Penrod

Some info for various spots in our paper.

Redefining literacy
"The results of my trials and errors over the last 6 years have helped me form the following considerations for initiating transformative learning and assessment through the use of computer-enhanced composition...online communication facilitates a sense of community among students faster than most F2F classroom or teacher-initiated activities. Computer-enhanced writing instruction is purely holistic in the best sense of the word. Process is equal to product in the teaching of writing in networked spaces, and students' minds and bodies are engaged in solving the problems that arise in the action of communication. Students can also incorporate all their lived experiences and choices in their writing." p. 123

Assessment
"Technological convergences can offer instructors the opportunities to focus on the independent and collective writing processes of our students as well as the democratic use of information." p. 124

Future of computers in composition
"As a discipline, Composition should be speaking louder in recognizing the importance of establishing and fostering multiple literacies in our students to meet the demands of writing various e-texts. Using the body of works produced by numerous scholars, researchers, and teachers in the field, Composition needs to do better in its investigation of what the pragmatic goals and rationales are for incorporating these numerous abilities into the various levels of college writing that now exists. There has to be greater discussion of when and where, pedagogically, these computer-enhanced writing activities can and should be incorporated into the entire writing sequence." 146

Penrod, D. (2005). Composition in Convergence: The Impact of New Media on Writing Assessment. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

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Penrod, D. (2007). Using blogs to enhance literacy: The next powerful step in 21st-century learning. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield Education.

How students view blogs and the future of literacy
"Students clearly understand what is at stake: Blogs are not the answer to developing students' information literacy; they are the herald, the harbinger, of what is to come regarding literacy in a global knowledge economy." (ix) Jessica, notice how the word "blog" appears in the word "global"...thought you might like that.

Blogs mix play with learning
"...blogging is playing with language, finding pleasure in writing. This aspect of the writing process is often missing in school-based writing...The lack of play in classroom writing activities draws students to blogging for several important reasons--all connected to learning" (p. 7). Jessica, I've been making this point about the "lack of play" in writing for years! I actually brought this up during our first meeting in the library. Remember? If not, I am sure it is in your copious notes.

"Educational psychologists explain that when we integrate play or pleasure with a learning activity, we tend to become more engaged in the material and retain a greater amount of information" (p. 7). Jessica, this could support our findings that our blog added a level of excitement to this project.

Blogs: Public vs Private
"...Whether the blogs are public or private, students are learning how to balance information to fit online spaces and audiences' needs as a well as a writer's personal interests. This is an important phase in becoming digitally literate" (pp. 12-13). This ties into our conversation today about the benefits and drawbacks blogging brings to public or private writing.

Blogs: Writing Process
Through blogs, "students rather than their instructors now have control of the learning and writing process. With blogs, students can write anywhere and at any time; no teachers are required to lead the activity...It is as if Peter Elbow's 1973 words have come true--bloggers are now 'writing without teachers'" (p. 21).

Blogs: Interactive Learning
"Several longitudinal studies, such as the one conducted by Thomas and Collier in 1997, indicate that interactive learning as well as discovery learning activities help students achieve more in their lessons" (p. 120).

Through a blog, "Writing and thinking, for instance, become a collaborative venture without the housekeeping distractions that frequently plague a traditional classroom, such as announcements, off-the-topic questions, unruly students, and attendance problems...Valuable learning often takes place when students work together to solve a problem, pose questions, or challenge course content" (p. 153).

Blogs: Alternative Assessment and Learning Communities
"Alternative assessment tools, such as electronic portfolios, a public blog, teachers' observational notes or teaching journal entries, open exhibitions of student work, individualized rubrics, and so on, need to be established before blogging can be integrated into any classroom. Alternative assessments can enhance relations between parents and educators because the community can see what students are learning and how they are mastering this information in various ways" (p. 124).

Blogs: Challenges
"...a blog is only as good or as useful as the blogger who builds it...If teachers incorporate blogging in the curriculum without blogging themselves, as some do, then the blog is a miserable add-on" (p. 154). Our rationale for doing a blog before we wrote about it and implemented into our classrooms.

"Blogs should never replace face-to-face connections between instructors and students...Blogs should supplement or extend, not replace a teacher-student relationship" (p. 159). This supports our theory that effective collaboration involves face-to-face interaction (between the students as well) along with the blogs.