From millennium to millennium, cultures sometimes work through major watersheds, fundamental turning points in their character. These elements in turn have an impact on every other element of a cultureís makeup. These are such extraordinary times in the nature of human communication. The first wave was the invention and development of speech and rhetoric, which perhaps was at its peak around 700 B.C. when the next wave was just beginning. This second wave was formed by written communication as global culture developed distinctive sub-culture forms of writing including syllabic, phonetic and iconic structures. The third wave has arguably begun since 1994 as a series of technologies converged to make comprehensive composition a reality. This new form of composition merges and sometimes synthesizes every prior form of recordable communication into one composition. The simplest term for this development is ìlinkingî which is the basic structure by which all these forms are integrated whether web based or not. Older terms for this development that come from computer science include compound document and multimedia. These terms and phrases will be used interchangeably in these thoughts.

Evidence of this emergence is everywhere on the Internet. All professional web pages and sites include multiple communication elements. The web page has become the fundamental unit for the integration of every communication technology. It is the chalk slate for the new century. The current cross-over rush from standard telephone wiring to broadband wiring makes the most data intensive form of communication, video and 3D images, practical on a widespread and increasingly global scale.

To participate and emerge as leaders in this new era, certain tools and degrees of knowledge in this new communication trade are necessary. The nature of the tools will change and morph but there are certain basic resources available today that make comprehensive composition possible. These  tools include multimedia software for seven different information architectures including text, still image, video, animation, audio/music, 3D or virtual reality and sensors and electronic interfaces. For each of these latter six categories, there are three sub-categories of software that are becoming increasingly blurred as programmers merge their features: input, manipulation (editing) and output (publishing or performing). For text, all three are already merged into a single application, a word processor. These tools also include basic hardware elements: computer; keyboard; high speed peripheral interface (e.g., firewire card); monitor; ample RAM; large capacity removeable storage disks; and access to a digital camera.

Simple knowledge structures include the ability to make and use tables and frames for web pages. Deeper knowledge structures include various heuristics for blending different communication elements in the same composition. For example, what should the ratio of text to image or image to text be through a range of pages? How does this vary with context? How does the integration of animation and video within the same window change this design? Much more remains to be written and discovered.

With this knowledge and these tools, any human can become the equivalent of a global print publisher, and television and radio station which are synthesized within a personable web server, a server that comes built-in to the operating system of every personal computer sold today. The challenge for universities is how to build curriculum and prioritize resources so that all students graduate with the capacity for comprehensive composition. Western Carolina University has all the elements in place to move out into this new plateau, expand its resources and build.

This building phase will set in motion changes beyond our current vision of what can and should emerge. It will however have far reaching implications down the entire line of curriculum for public education. It will create tough challenges for administrative and faculty leadership. It will create an intense need for new structures and rewards for inter-college and inter-departmental flatline communication on university campuses which house different specialists in these areas. It will create a significant new need for faculty that specialize in teaching to a general audience of students forms of communication not commonly found on most campuses, in particular, virtual reality and sensors and in areas which are now marginally served including still image, animation, and video. This entire synthesis is so new and yet so powerful that it creates incredible opportunities for software and hardware development partnership to further design the tools of composition with commercial hardware and software designers.

This wave at Western is underway and building. Opportunity knocks. WCUís history includes:

• 1994, October 31 - First web servers running at WCU.
• 1996 - Multimedia workstations capable of running a wide range of multimedia software are available in the faculty sandbox.
• 1997 - Multimedia workstations are in place in the ITC Lab in Killian.
• 1998 - Multimedia workstations are generally in place in WCU student public labs and in the Killian building.
• 1998 - The curriculum for North Carolina public schools includes the heading of multimedia at every grade level.
• 1999 - Summer. In the summer a faculty member instigated a memo sent by the Associate Dean of the Graduate School at that time to a long list of university faculty with background in these areas as to the relevance and their interest in a graduate program and undergraduate major in multimedia. There was a very strong positive response.
• 1999 - Fall. The CATA Lab opens, providing current multimedia technology to faculty and selective student projects.
• 1999 - Fall. Student teachers are encouraged to  and several do place an electronic portfolio online.
• 2000 - Spring. A workshop is provided for university faculty on the possibilities of a multimedia resume and portfolio and CD for each student. There was strong positive interest.
• 2000- Spring. General education debates the merits of an electronic portfolio by all entering students.
• 2000 - Spring. The interim Vice-Chancellor for Technology directs a committee to form to investigate and make recommendations on the formation of an undergraduate minor in multimedia.
• 2000 - Fall. The College of Education is considering a requirement for each student teacher intern to commence building an electronic portfolio that will be published to CD.

For more: see http://www.ceap.wcu.edu/houghton/MM/homeMM.html#philosophy
 

Page author: R.S. Houghton