In thinking about how geocache might be applied to the composition classroom, my primary idea was that this kind of multimodal work would be best served in my current teaching context within a Writing Across Media (WAM) course. As I’m hoping to teach WAM in the next year or so, I thought it would behoove me to write up a lesson plan for how geocache could be implemented into the course, but the more I thought about how to approach the subject, the more I realized that the geocache could ultimately BE the course. Instead of evaluating a final portfolio, I could build the class around developing a geocache from multiple angles; the final “portfolio” would be the final geocache placed in its intended position.

            Students in this section of WAM would choose a general topic to explore in their projects throughout the class. The only requirement for student’s topics is that they must in some way connect to the local writing context of UIUC. While I’m not going to overtly frame the topic choice as social justice-oriented, I think some issues of social efficacy will naturally arise in working with projects that have local concerns. Though students’ thinking about their initial topics would likely shift over the course of the semester, my hope is that in choosing a loose theme that they would be able to explore their idea in depth and not grow bored with the overarching subject in the interim.

            The class will be made up of five units: the first two units will allow students to develop textual responses to their chosen topic; the second two units will expand on the first two projects, allowing students to transmediate their work into different rhetorical situations; and the final unit will package all the work of the course into a geocache-based portfolio.

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Unit One~ The Personal Stakes: Narrative

            In the first unit, students will craft a project that allows them to express a narrative perspective, writing their way into the project. In this text, students will explore and explain their interest in their chosen topic, narrating their initial process. Since the goal of this project is to engage in personal narration, students will have a choice between the following three textual forms for this project:

• Comic: Students choosing the comic option would focus on the visual and linguistic modes to establish their personal stake in their chosen project and narrate their initial research process. Students can compose their comic manually using ink and paper, implement the cut-up method through collage of existing images, or utilize digital programs (e.g. Photoshop, Paint, or online Comic Generators).

• Podcast: Students choosing the podcast option would focus on the audio and linguistic modes to establish their personal stake in their chosen project and narrate their initial research process. Students can compose their podcast using recording hardware and editing software of their choice (e.g. built-in recorders on cell phones and computers, Audacity, GarageBand).

• Vlog: Students choosing the vlog option would focus on the visual, audio, and linguistic modes to establish their personal stake in their chosen project and narrate their initial research process. Students can compose their vlog using recording hardware and editing software of their choice (e.g. built-in recorders on cell phones and computers, Windows Movie Maker, iMovie).

Though students would choose between different kinds of output for their texts, they would all need to take into consideration their situated audience and, thus, account for principles of composed user design. For example, students will need to draw from this initial project in creating their later Zine and Website projects, so their design choices at this stage will have implications for their work later on. For example, students who choose the Comic for the first project would likely be able to easily transfer that comic into their Zine, but the composing choices they make will have an impact on that type of presentation. If a student worked with a collage method, the loss of fidelity involved in scanning, photocopying, and other kinds of image reproduction may affect the final product. Alternately, students who choose to go with the Podcast or Vlog for the first project may have an easier time re-presenting their work on their later Website projects, but they will have to significantly transmediate their work to function within the Zine which doesn’t allow for audio and video presentation. Throughout the course, students will take into consideration how shifting their imagined situated audience affects their composing processes and perceived effectiveness.

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Unit Two~ The Initial Message: Intervention

            In the second unit, students will build on the initial research they performed in creating the first text in order to create an initial intervention or push for change. In this text, students will attempt to intervene in the local context based on the research they have conducted. Since the goal of this project is to address the public in order to raise awareness or spark action, students will have a choice between the following two textual forms for this project:

• Poster/Infographic: Students choosing the poster or infographic option will focus on the visual mode to foster their textual intervention. Though all students who choose this option will create a visual text, they may choose to create a text intended to be physically printed out and posted or a digital text intended to be seen in online spaces. As such, students will consider how they see their final situated audience and may need to take into account issues of spatial rhetoric.

• PSA: Students choosing the PSA option will focus on the visual and/or audio modes in order to create a short audio-only piece or a short video piece. Students again will need to take into consideration how they envision their final situated audience: Where would this PSA be broadcast? Would it be a composed part of a larger text (e.g. an ad to run during a podcast) or intended to stand alone?

Again, while students will have different textual output for their projects, they will need to consider how to re-present these texts in their Zines and Websites.

 

Unit Three~ The Zine

            While in the previous two units, students had a variety of choices in the kinds of texts they could create to fulfill their projects, the third unit asks students to all work toward creating a zine: a hybrid-text that in some ways apes more traditional textual output like books and pamphlets but at the same time incorporates the ethos of punk and DIY in order to create a more personalized form of textual dissemination. Part of the content of their zine must draw from what they created in the first two units of the course, so they must consider how they can re-mediate their previous projects to work in the new textual form.

            Students will consider the form and function of a zine and decide whether they want their zine to be a one-of-a-kind text that can never be fully reproduced (e.g. a cut-up assemblage) or a Xerox-able piece that can be reprinted at any time. Depending on their choice, they would use traditional and digital composing tools to create their zine, keeping in mind that a version of the final product will be going into their geocache. How big does their zine need to be to incorporate their comic in appropriate detail? How small does it have to be to fit into the final geocache container?

            In crafting their zines, students will likely focus on the visual and linguistic modes, but they will also take into consideration the tactile nature of a hard copy text, an issue unaccounted for in the New London Group’s multiliteracies framework. Using Hutcheon’s modes of engagement, students will consider how their final situated audience will interact with their zines as “evocative objects” (with a nod to Jody Shipka) with their own physical dimensions.

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Unit Four~ The Website

            In this unit, students will consider the affordances of digital spaces by composing a website to disseminate their project information. Depending on the level of accessibility granted to the class, students would compose their websites either from scratch (if we can get space via ATLAS) or using a free website generator (e.g. Wix, Weebly, Blogger, etc.). Students would first consider the affordances and constraints of the various composing platforms, and then consider what kind of digital space they want to create: some may choose to create something more visually-inclined, thus they might decide to use Wix’s ready-made templates for photography and art, while others might decide to engage more with the linguistic mode of communication, thus they might choose a blogging platform for their project. Depending on their choice, they would use their chosen platform to create their site, developing new content to articulate their project’s purpose, and, if they so choose, integrating their infographic and comic into their content. No matter the platform they choose, students must re-present the work they did in the first two units of the course in their new digital medium.

 

Unit Six: The Space & The Container

            In the final unit for the class, students will gather together the materials for their final geocache and create an appropriate container for their work. Their final geocache must incorporate elements of their previous projects in some fashion; this might mean creating a very basic container with just a logbook and a QR code that takes participants to the student’s website, or the container might include copies of the student’s zine for participants to take with them. In any case, students will need to consider what they want their situated audience to experience at the geocache site.

Students will need to consider the final destination for their geocache, how weather and climate will affect the container and its contents, and how to best protect their project materials. Further, students will need to choose their geocache location, arrange for placement of the container with any interested parties (e.g. not placing the container where it isn’t wanted), and consider how the spatial rhetoric of the location contributes to the larger experiential text they’re composing. Though I don’t expect students to craft a waterproof plastic container from scratch, I do expect them to somehow personalize the container to make sure that it reflects their overarching project’s purpose.