Designing a critical digital literacies virtual exchange experience to engage and reinvent multimodal texts

Ekaterina Midgette; Olivia G. Stewart

doi:10.21827/jve.8.41809

Designing a critical digital literacies virtual exchange experience to engage and reinvent multimodal texts

Authors

Ekaterina Midgette St. John's University
Olivia G. Stewart St. John's University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21827/jve.8.41809

Keywords:

critical literacies, multimodality, equity, student empowerment, project evaluation

Abstract

This manuscript explores a 7-week, asynchronous, virtual exchange between American and Ukrainian education graduate students (n=58; 12 American Literacy PhD and Master’s students, 15 American TESOL Master's students, and 31 TEFL Master’s Ukrainian students). The critical digital literacies study aimed to understand how students could engage multimodal texts to interrogate cultural and political underpinnings of modes and media across five online modules. Working and communicating globally in heterogeneous groups in Google Classroom and/or WhatsApp, students documented their group interactions, which they submitted weekly. The exchange culminated in individual reinventions of multimodal texts, which is an essential tenet of criticality. Students’ reflective surveys and interviews suggest that critical media literacy projects may offer unique affordances in promoting global awareness and challenge established biases.

Author Biographies

Ekaterina Midgette, St. John's University

As a former English as a Foreign and New Language teacher, Dr. Midgette’s is passionate about working with multilingual student populations. Her research interests include writing practices of student refugees with respect to diverse identities, development of cultural competencies through literacy practices, and argumentative writing.

Olivia G. Stewart, St. John's University

Dr. Olivia G. Stewart’s multiliteracies and critical digital literacies-framed research interests center around multimodal authoring paths and digital-age literacy practices to expand notions of “what counts” as writing for academically marginalized students. She also explores how critical digital literacies practices can help to humanize online learning environments.

Published

2025-07-10

Issue

Vol. 8 (2025)

Section

Practice Reports

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