Structures For Digital Collaboration and Interaction

Using the creative multi-modal PhD model of practice and theory (from my own 2010 website only PhD submission Zeppelinbend: Multiplicity, encyclopaedic strategies and nonlinear methodologies for a visual practice ) B.A Contemporary Arts undergraduate students at The University of Huddersfield have utilised blogs as a reflective space for critically analysing their practice and that of their peers. The blog format enables students to establish peer networks of thought that traverse the visual and textual. These online spaces are both collaborative and singular and act to enable peer-comment and multi-modal cross-referencing of contextual frameworks/precedents in the field.

This paper will discuss how the practice of blogging has formed a vital part of the
modules within the B.A Contemporary Arts degree programme at The University of Huddersfield and enabled students to develop differentiated approaches to writing.

It will also pose interesting case studies of potential digital tools such as the Lines software. Lines has the potential to assist students in interpreting text and encourages collaborative responses to reading and writing in a non-linear way, enabling the text to be commented upon and expanded from a collective audience/readership. This process is suited to the reading and writing habits that students in the 21st century encounter and enables students to capture thoughts and knowledge as they traverse the landscape of the Internet.

(http://lines.thecafesociety.org/#intro)

Keywords: Multimodal, blogs, digital collaboration, networks, digital
theses, reflective writing, non-linear