(no date)
I looked at the web site for Texas Tech University's Computer-Assisted
Writing program. Here's what I found:
The computer-assisted writing program at Texas Tech University, based on my
brief perusal of its web site, seems to be a beefed-up version of our very
own Writing Center, with the important distinction that it incorporates
massive amounts of technology to assist students. It started out in 1987
with two different models of the IBM PS II and some other older computers
(!) the university already had. A few years and a few grants later, they
added more computers, eventually putting together three other labs of
networked PCs.
Things really got underway, however, with the introduction of the Daedalus
Integrated Writing Environment software. The software's main purpose is to
link up writing students on the network and allow them to freely peer edit
each other's work. This in itself doesn't sound all that impressive, as no
one really needs a computer in order to do peer editing. However, the
software simplifies the process by allowing documents to be swapped at the
push of a button and establishes something of an anonymity that makes the
process of critiquing other students' work more comfortable. Additionally,
the student who uses Daedalus doesn't have to be a "technoweenie" in order
to use it. It uses simplified e-mail, file-saving, and other common
computer devices that require little previous experience with computers to
master. The software's real value is that it encourages peer editing by
making it so simple - and peer editing, as the web site points out, is often
more valuable to a student struggling with writing than instruction from a
licensed teaching professional because, among other things, a fellow student
can relate directly to the writer's situation. Additionally, a critique
from another student isn't necessarily completely on the mark - which
encourages the writer to use critical thinking to determine what suggestions
to take and what suggestions to throw out the window.
Texas Tech uses the computer-equipped classrooms to teach many of the
university's writing classes, and it is also working to use the university's
network and students' own computers in similar ways to link students across
campus for peer editing.
The web site features a rather extensive bibliography of books (who knew so
many books had been written about computer-based writing instruction?!) and
presentations made by the people who worked to put the program together that
our group may find helpful. There are also e-mail addresses that would
allow us to contact those in charge of the program should we have specific
questions.
(9/17/01)
My report on http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/jod/teachdemo/teachdemo.html and the various links
from it:http://www.upenn.edu/COMPUTING/printout/archive/v11/5/teach.html - This was the
first page I explored in detail. It is a brief run-down of thedifferent things that have
been done with the implementation of technologyin the classroom, written by the author of
the main site(ccat.sas.upenn.edu/jod/teachdemo/teachdemo.html). He does make a few good
points, such as that while online instruction will never replace the realthing, there is
definitely a market for it. The example he uses toillustrate this is the assumption that
there is roughly one personinterested in learning Latin per U.S. city. Thus, it makes no
sense to holdLatin classes in a small town (such as.Bluffton) but it does make perfect sense
to hold this type of class online, where those few people from all over can participate.
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/jod/texts/lanham.sample - This was another link from the main
page. It's a chapter from a book about applying technology tothe written word by Dick
Lanham, a UCLA English professor. Basicallythough, it's an argument for incorporating
technology into teaching and arun-down of what effects that has, so it didn't seem all that
applicable towhat we're doing right now, though it was kind of interesting.
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/jod/texts/catalan.html - This is a brief reviewof what
the Open University of Catalonia has done - that is, create what isbelieved to be the first
institution of higher learning that fullyintegrates what they term "communications
technology" - mainly the Internetand all the great things that come with it, such as e-mail
andvideoconferences. Oh yeah, and it's based out of Spain - not that itmatters that much,
since most everything is done online. This projectcenters more around education in general
than writing instruction, however,so it's probably more broad than what we're looking at
doing.http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/jod/texts/hilliard.html - This seems to be avoicing of
concerns over what bringing technology into the field of Englishwill do to it.
The author's main fear seems to be that it would not longer make his knowledge relevant
for a lifetime as it would have been twentyyears ago, because he notices that the half-life
of computer knowledge isonly five years or so since the technology changes so fast.
Basically, he's afraid he'll have to learn new things periodically throughout his career,
ifI got the gist of it. How scary.
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/jod/teachdemo/bettercom.html and
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/jod/teachdemo/evenbettercom.html - At last,something practical!
These two pages give a few good examples of how to usee-mail and discussion groups
effectively in English classes, though I dothink the main focus of them was writing classes.
At least this is a start,although most of it is stuff that I think a lot of profs at
Bluffton alreadydo. One suggestion I thought was rather innovative, and goes along with
theDaedelus (sp?) philosophy was to have e-mail groups within the class and,when the
students write a paper, have them send it to everyone in theirgroup (or to the whole class).
Then a second assignment is integrated withthe first in which the students have to write
a second paper in response tosomeone else's paper. Not a bad idea, I'd say. It also points
out thatsome students (myself included) prefer the use of e-mail discussions to voice
their opinions over the classroom.
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/jod/teachdemo/moo.html - This page gave a briefsummary of what
can be done with MOOs in higher learning - most of which Lauren has more than covered.
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/jod/teachdemo/moos.html - This page does, however,offer some
examples of MOOs used for such purposes. There is also a link toa page that tells you how
to log in and communicate in a MOO for cluelesspeople like me.I didn't include every link
I came across simply because many of them seemedcompletely irrelevant - part of it was even
an explanation of how webbrowsers work (to go back, use the "back" arrow at the top of
your browser. DUH!). A lot of what I did mention is stuff that Bluffton isalready doing to
some extent, or it was broader than what we're looking atdoing (such as the explanation of
offering entire degrees online) - so Ireally don't think that most of what I dug through
will be that useful.
-Kari
(9/24/01)
My response to "Is Cyberspace Destroying Society?" Okay, I guess I can see Birkerts' point
that the speed of technology is kindof scary if you sit down and really think about it.
