Writing Across the Curriculum: Writing and Technology

Session Coordinator: Joseph A. Barda
Robert Morris College
jbarda@robertmorris.edu

From Directed Learning to Discovery Learning in the Technologically-Enhanced Classroom

Whether one is teaching a technologically-enhanced course or a fully online class, technology has allowed for some exciting possibilities that change traditional classroom dynamics. Learning that is completely professor-directed--giving students information about a particular topic-- is replaced with an approach that encourages “discovery learning,” allowing students to feel a greater sense of individual responsibility for their own learning. Discovery learning can therefore often lead to more motivated and conscientious students who feel a great sense of responsibility to their individual roles within a classroom community. While we will use Blackboard as our own example, the ideas presented in the session can be generalized and applied to discussion forums and online resources in other arenas, whether with another course management system (CMS) or one created through a web page or other software. Specifically, we will discuss the ways discussion boards can promote community-building, foster on-task activity, and allow more time for students’ thoughtful, insightful comments and for a wider range of voices to be heard. We will also discuss the external links feature as a way to develop student research and library skills while simultaneously bringing the current outside world to bear on writing projects, key goals for a Writing Across the Curriculum program.

Within this session we will first trace the potential difficulties that can often arise when faculty begin using a CMS, namely the idea that “if we build it, they will come.” This, of course, is rarely true. Students need to see assignments integrated into the work of the course in seamless, logical ways so that they do not resent “busy work” added to their assignments. Throughout this session, then, we will show concrete examples of building effective assignments grounded in the Flip Model Curriculum and in research on Chickering and Ehrman's “Seven Principles” for using technology effectively. For technology work effectively, advance planning is necessary, so we will discuss ways to identify pedagogical goals and then build assignments to meet these goals. In the composition classroom, this means designing assignments to develop students' critical thinking skills and to allow for more meaningful time on task in the classroom.

Brenda Boudreau and Kelli Maloy
McKendree College and University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg
bdboudre@mckendree.edu

WAC Assignments

Problem: Since the students I have taught in the last two years at Georgia State University seem to struggle with how to transfer skills learned in freshman composition courses to use in other subjects, I thought that I should assign a project which would require my students to learn different writing expectations in other disciplines. Our university has a Writing Across the Curriculum department with a director and assistants, but support for their programs is difficult to maintain. I was inspired to implement a new assignment after hearing our WAC director talk about her frustrations of getting all the faculty to see the need for cooperation across the disciplines.

Problem Analysis: Students in freshman composition and in other English classes are not always adapting to the writing expected in other classes. At the same time, the teachers in many other disciplines do not take a lot of time clarifying their expectations. However, the faculty often has very particular ideas of what they want to see in writing for their own field, so it makes sense that students should be given more information on how to do what is expected. A school’s WAC department should be working on one end to encourage cooperation among the faculty for the area of writing, but perhaps students need to be asking for the information they need as well. Therefore, my assignment requires students to find out for themselves what is expected in the classes and the field in which they intend to major. Sometimes, the communication problems encountered in this assignment point to the real problems of cooperation among the disciplines because some teachers simply do not respond to student emails or other attempts at inquiry.

Proposed Solution: My WAC assignment asks students to find out the writing expectations in their major and in their future career by locating a teacher in their area and asking him or her a few questions. I provide a list of teachers who are on the WAC committee or who have agreed to teach a more writing-intensive version of their course. From there, students must find a teacher in their field of interest for themselves. I help them think of appropriate questions and encourage them to email professors rather than calling or showing up at their office with questions.

The responses students have received have been extremely helpful. For instance, many teachers discuss writing problems such as grammar, organization, and research issues as gaps between English and other fields. Usually, students learn how similar the expectations of their field are to those of English teachers, but they also learn some important differences about appropriate style, verb voice, point of view, and the presentation of facts. Many students receive timely responses and helpful information, but others’ emails are not returned or are returned very late. Because of the communication problems encountered in the semesters I have assigned this project, I think that I will send out a letter of explanation to all faculty members in the future. Perhaps then they will be more willing to answer students respectfully and quickly.

