Directing the Multiliteracy Center

KHM: Tell us about your position at the Sweetland Writing Center and how directing the Multiliteracy Center fit into that position.

DS: My position at University of Michigan was to carry a 3-3 load, three courses a semester. And for each semester that I worked at Sweetland, one-third of my appointment was to be a part of the "Writing Workshop," which is meeting one-on-one with students in a tutorial session for walk-in appointments. A second-third of my appointment was to teach a class. I taught a variety of classes while I was at Sweetland, but I regularly taught the courses that trained our peer tutors. I was always teaching and working one-on-one with students, and I thought it was really important to have that anchoring my work. The third part of my appointment was the always-nebulous designation of "supporting things that related to writing and technology." So, I was released from one course per semester to work with faculty and students who were doing something related to writing and technology, and that included everything from writing grant proposals, to beginning new programs, to sitting down with other instructors to help them plan their courses.

KHM: So, as the Director of the Multiliteracy Center, you were a main support person for writing and technology instruction. What were specific things you helped faculty with when they wanted to integrate multiliteracies into their pedagogy?

DS: There were a range of things -- from helping instructors do, for instance, one unit that was technology-intensive in a writing course of some sort. So, for instance, some people wanted to produce a chapbook of their students' writing at the end of the course, and I would help them plan that out and help them work out the details of desktop publishing and collating all of students' writing. Some people wanted to assign an optional web project instead of a final essay, and I would help them with the logistics of that. A couple of instructors, and you were one of them, wanted to do a whole course that was technology-intensive, and I would help them plan their syllabus, help them think through the logistical and pedagogical issues involved with integrating the technology, and try to get them to clarify their goals.

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