Measured Steps: AnExploratory Study in Multimodal Literacy and

LearningSean Cordes

Assistant ProfessorWestern Illinois University

United States

Net Gen Students-Background

Special Sheltered Confident Team-Oriented Achieving Pressured Conventional

Millennials Go To College (2003) by Neil Howe and William Strauss.

The Case Population22 Subjects18-25 Y/O11M/11F14 Disciplines64% Soft Science46% Hard Science82% cms22% Blog/Wiki9% Web Page / Video

The Project Task

Web Site

Develop a research question and develop a presentation web site of 6 task oriented pages using multiple content types and tools.

http://sites.google.com/site/lib201site/

Data Collection

Activity LogsEmailObservationInteraction

Areas of Inquiry Unit of Analysis -Negative critical

incidents that occurred in individual subject cases during project development

3 Areas of Inquiry explored with dependent variables for 13 categories• Tasks performed to develop

the project web pages (6)• Mediating areas of the activity

system as outlined in Activity Theory (3)

• Stages of Polya’s problem solving process (4)

Data Analysis260 Log Entries159 Critical IncidentsCoded using SPSS for Windows (Version 18.0)Log posting analyzed for negative critical incidentsCoded incidents as dichotomous entries according to

corresponding category of each area of inquiry

The journal article was the hardest thing that I had with my project. For instance, everything I wrote inside the boxes kept getting erased. Journal Article, Execution, Tools and Artifacts

Findings-QuantitativeTask Related Incidents

Books Images Videos Journal Articles

Bookmark Pages

Student Pages

Task Totals

Frequency 32 48 30 25 29 15 179

Percent 17.9% 26.8% 16.7% 14.0% 16.2% 8.4% 100%

Findings-QuantitativeProblem Solving Stage Incidents

Problem Solving

Understanding Planning Execution Reflection Totals

Frequency 9 52 71 47 179

Percent 5.0% 29.1% 39.7% 26.2% 100%

Findings-QuantitativeActivity System Area Incidents

Mediating Activity System Areas

Tools and Artifacts

Rules and Regulations

Division of Labor

Totals

Frequency 147 9 23 179

Percent 82.1% 5.0% 12.9% 100%

Findings-Quantitative

Problem Solving and the Activity SystemShared Incidents Tools and

ArtifactsRules and Regulations

Division of Labor

Totals

Understanding 9, 5.0% 0, 0.0% 0, 0.0% 9, 5.0%

Planning 45, 25.1% 5, 2.8% 2, 1.2% 52, 29.1%

Execution 52, 29.1% 2, 1.1% 17, 9.5% 71, 39.7%

Reflection 41, 22.9% 2, 1.1% 4, 2.2% 47, 26.2%

Frequency, Percent 147, 82.1% 9, 5.0% 23, 12.9% 179, 100%

Findings-QuantitativeGender Related Incidents-Women in the study

accounted for 112 of 179 critical incidents (62.6%).

Incidents by Gender

Male Female Total

Frequency 67 112 179

Percent 37.4% 62.6% 100%

Findings-Qualitative

Constant Comparative Method used to ….• Compare incidents• Identify concepts• Identify properties• Integrate categories

Conceptual ThemesFrom the comparison and integration of

categorical data, 5 distinct themes emerged regarding critical incidents across the information work process…• Developing Presentation Structures• Developing Information Seeking Strategies• Working Between Separate Web Sites• Social and Environmental Impositions• A Priori Skill Impact

Developing Presentation Structures

Developing Presentation StructuresFrequent problems were encountered with

process related actions for creating pages and navigation links, inserting and formatting text and images, and displaying objects.• Everything I wrote inside the boxes kept getting

erased. Then I found the save button.• I sat there for like a minute with my curser over

the menu name waiting for it to pop down... NOPE! You have to go over to the little down arrow icon.

Information Seeking Strategies

Information Seeking Strategies

Student descriptions frequently noted the need to revise strategies to accommodate the different search tools using You Tube, Library Thing, Google Image Search, and the Academic Search Premier database• All the various sites and applications want a different

phrase in the search bar, so I basically have to find out what is the best phrasing and combination of words.

• I had to revise my search a couple of times like with most other applications and search for a while to find exactly what I wanted.

• The main problems I had was the videos wasn't putting them on my page, it was being able to find them in the first place. I had to use a variety of different search terms to find what I did.

Working Between Web Sites

Working Between Web SitesMany incidents were related to the execution of

actions working between external web sites, such as …• Finding the control to upload or tag content.• Breakdowns when connecting separate websites to

the Google site to present information. • When I posted them into the bookmark on delicious,

sometimes the title would come out weird too, and I'd have to change it slightly to better reflect the site that it came from.

• I tried to insert the books but they were not showing up. I had to email the teacher about that, the reason was I did not put my user name.

Social and Environmental Impositions

Social and Environmental ImpositionsA few critical incidents occurred in the area of

rules and regulations, or the computing environment. These typically involved …• Copyright issues • Evaluating content for credibility • Inappropriate content for the classroom• Breakdowns in hardware, software, or internet

connectivity • I used the class examples again to see how to go about citing

the videos. • I had to be careful with YouTube because a lot of the videos

are just really random or have zero creditability.• With a topic like piercings and tattoos there was the

potential for images that would not be appropriate for class. • I was working on my page and all of a sudden all of the

internet pages shut down.

A Priori Skill Impact

A Priori Skill ImpactSome students noted lack of experience using

technology which created tension regarding the project work. After working through the project, some reflections displayed a sense of increased empowerment and efficacy.• I am technologically challenged. This is a great learning

experience, but I am getting so tired that I am going to call someone who knows what they are doing.

• This project was all about trial and error, and a little more error! I was really proud of myself though. When it comes to computers I see if someone can do it for me or give up.

• The Net irritates me!

SummaryUnderstanding dynamics of student technology

use key to academic successStudents have varied levels of skills and

experienceAbility to transfer skills between tools key to

execution of tasksAbility to understand dynamics of digital

interaction suspectSubjects more adept at accessing information

than developing and presenting itWide range of access modes suggests instruction

in the organization of information to facilitate effective sourcing

Measured (next) Steps

Implement Hypothesis TestingExamine the impact of ExperienceExamine the impact of search tool variation

on the information seeking processDefine and examine the role of complexity in

presenting information using online tools