Flying under the Wings of KCO

My advisor, Kelly Chandler-Olcott, wrote a review of J. Inman's and D. Sewell's text, TAKING FLIGHT WITH OWLs: EXAMINING ELECTRONIC WRITING CENTER WORK. From her review of this text, I've learned that OWL translates as Online Writing Lab, and as KCO notes, such online writing lab practice comes in a variety of sizes and are situated in a # of 'habitats'. I wish to include this notion of 'habitat' because it follows in Zhao's discussion of a classroom's ecosystem and how technology is now a part of a school's life network.

Kelly C-O refers to D.J Leu's review in the Handbook of Reading Research where he addresses that computer technology has been integrated into many writing centers so quickly that research and evaluation have not been able to keep pace.

KCO recognizes that OWLS makes her more conscious of how she provides feedback on writing through emails and the course website, but also how students are to respond to one another's work digitally. She points out that she MUST model her own process in composing online replies to the work of others --- in other words, she must TEACH how technology is to be used to communicate professionally. (p.190)

Issues of face-to-face time and screen-to-screen time are a reality for the digital age.

Online Writing Labs are catalysts for collaboration among diverse people. (Another use for blogs). They are places for assistance with writing.

"...we cannot ignore the fact that many members of the next generation of writers may find online tutorials more attractive, not less, than proximal ones." 194.

"...the next generation of writing center clients may need facility with a different kind of composition---one that is more multimedia in nature---than current OWL clients do." 194.

KCO questions the use of writing tutorials around traditional print texts, alone, and challenges thinkers to address how Online Writing Labs may be used beyond traditional text means and into multi-mediated representations.

How this connects with the blog-osphere is, again, an indication of how quickly the technological world works. Beyond OWLS, the invention of FACEBOOK, Blogger.com, MySpace, etc, not to mention the interactive communities arriving from web-based communities around the globe, make such a discussion old -- fast.