Thinking about Technology: Small Tools
Joyce R. Walker, Director
WMU First Year Writing Program
Fall, 2008


I believe it’s important for writing instructors at WMU to think specifically about how digital technologies can be used to enhance teaching practices, because digital technologies do offer us ways to record, produce, and investigate that are very different from the capabilities of non-digital tools. However, this consideration does not have to include the creation of major projects using digital technologies (shooting movies instead of writing papers – which is, by the way, a huge issue of contention in FYW programs nationwide). Instead, I would like us to consider a range of ways technologies can be useful. The following ideas are not meant to be exhaustive, but rather are designed to get us thinking about how technologies actually work in the world, and how we can do better in our efforts to make their use as writing tools and materials visible (to make them “hypermediated” as Jay Bolter and Richard Grusin might say).


AREA ONE: As Part of Classroom Discussions

Obviously, our classroom technologies like overhead projectors, LCD projectors, Document cameras, laptop computers, and digital audio recorders can be useful for class discussions. I think it’s worthwhile to consider how you can/should/might use these technologies, keeping in mind that you are not the only one who might make use of them. How can we get students involved in the process of using these technologies – and perhaps most importantly, how can we get them to make use of them in ways that make their affordances (what they can or will, or – as Latour might say – want to do) visible? For example, how does the use of these tools affect what the class can know about itself? How do they change what the class can remember (as a group and as individuals) about the knowledge that has been created? Could these technologies be used to share information with other classes, or with the outside world in some way? How does who gets to control these technologies shape how the class works and how power works within the class? In other words, these technologies are just there, ripe for being used – they need not become black-boxes – simple tools that you use without thinking about them. They can become part of the classes’ consideration of how materiality affects textual (and knowledge) production.


AREA TWO: As Part of Ongoing discussion and practice of research strategies and skills

Area two is an extension of area one, but with more of a focus on the use of technologies to do the kinds of research that are constantly being required for almost any type of writing products to be produced. I believe that our failure to do this is often part of our vision of the classroom as a place where information flows from the teacher to the student – if the teacher is supposed to be controlling the classroom and “teaching” students stuff, then why would students need to be looking stuff up on the internet? We also have a believe that order (all the students looking at the teacher) means that students are learning. It’s my belief that this kind of embedded, “truthy” knowledge about teaching are among the “fundamental fallacies” that interrupt and limit our efforts to open up the classroom.

So I’d like to offer the three following scenarios. One is based on just asking students to become responsible searchers of general information; one is asking students to do research into the production of various kind of genres (which is specifically connected to our learning outcomes); and one is thinking about how to teach students to adapt and connect their existing research skills to the kinds of research they may need to accomplish as working members of the academy.

Scenario One: Just Checking: This is a sort of research version of “Two-Truths and a Lie.” Have students (in groups) compose short paragraphs modeled on some kind information source (like a newspaper, or a t.v. news show, or a PBS t.v. news show, or an email chain-letter, or a text message). Have them decide on the source, find samples of the source online, and then compose their paragraphs (oh, with an additional paragraph describing how they decided what the features of the genre should be in terms of how it presented information). Their paragraphs should contain between 3-5 items of information, and can range from all true, to all false (as well as some version of both true and false). Groups elect a member to read each paragraph out-loud, then groups trade paragraphs. Each group has 30 minutes or so to use the internet to find out which pieces of information are true and false. They must cite their sources and explain how the processes through which they found these sources.

The point behind such an exercise would be illustrate both how sources can be cited and supported, and how readers can use their research skills to find out whether they should believe sources. This kind of activity could also include finding sources that print things that are not true, and then using the internet to make an effective argument that facts have been mis-represented. For such an activity, the instructor might want to pre-screen (find sources that misrepresent facts – it might also be worthwhile to put in a few that don’t actually misrepresent, but subtly manipulate facts).

I also think it’d be interesting to give a lecture (short 10-15 minutes) on some writing genre or other, knowing that I (the instructor) am misrepresenting information about what the genre will and won’t allow. Like talking about grammar and style conventions as absolute, when I know there are examples where the conventions have been disregarded, or saying with conviction that all writing has a thesis in the first paragraph. It could be cool to start with something like a 5-paragraph essay, or some other genre with which students are at least somewhat familiar. Students could then be using computers to find the misrepresentations I’ve made, as well as their own knowledge – discussion could center around how reading, experiential knowing, and researching can all help an individual to decide what conventions to follow when writing.

