in the Department of English.

In addition to assessment, scholars at Iowa State are pursuing many other theoretical and pedagogical issues related to multimodal communication. Our graduate students regularly make presentations at professional conferences on the topic of multimodal pedagogy. We invite you to participate and add to the growing number of conference papers, workshops, and scholarly publications that contribute to this curricular effort.