I first became familiar with the idea that writing could be more than merely alphabetic text during my undergraduate studies when I read Tom Romano’s Blending Genre, Altering Style: Writing Multi-Genre Papers (2000) during one of my methods classes. I fell in love with the idea that students could bring together poetry, song, images, receipts, tickets, journal entries, skits, and more to create a comprehensive understanding of a topic than could be achieved by researching and writing a paper alone. My understanding of multimodality is that digital tools can now be used to surpass the multi-genre paper and create a text that is interactive and “living.”
Multimodal compositions are clearly the direction in which meaningful discourse will take place. To see the “driveway effect,” as Selfe calls it, in my classroom more frequently would mean that my students were finally communicating about ideas that have value to not only themselves and are, more unusually, able to bring the rest of the class along in the experience. Whether this happens in presentations live in class or online, this would be powerful writing for a real audience—something students everywhere crave.
Multimodal composition certainly appeals to students far more than the traditional approach, even when drafting is performed on the computer. Students love to demonstrate their proficiency with digital tools and relish in becoming the teacher when fellow students need assistance and particularly when I am stumped by the technology. Much as my classmates and I giggled gleefully in the 90s when the substitute could not work the VCR, contemporary students exult in their superior knowledge of the intricate and sometimes mysterious (at least to me) workings of the web.
I am conflicted about the use of digital tools in the classroom. I see the potential for students to become active participants in learning; they will be delighted to be allowed to speak the language they know best and to be innovative and creative with multimodal compositions. I am eager to learn how to use these digital tools for my own purposes beyond the classroom as well as to foster a broader literacy among my students.
The problem for me is that I love the nearly antiquated pen-and-paper alphabetic writing to which I still cling, even at this very moment, drafting in my notebook before typing. There is a peacefulness and expressiveness that comes from silent thought through the ink which I will miss: something personal about the writer’s voice that I fear will evaporate and be replaced by impersonal hyperlinks. I am anxious to learn more about the tools Web 2.0 provides and how the individual is retained despite the robotic nature of typed words.
Digital tools are undeniably necessary to curriculum; I fully agree with Selfe that, “composition instruction must change if it is to remain relevant and fulfill the goal of preparing effective and literate citizens for the 21st century” (8). If digital tools can create an environment in which my students feel comfortable and encouraged to write, I am excited to learn about it. The “participatory culture” which Henry Jenkins described (as referenced in Beach on page six) is precisely the environment teachers attempt to create in writing workshops to more or less success. The Web 2.0 version of the writing workshop eliminates the face-to-face jitters that many students experience and cultivates an attitude of collaboration and revision.
As far as Prensky’s digital immigrants and natives are concerned, I feel as though there is no place for someone like myself, who was born in 1981 in a relatively rural area. I used computers, but Internet was a foreign concept until my senior year in high school, and even then only the bravest teachers took us to the “Cyber Lab” to conduct research. Through college I quickly picked up certain Web 2.0 features. Now I Facebook, read all my news online, prefer instant messaging to talking on the phone, and listen to my IPod just like other so-called natives, but I am behind my students in this language while still light-years ahead of the decidedly immigrant speakers with many more years teaching experience.
In class we discussed the blurring of lines between one’s independent thought and others’ ideas, and this is where I am concerned about what I perceive to be Prensky’s over-simplification of the issue of the new generation of tech-savvy students. He argues that “They [Digital Natives] thrive on instant gratification and frequent rewards. They prefer games to ‘serious’ work” (2). Although the way in which we disseminate and receive information may have changed to be lightning fast and multi-sourced, many aspects of life remain slower-paced and require patience. How many employers are frustrated with new recruits who demand pay increases or promotions without putting in the time and effort to improve their performance or knowledge?
It is negligent to allow students to graduate high school and college without having learned lessons about patience and hard work. Students should not be rewarded merely for showing up and if they wish to belong to a community of scholars, they should use digital tools to reach further than scholars of the past rather than feeling entitled to continuous sources of entertainment even in their learning. Technology can enhance the learning process, but it should not be used as a crutch for weak character.
I completely understand your concern for the loss of traditional pen and paper writing. I myself always revert to writing in my notebook whenever I feel writer's block. There is just something powerful about that tactile experience that future generations may miss out on. When you write with a pen you are forced to slow down and your world becomes shrinks down to the tip of your pen. Unfortunately, as multitasking is rapidly becoming the norm, I feel fewer and fewer people will revel in that experience.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that patience is a crucial lesson for students. It seems like the world is spinning faster and faster every day. Everyone wants the quick payoff and foresight has been forgotten. Just look at what has happened to our economy.
Laura,
ReplyDeleteI too have read Romano's work on multigenre papers. As a part of the NWIN Writing Project in 2009, I did a research paper (in multigenre form, it was a hoot!) about multigenre writing. As I read Selfe's and Beach et al.'s chapters, my mind drifted to Romano over and over again, as I considered what multimodal writing might do for his idea of packaging the research projects and using small pieces as transitions between them. I was thinking about video clips that would fade in and out, interactive pages that required the user to click on some aptly designed icon to learn about a particular part of that research project. I have a feeling that would be very engaging to students, and I would like to try it.
As far as your conflicting feelings regarding integrating digital tools in your classroom, I understand them, especially since some students may be digital immigrants. However, I think we have to realize two things: 1) Students are going to be required to use this technology somewhere in the future and 2) digital tools allow for greater decentralization of the classroom. Though you may argue with me on that (and I hope you do!), Beach et al.'s description of the online role-playing that Boeser's students engaged in certainly suggests that at least some students sometimes may be more engaged working in a digital environment than in a traditional one. In addition, because most teachers tend to be digital immigrants and most students tend to be digital natives, teachers who use digital technology in their classrooms further decentralize by bringing their class to the students' level.
For me, writing with a pencil and paper is a lost art. It's not part of my writing process. Rarely does anything good come out when I write rather than type. That's my writing process, and I'm OK with that, but what would I do if a student came and told me that about using the computer, that she couldn't compose because she was having too hard a time dealing with the technology. Would I be right to require her to keep using it? Or would I need to let her use the writing process that has been working for her? That's something I'm still trying to figure out. Any thoughts?
Miranda
Miranda-
ReplyDeleteAs I look over my previous post, I see that I've waxed nostalgic for pen and paper and for my experiences with learning to write. I savored every minute and what I really want is to usher students into a world where reading and writing are exciting and entertaining, as well as useful.
I find the digital tools available for composition in all modalities fascinating and a wonderful addition to the classroom. These tools will be very powerful in making the education relevant and turning out students whose computer literacy enables them to think and create in ways that wouldn't occur to me even in my dreams!
I was part of NWIWP in 2007, and I hope that each year they greatly expand the potential for digital tools to encourage writing in all subject areas. We briefly discussed blogs, MySpace, and Facebook, but didn't expand into wikis, podcasts, etc that some teachers use today to great effect.
I loved the practical example at the beginning of Ch. 1 in Beach--I have done activities in the same spirit with paper in the classroom (which is decidedly more cumbersome!). Computer lab reservations often have to be made a month or more in advance to secure a place between computerized testing and the five departments that share the same lab. There is a real power in students creating, collaborating on, and revising their own discoveries on a topic in real time.