After all, we got our first computer when I was 10 and I thought it was the coolest thing in
theworld. Then we got our first computer with a modem - back in the days of14.4k modems
- and I thought that was pretty nifty. Now we have a small collection of antique computers
in the basement that I'd most likely laughat if I booted them up today, and I have trouble
imagining life without theinternet. It is a little unnerving.
However, Birkerts
definitely seems to ignore all the things that are nowpossible because of this technology.
For instance, I had a long-runningdebate with a total stranger in an online forum about
the legitimacy of theBible a few years ago. I got so drawn in to this debate that I
actuallystarted doing my own research to provide evidence for the responses Iposted, and I
know I never would have researched that on my own or learnednearly as much as I did if I
had just had this conversation in person.
Yes, there are evils to communication
technology as well. The bestexample I can offer is instant messaging my friend who lives
two doors downfrom me to ask what time she wants to go to dinner - or, occasionally,instant
messaging my roommate who is sitting eight feet away at her computer.
I think probably
the best thing, though, that Birkerts overlooks is theease with which anyone can look up a
piece of information. I know before wegot internet at my house, if what I was looking for
wasn't in the set of1990 encyclopedias my parents spent so much money on, I was out of luck.
The trouble was, more often than not what I wanted to find out about wasn'tin them, and they
were pretty well out of date by 1992 anyway. Now I canget all the information that would
be on them off of a single cd-rom andeven download updates for that to keep me on top of
things. Maybe havinginformation that isn't already outdated isnt' that important to him
though.
As far as the printed word disappearing entirely...I agree with Lauren that
that's probably not going to happen. The technology already exists -ebooks - and it's just
not catching on. As wonderful as all this newtechnology is, I really don't think it can
ever replace the feeling of abook in your hands, and I think a lot of other people feel the
same way.Birkerts is a traditionalist in the same way that the people who were afraidof
electricity were. The internet and all its trappings won't be fullyaccepted until every
generation alive has grown up with it and learned totake it for granted. It's sad and a
little bit scary, but I think it'strue. I hope that made sense.
Now for part two. I'm with
Lauren - I feel displaced being asked to suggestwhere to go next.
My other problem is
that I can't stop thinking of ideasin terms of the Writing Center, since I work there and
have a pretty goodidea of what would help with that, although I know Cindy Bandish is
alreadyworking on somthing like that. Oh well, maybe I'll run with those ideas anyway and
see what the rest of you think of them.
First of all, I think there is a definite need
for a forum to allow distance peer-editing or tutor-editing (like in the writing center).
Iremember doing a lot of peer editing in College English and having to have acertain number
of people review your work. This was mostly done in class,but I know a lot of times I
didn't get to finish looking at all the papers Iwas supposed to, and also have the
required number of people look at mine. Then you had to track down someone from the class
to look at your paperoutside, and that was sometimes rather difficult to do. The same sort
ofproblem happens in the writing center, especially with commuters andgraduate students -
they're only on campus for a certain amount of time oncertain days and that time usually
doesn't allow for a trip to a writing center. It would make their lives, and my job as a
tutor, much easier if wehad a way to e-mail drafts to the writing center, at least so the
tutorcould look it over before the student came in or, if need be, so the tutor could made
suggestions and send it back. This also helps with those students who are intimidated by
coming to the writing center (I heard a story of a freshman girl going back to her room in
tears after a tutoring session - I was not the tutor who helped her though! ;).
Plus, there
is always thetexcuse that they don't want to walk all the way over the Berky in
inclement weather. Okay, I'm rambling. I definitely think we need some way of transferring
papers, even if only through e-mail, for peer review.
Another thing, like Lauren said, is help with grammar and punctuationand things like that.
Maybe even an interactive tutorial on parentheticalcitations or comma use or plagiarism -
all things I see a lot of in thewriting center and can't really offer much explanation on
in half an hour'stime the night before the paper is due. Whether or not people would
actually use them remains to be seen, but some people might be more likelyto use that than
actually look it up in the Little, Brown handbook (which alot of people don't even buy to
begin with). These are just ideas - not the most ambitious ideas, I admit, but the
things I see the most need for right now. I think it might be best just tostart small and
take care of those needs and then try something more elaborate and, well, exciting. That's
it for now.
-Kari
(9/25/01)
I, also, would like to say that I agree with Lauren and Jess that whatever we come up with
needs to be as user-friendly as possible. I know most "traditional" students here are
fairly techno-savvy, but I also know thatsome of the nontraditional students are more
intimidated - even to the pointof not knowing how to operate a word processor. I'm
stereotyping, sorry,but this is what I've observed. Okay, I'm also being redundant.
I also have to go along with Lauren that the MOO/MUD thing sounds like the most relevant
(to our project - IN the classroom) thing that we've looked so far. Additionally, I like
the idea of trying to cooperate with Cindy's project, putting together a joint web site
or something. It's all English,right? Plus, Jess's idea about games or something was a
good one - now if only we could create some kind of game that's as addictive as, say,
Snood...blasting comma splices, destroying Plagiarism with MLAcitations...k, ,
wI'm dreaming, sorry, random thought. I've been playing Snood a little too much lately.
Building off of another thing Jess said, something about exercises to getthe creative
juices flowing.
Something my creative writing teachers did inhigh school, which we might
be able to emulate online, was to have us get ingroups and they'd give each group a random
picture - an old woman in arocking chair, a bowl of fruit, etc. - and with each picture
was a shortseries of questions: Why does this old woman look so sad? Who picked thepear
off the tree? just random stuff. It could even be an online forumformat where everyone
contributes an answer to one of the questions, or wecome up with some sort of program
that's the technoweenie equivalent ofwriting a sentence on a piece of paper and giving it
to someone else, whowrites another sentence and folds it down so all the next person can
see isthe last sentence written...like we did in creative writing fiction. Just athought.
I think that's all I can come up with now.
-Kari