The Virtual Martin Luther King, Jr. (vMLK) Project website acts as a comprehensive database covering as many details of the project as possible that help in promoting its use for archival as well as pedagogical purposes. This review looks closely at the work, providing an in-depth analysis of the text and visuals while providing tips for diversifying the pedagogical implications of the project. The limitations of the review lie in the fact that the vMLK project is constantly evolving. That means that the website keeps changing as new developments happen in the project. The review holds true for the time of the publication version. Any changes that happen to the website after the publication date need to be verified. By incorporating different audience experiences, the vMLK project website provides a unique method of teaching and understanding public address. The website does a great job of encapsulating these resources for easy access. This website is a great resource for not just visual rhetoric but also communication, digital rhetoric, public speaking scholars, instructors, researchers, and students.
Ho, Caroline. M. L., Nelson, Mark Evan, & Müeller-Wittig, Wolfgang. (2011). Design and implementation of a student-generated virtual museum in a language curriculum to enhance collaborative multimodal meaning-making. Computers & Education, 57(1), 1083–1097. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2010.12.003
Hocks, Mary E. (2003). Understanding visual rhetoric in digital writing environments. College Composition and Communication, 54(4), 629–656. doi:10.2307/3594188
Jones, John. (2015). Information graphics and intuition: Heuristics as a techne for visualization. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 29(3), 284–313. doi:10.1177/1050651915573943
Kress, Gunther, & van Leeuwen, Theo. (2001). Multimodal discourse: The modes and media of contemporary communication. London, UK: Hodder Arnold.
Lanham, Richard A. (1993). The electronic word: Democracy, technology, and the arts. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Luke, Carmen. (2003). Pedagogy, connectivity, multimodality, and interdisciplinarity. Reading Research Quarterly, 38(3), 397–403.
North Carolina State University. (n.d.) Digital humanities. Retrieved November 22, 2019, from https://dh.chass.ncsu.edu/grad/
Pauwels, Luc. (2012). A multimodal framework for analyzing websites as cultural expressions. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 17(3), 247–265. doi:10.1111/j.1083-6101.2012.01572.x
Walsh, Maureen. (2010). Multimodal literacy: What does it mean for classroom practice? Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 33(3), 211–239.
All images have been taken from the official vMLK website. Permission granted by the creators of the website.
Nupoor Ranade (nsjalind@ncsu.edu) is currently a doctoral student with a focus on technical communication, usability analysis, data analysis, and rhetorical studies in the artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things domain. She has a background in computer engineering and has earned an MS in technical communication from North Carolina State University. Ranade is interested in exploring the field of human–computer interaction and the role it plays in behavioral studies which impacts pedagogical approach.