Semiotic Account of Multimodal Texts- Oh My!

First of all, my friend who works a CWRU was able to obtain Huey's book for me! Yea! Secondly, I have to say that this class has really sparked an awareness of all of the media and means of communication I have available to me. I have been taking more advantage of my phone (especially texting), chatting, online social networks, e-mail, blogs and You Tube (and the likes) than ever before. I figure I better if I want to be ready to teach in a year and a half! Also, I have found that all of this technology relates to my interest in etymology and what I guess I now know to call semiotics. Originally I was going to interview students regarding their use of technology, but as I become more involved with the topics of this class I am becoming more and more aware of the technology that my students use, are excited about and use. I am still planning on interviewing them, but I also think that observation is key in this assignment. The book we are reading by Braun is very basic, aand I actually feel like at some points she is grasping at straws, trying to convince her reader to use the various technologies she writes of. That is not to say that some of the information has not already helped me in my tutoring sessions (i.e., tagging a student's blog). The articles that we are being assigned to read are fascinating, when I can understand them. This last article had so much information in it, I am still trying to process it all and move beyond definitions and into the main points. I need to reread it, but being a student, on top of working I'm not sure when I will find the time. I do know that something I've gained from the article is that as teachers we have a wide array of not only information we can choose from to present to our students, but also a vast number of ways we can appeal to their senses and teach them. From the work that I do tutoring it is evident that each of my students has his or her own preferences for how they like to recieve and transmit information and if I pay attention to this I am at an adavntage.