Rachel G. Wall
Georgia State University
wall5030@comcast.net

Enabling Legitimate Peripheral Participation in the Electronic Classroom

Internet technology provides interesting opportunities for writing instruction in all disciplines. This paper explores how the principles of legitimate peripheral participation, as detailed by Lave and Wenger in their book Situated Learning, can be achieved by using electronic methods of delivery. The careful deployment of electronic resources creates a space where students can participate legitimately from the periphery, which is necessary for them to advance to expert status in any discipline.

According to Lave and Wenger, legitimate peripheral participation is achieved when learners have access to the tools of the profession, interaction with advanced practitioners, and interaction with other learners. With legitimate peripheral participation, learners are able to "try out" the discourses of a discipline in an environment that both allows them to make mistakes and learn in addition to allowing them to observe an advanced practitioner in operation. Lave and Wenger provide several examples of how learners who are denied legitimate access fail to advance, as well as examples of those with peripheral access do.

Many online paradigms do not account for these principles of learning. They are focused on the development of technical skills and force students into an individual relationship with course materials. In this paradigm, students are isolated from the expertise that Lave and Wenger assert exists in the community, not in the individual. While "working together" or "collaborative projects" are often promoted as techniques for the electronic classroom, if they do not provide the three modes of participation outlined by Lave and Wenger then students have no hope of achieving expert status.

Many classrooms, electronic or otherwise, have locked students off from legitimate participation; however, courses that do so are easily achieved. This paper provides an overview of Lave and Wenger's model, and then analyzes typical collaborative projects in their potential for granting legitimate peripheral access. Based on a literature search and the author's experience with using electronic media to facilitate learning, the paper concludes with three model programs that enable legitimate peripheral participation in the electronic classroom.

Chris Leslie
CUNY Graduate Center
CLeslie@gc.cuny.edu

Promoting WAC through Customized Text Publication

Customized publication of English texts allows schools to sponsor Writing Across the Curriculum by promoting faculty involvement, addressing needs of other departments, and increasing student participation. Like a dictionary and thesaurus, this text is one that students will be able to utilize throughout their college careers.

The key to the success of a WAC English Text is support from the faculty, and this needs to begin with the English faculty who create the text. Whether books are chosen by individual faculty or left to a committee decision, the more people who buy-in to the concept, the more successful the text will be. Faculty that make individual decisions will need to pool their resources and work collectively in selecting and writing the book, whether it is an instructional text or a reader. At Robert Morris College, where decisions are made by committee, faculty wrote the “How To” sections, defining rhetorical strategies, and chose sample essays corresponding to the four schools within the college: Allied Health, Business Administration, Computer Studies, and Graphic Design.

The RMC WAC Reader is distributed to all full-time and part-time faculty as a resource to help them promote effective writing in the classroom and across curriculum. “Why aren’t you teaching your students to write well?” has become a universal criticism of English faculty by instructors from other departments. My answer to them is, “What are you doing to teach your students to write well?” The WAC Reader allows all of us to be on the same page and promote consistency in good writing.

RMC students are encouraged by the fact that some of the essays in the WAC Reader are written by current faculty and students as well. As a result, they have a higher regard for the instructors on staff and are encouraged at seeing what their peers have achieved. Students at RMC are required to purchase the WAC Reader in their first semester and are not allowed to resell their book to the bookstore at any time. Students’ greatest complaints about books are cost and value. “How much is it, and how often am I actually going to use it?” Customized texts are usually inexpensive, beginning with a nominal flat fee and a per/page cost after that. A WAC Reader that students have the potential of using in all of their courses is the greatest value in education.

Joseph A. Barda
Robert Morris College
jbarda@robertmorris.edu