I'm feeling engaged with this blog project after talking with Dr. Jing Lei today. Because my work is with English Education and her work is with technology, this experience has been a reeses peanut butter cup commercial where peanut butter meets chocolate.
I've become very interested in the concept of "audience awareness" through research I'm doing in another class. It occurred to me that one of the primary ways "blogs" are good is the audience. Who is it? Why is it? Where is it? How does this change the writing process of students when they know the reader/viewer will be "beyond the teacher"? I think it means a world of difference when a piece of writing transcends a classroom.
Lee (2000) and Garthwait (2007) agree. Both wrote about how audiences changes with hypermedia opportunities for students and, as a practitioner and researcher, they were able to come to different conclusions.
Lee (2000) writes that technology is sexy and sees virtues being extolled (p. 24). In the reality of classrooms, access to technology is often a major stumbling block. She notes that computers transcend the idea of "expensive typewriters" (p. 25) and notes that in her classroom students found voice from creative writing and technology. Ownership of the work was more apparent. Lee (2000) does not address blogging as an outlet for writers, but concludes, "I've discovered that the authentic audience found on the Internet has a profound effect on the quality of student writing in all grades." (p. 30).
Garthwait (2007) conducted a qualitative case study over six months with a 7th grade hypermedia unit. Giving me several leads for future readings, he addresses how "space" (p. 359) is utilized differently by strong writers and this is true for the students who use technological space to express themselves. Because web writing melds verbal, visual and auditory communications, "a see-saw between abstract (lingual modes) and intuitive (graphic arts modes)," teachers need to rethink the way they guide student writing. She found that through conventional cueing device: Naming, Context, & Strategy/Responses used to connect to audience were present.
I'm looking forward to reading more.
Garthwait, A. (2007). Middle school hypermedia composition: A Qualitative Study. In Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 16, No. 4. pp. 357 - 375
Lee, G. (2000). Technology in the language arts classroom: Is it worth the trouble? Voices from the Middle. . Urbana: March, vol. 7, Iss. 3, PP. 24 - 32
2 comments:
Bry,
I am finally commenting on something...sorry but I am still trying to make this a habit. As for audiences, I agree with your questions - what makes up the on-line audience, and what if anything differentiates it from others? As for Lee's positive attitude toward writing, she should talk with the Dean of the Newhouse School. He has stated publicly that Freshmen today cannot write as well as those who came here 18 years ago. Personallly, I don't think we can make any sweeping generalizations, simply because this is such a transitional time. Changes in Communications Technology,access to a global community, and the openness of the internet are combining to make for a Petri dish of actitivty - who knows how people will collaborate and learn ten years from now?
Bryan,
This post is different from your other posts. This one is more like a literature review...
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