All of these kinds of activities are short, in-class activities that can show how access to information can sometimes have an immediate effect – helping a reader to know how to understand or use information that he/she comes across. It also sets up relationships to information that are more flexible (and less school-like) which could be helpful in other kinds for other kinds of disruption or boundary-crossing activities.

Scenario Two: Researching Genres. Obviously the process of researching genres is an important part of many of the writing projects we do in our program. The scenario I am trying to promote here would be one in which students are asked to spend class time finding, identifying, and discussing the conventions of genres. Kristin Denslow’s syllabus (you can find it on the ENGL 1050 website) includes as a major project having students produce “Idiot’s Guides” for genres of their choice. Which is a pretty cool project idea and could include some in-class research, or at least discussion of researched information that might require use of some digital technologies to show and highlight information students have found. But this kind of activity could also be done as an in-class activity. Groups could be assigned (or could select) a genre and spend class time discussing what they have found online (with perhaps a 2-class activity being used to have students do this searching outside of class). They could then be asked to produce different kind of genres to share this information with others. [I.e., a to-do list, a text message, a five-paragraph essay, and a diagram]. They could then discuss how each genre works as a way to disseminate the information. In a three-class-period activity they could then do “market testing” to see which genre was most favorably received by users. They could then produce a report on their findings, with a more explicit “report-style” production that explains the genre in detail, shows the various production-genres they tried out for disseminating brief versions of their research, discusses their marketing research, and then considers other possible production genres that might be used to share information about the genre they’ve researched.

I could see such activities as part of a large project (with students working in groups or as individuals). I could see the class working together (during class period) to produce one version of this assignment, then having them go off on their own to produce their own versions. Finally, I could see a very shortened version of this activity used to get students to think about how to do research into genres they are interested in producing (perhaps as part of a “Choose-your-own-genre” type of project (see John Abbott’s syllabus on the ENGL 1050 website for a description of this kind of project);

Scenario Three: Adapting Research Skills One of the key things that some research I’ve been doing (mostly with a colleague, Jim Purdy, but also with Suzan Aiken) into the kinds of research skills and identities that students bring to university research activities, shows that it is perhaps a dangerous practice to treat students as if the researching skills they bring to the university must somehow be transformed, or even abandoned if they are going to succeed in an academic research environment. Instead, we believe it is more useful to discuss with students how their existing skills translate and can be adapted to various kind of university-level research.

The following scenario represents an attempt to make this kind of translation/adaptation move. The instructor first discusses with students a range of skills they possess for searching and finding information (say, buying a car, or finding out about where to buy something, or looking up information about other subjects – things they already know how to do. They don’t have to be using search engines for the research they are describing, or the library – they just have to be making thoughtful searches for necessary information. Students could (in groups or individually) write up these processes.

Using the laptop carts (so everyone has a computer) students would then begin to work on a process that they consider (based on their school experience) an “academic” search for information. (Note: I might be good to do this after they had already had their library day, but it could work also to talk about their knowledge of “school research” and have them discuss and do process-charts for research they did for high school or other research projects.

Then students could compare the two kinds of research activities – what activities are the same, which ones are different. If they are able to identify a lot of similarities, they might write these up as “useful skills” and if they identify areas where university research is different they might write up how-to guides for doing these kinds of activities.

AREA THREE: As Investigative Tools for Recording & Observing

One way that digital/mechanical technologies can really make a difference in the writing classroom, is that they can be used to move teachers and students away from the idea that the primary (and really, in some cases the only) tools/materials useful in writing classrooms would be some version of those required to produced a version of the “academic essay” with ink on white paper. In this version, the pen, the typewriter, the computer are all the same tool – one that can be used to produce a certain kind of writing. But in the kind of research-oriented perspective that we are trying to promote for our ENGL 1050 program, all kinds of other technologies could potentially become central for a project or an activity. This is not just because one might use a different kind of tool to experiment with (to create a juxtaposition or disruption to use as a teaching moment), but because different kinds of technologies can be used to help authors research and think about the kinds of writing they are going to produce. Many of the research methods that Paul Prior discusses in his essay, “Tracing Processes” required different kinds of writing/composing technologies. It would be very useful for ENGL 1050 instructors to think about how these kinds of research methods (using audio to record talk about writing processes, or using various visual tools to represent writing-in-action, or using photographs to record different kinds of writing practices) could help students think more carefully and critically about how writing is produced.

