Online Public Discourse Communities: Reconfiguring College Teaching

Presented by Judy Arzt

“Digital technology and new media–for better or worse–are here to stay … you can’t turn off the Internet. Digital technology isn’t going away. There are hundreds of thousands of sites in the World Wide Web ….Digital technology is part of our lives, a part of our lives that we know will only continue to grow. We can’t afford to dismiss it. Rather we must–embrace it–indiscriminately, but thoughtfully. We must seize the opportunities to do things we’ve never been able to do before. Don’t look back!”

Steven Holzman, Digital Mosiac

What does digital mean for higher education?

Online bulletin boards for cross-campus discussions

Web authoring projects Meshing of theory with praxis

– postmodern and social constructivist theories– collaborative learning and writing across the curriculum

Teaching new literacy skills

Presentation Goals

Describe exemplary case studies of classroom practice

Examine emerging theories in the field Offer examples from my own teaching

International Debate Project

Linked students from the University of Rhode Island with students from around the world

Fostered writing across the curriculum, collaborative learning, and global awareness

Emphasized importance of instructor’s role to structure the context and provide discussion topics

Linda Shamoon in Electronic Communication Across the Curriculum

Cross-cultural Project Urban, black students at Howard University and rural,

white students at Montana State University exchanged work online

Howard students were assigned to write about race relations

The students collaboratively produced a book, On (the Color) Line: Networking to End Racism

The technology engendered online public discourse

Teresa Redd in Electronic Communication Across the Curriculum

Collaborative Web Site Project

Students in a computer science class and an English class developed a college’s Web site

Students invested time in the writing task and developed a strong sense of community

Michael Strickland & Robert Whitnell, Electronic Communication Across the Curriculum

“We like to think of the Web as an ongoing laboratory with the biggest windows in the world. When anyone can look in and see what you’ve produced, your incentive to collaborate and do well is greatly increased. This is a heady sense of empowerment and ownership.”

Micheal Strickland & Robert Whitnell

Instructors’ Comments

Visual Literacy The visual nature of the Internet will

revolutionize the way we communicate Hypertext juxtaposes verbal and visual,

altering the communication process Students need to produce “cultural relevant

text,” incorporating the visual

Gunther Kress, “’English at the Crossroads: Rethinking Curricula of Communication in the Context of the Turn to the Visual”

Postmodernism

Online classrooms foster student-focused instruction, collaborative learning, commitment to task, and participatory classroom structures

Lester Faigley in Passions, Pedagogies, and 21st Century Technologies

“Computers embrace postmodern theory and bring it down to earth.”

Sherry Turkle, Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet

In networked classrooms students create the agenda. Their online composing is the content and curriculum of the course.

Classroom Dynamics The instructor is a “learned coordinator” The instructor “controls less” and “says

less” The classroom is a “knowledge-making

enterprise” where an “egalitarian state” is realized”

Richard Lanham, Carolyn Handa, Thomas Barker & Fred Kemp, Computers and Community

My Classroom Experiences

Web-site tools and bulletin boards have made public discourse and writing synonymous

Descriptions of experiences with– first-year composition class– graduate education class

Time Capsule

Memorializes historical events from year 2000 Table of contents page lists these events Items on table of contents become hyperlinks

for entry into the hypertext capsule

Sample Time Capsule Page

Memoirs

Topics with public appeal Photographs are incorporated Juxtaposition of verbal and visual drives

textual revision

Profiles

Interview people from the college community

Public nature of the Web makes accuracy of reporting critical

Final Web profiles inform the public about the people at the college

Sample Student Homepage

Commentaries

IEDP allows students to exchange ideas with students throughout the country

Students gain a broader perspective on controversial issues

Discussions help students learn how to craft an effective argument

Reviews

Study reviews on the Web Advance Web authoring skills See classmates’ reviews on the Web Generate heated class discussions

Research Papers

Extend commentaries into research papers Consider topics in relation to public viewing

on the Internet Use strategies to aid viewers

– break long texts into chunks– use graphics to underscore ideas– add links to authoritative sites

Computers in the Classroom Course

Web sites expand students’ audiences for writing

The sites provide information about K-12 software and how to use it

Students create individual sites and a class site

Viewers include educators from across the country and software publishers

Internet Lessons for K-12 Students

Easy for K-12 students to do online work

Parents learn about their children’s school projects

Sample Internet Lesson Plan

Sample PowerPoint on the Web

Web Sites Empower Students

Students work on sites after the course ends

They create sites far more complex than initially envisioned

Their work exceeds syllabus requirements

IEDP with Graduate Students

Found common discussion topics were critical to the project’s success

Connected the experience to the possibilities for similar projects on the K-12 level

Gained experience for doing online projects with their own students

Conclusions

Students are eager to participate in online writing projects

Students need our guidance Our teaching needs to be reconfigured

in relation to what the technology offers We need to address new literacy skills

applicable to online writing

And More Conclusions

We must assume responsibility for the direction that online writing takes in the future

We need to envision how online technologies enrich communication, create opportunities for public discourse and make writing a publicly critical act