So here is the email Diane Penrod sent me (the one I talked to you about). I ordered her book, Using Blogs to Enhance Literacy, through PALCI. The book should be here in a few days. The Yoda reference at the end of the email...it's a nickname I gave her a few years ago because she is all-knowing and always available (sometimes I annoy myself with the amount of times I email her over, well, everything). So she's a good person to have in our corner--not to mention her "street cred" in scholarly research and writing, including technology and writing.
Check out the section I put in bold. I think this statement is at the root of what we are trying to discover, right? Whether developmental writers can benefit from blogging...if they are skilled enough to use this technology or if it lends more complexity to an already difficult process for basic skills writers. Plus, this issue about teachers' assumptions concerning developmental students is a critical aspect of why/why not technology is being further integrated within the process of writing.
-------------
Hey,
Just got back from an international conference in Iceland where Bill and I have been presenting our work in preparing writers for future information systems. We're quite a bit ahead of what you and your colleagues at IUP are doing, but I think I can offer you some resources. I know that blogging has not been done much with developmental writers, but mostly because of the prejudices faculty have about what "basic/developmental writers" are, not because developmental writers aren't capable of using these technologies.
Two years ago, I did an online component for McGraw Hill on blogging and basic writers. Plus, I have a book that's very well received (and a great review of it is coming out in the next issue of Computers & Composition's Tech Talk section, so says Kris Blair, the editor there) -- Using Blogs to Enhance Literacy. (Rowman & Littlefield Education, 2007). I also have a new book coming out there next year, Literacy 2.0, which discusses more in depth the types of literacies changed by social networking items. And in 2009, I have a book slated for release with Heinemann titled, Pop 2.0 -- How Social Networking Changes Composition.
I had an article come out in Educational Technology, an international journal, about Web 2.0 literacies in Jan/Feb 2008. It's the foundational article for a new study coming out later this summer from the University of Helsinki on volitional media literacies. If you want to snag a copy of the article, let me know next time you're in the Boro and I'll get you one.
I think if you Google my name, you can find a whole lot of junk I have out there. Also, if you find Bill's name (Bill Wolff), he's doing amazing things with blogs in his classes here at Rowan. I'm sure if you email him, he'd be glad to talk with you about your work. He's pretty helpful that way. He's still in Europe until 6/24, so feel free to contact him after that.
See..Yoda's always busy. :)
I saw your blog, btw. Looks interesting. Mind if I post there once in a while to irritate you?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I'm finding some interesting stuff by searching her name. We're definitely moving in the right direction.
Geez, academics have "street cred"? Wouldn't that be, like, "hallway cred"??
One of the things to think about while your constructing this idea is the tension between ludic (pleasure-based) writing and purposeful (academic, business, professional) writing when it comes to basic/developmental writers.
What do you want these students to do with blogs, ultimately? How does this "whatever" relate to their growth as writers?
Blogging, because it is open audience for the most part, is really post-process. You might look to Thomas Kent's _The Post Process Classroom_ that came out a couple years ago. Also, Nancy DeJoy's book _Process This_ might help a bit (although maybe not as much as Tom Kent's).
Thanks, Jessica, for saying some of my work (and my co-researcher's work) is interesting. :)
Yes! Hallway cred. I like that term.
I guess we would want students to find some level of pleasure in purposeful writing. Do I sound like a politician?
Post a Comment