AREA FOUR: As part of Student Discussions of Genre Practices

Scenario Two, (“Researching Genres”), which I have discussed above, involves this important perspective on the use of various kinds of writing technologies and modes of production. It can be critical to use a range of different kinds of materials to have students explore how genres can be investigated and understood. This includes the kind of research I’ve just discussed in Area Three (above), as well as various kinds of visual and conceptual mapping to help students create structures that explain and illustrate the complex boundaries that can govern genres in various real-world settings.

Here it’s worthwhile to mention some actual technologies – like various kinds of online spaces for creating data clouds and visual maps. Many of these are free, and we-based, so you need only have access to computers and wireless connections to get students using these space to create maps of their research into various kind so genres and their production. We’ll be (soon) placing some links to these kinds of resources onto the FYW website.


AREA FOUR: Incorporated in Large Writing Projects (simple version)

Incorporating technology into large writing projects simply means having all of the students use a particular technology to create writing productions of some kind. For example, this would include projects where students use a photo-website like Flickr to create visual ethnographies; or create analyses of social sites such as Myspace or Friendster, or create reports on the use of various kinds of research tools available through the WMU library, etc. All the students are focused on learning and using the technology in the same way (although the topics of their project might be different). Such projects are really no different than any other choice an instructor might make (say to have students write a short story as one of their genres, or to write an academic argument paper, etc.). The one important advantage digitally-based projects offer, is that the technology used is often non-traditional (as a tool in a composition classroom), and therefore it becomes relatively simple to use the technology to disrupt embedded notions of how writing “needs to happen.” Rather than students engaging in “black-boxed” practices like using a computer to type a paper, they have to work using different tools, and this can create some interesting space for discussion about tools/materials. In my own ENGL 1050 classes, I always try to incorporate some project where students are required to use some kinds of production technologies that move beyond the computer = printed page in their production.


AREA FIVE: Incorporated in Large Writing Projects (Ambitious versions)

The “ambitious version” of Area Four would be using some kind of technology that really requires the instructor to understand, and be able to explain a particular kind of technology (using digital cameras and computer software to make movie shorts, for example, or creating websites). While many WMU ENGL 1050 instructors have projects where students are allowed to use such technologies (if they already posses the expertise or are willing to learn on their own), few instructors have projects which require them to specifically teach students technologies (which requires them to be (or become) expert in the use of particular digital technologies). Some of the important reasons why these kinds of projects can be difficult include the following:

1. Instructors worry about their lack of expertise in using the technology
2. Instructors worry about the time taken to learn (and teach) the technology to students
3. Our program does not have reliable, consistent access to computer technologies so such projects can be difficult to organize and execute.

I think that item #3 number three will be one we can resolve over the next year, as we use our new budget to get help in organizing and promoting our technology resources. And item #1 (instructor expertise) can then be resolved once we have a more clear idea of the technologies we have available. We can do training sessions and create tutorials in using certain kinds of technologies and software, and instructors can then use these materials to teach their students (which would, in some cases, also eliminate #2). However, I do want to note that item #2 is always a bit of an issue – instructors must always think about balancing the amount of class time it takes to learn a new technology. So it’s worth thinking about whether a given digital activity might become a problem – if it is taking up more than 2-3 class periods just to learn the technology, then it could potentially create a problem for instructors. However, if handouts and tutorials can be created and students can access the technology outside of class, this becomes a much easier process. It’s also true that different sections of ENGL 1050 sometimes have very different technology expertise levels – so if an instructor ends up with a class of students with some expertise, these kinds of project might be a more feasible option.


AREA SIX: Multimodal Writing Projects

Although I don’t have time to deal with multimodal/multimedia projects in detail here, I do want to mention that many instructors who do multimodal projects with their students find themselves dealing with a wide range of possible technologies and materials (and assisting students in finding, learning, and using these tools). As a result, it is worth considering the kinds of in-class activities that might help students gain the skill to make explicit decisions about production genres and then match them to the range of tools and resources necessary. Activities that might help to promote discussion of these skills could include the following:

• Students could be asked to invent a multimodal project topic (see Elena’s Adkins article in our reader for a good example of this process). They then select a range of tools/genres/materials and create a “Tools/knowledge document that outlines the steps an author might need to take to create a multimodal project on that topic. This would be a good preparation for students who would then be creating their own projects.
• Some of the work discussed above (where students move a single topic into different genres using different production different tools) can be great exercises for getting students to think about how these choices might affect a textual production in specific ways.
• Creating “potential trajectories” for a range of modes of production is a good way for a class to consider how different tools and materials can affect where a text can go, who it can reach, and what it can achieve.