Research Bibliography #7

Computers and Composition 

Does the medium make the magic? The effects of cooperative learning and conferencing software
Hansel Burley
Computers and Composition Vol. 15.1 1998 Pp. 83-95

This article explores the effects of computer-assisted writing environments on composition students, focusing on the effects of cooperative learning and conferencing software. I found that word processing alone has little effect on writing behavior; however, conferencing software seems to help create a more authentic writing environment than found in the traditional classroom or in one that uses word processing alone. This conferencing environment became a catalyst for a distinctive learning ecology that interrelated prosocial student behaviors, learner-centered teaching, and assessment. The conferencing class did more than help students to apply critical thinking and problem-solving skills in interaction with others. It helped students identify and use varying learning styles of cooperative groups to successfully reach writing goals

Who owns the course? Online composition courses in an era of changing intellectual property policies
Susan Lang
Computers and Composition Vol. 15.2 1998 pp. 215-228

This article examines existing copyright law, the ambiguous case law concerning copyrightable material and educators, university policies toward patent and copyright law, and the changing nature of educational institutions in the 1990s to consider the question of who “owns” an online composition course, or any course for that matter, in the late twentieth century. I argue that composition instructors need to consider the following issues as they design and revise courses with a significant online component. Who has historically and contractually controlled course materials created by faculty members? Who owns course materials developed for particular courses? Why should the transition to networked computing environments change the nature of course materials ownership? Are there substantiative differences between materials created for a traditional composition course and an online course? The answers to these questions may fundamentally change the ways instructors create and use instructional materials.

Note: As part of a special issue on copyright and computers

What students see: Word processing and the perception of visual design
Mike Markel
Computers and Composition Vol. 15.3 1998 pp. 373-386

A study of students who have completed the first-year composition sequence shows that they are aware of, and understand the function of, some common design elements (boldface, italics, numbered lists) but are much less aware of other design elements (such as headers, indentation, and line spacing). These students' perceptions of design elements correlate strongly with their self-reported experience using word-processing packages and with their attitude concerning the design of a document and how that affects their ability to communicate, but not with other related demographics or attitudes. This study suggests that using a word-processing package can help writers learn to use and understand important elements of visual design. As more and more information is presented by dynamic, protean media such as the Internet, the ability to understand the codes of visual rhetoric will become more important for writers. Visual rhetoric should be addressed more directly in our teaching and research.

Note: Issue 16.1 1999 – special issue on feminism/feminist issues in hypertext, etc.

On the relationship between old and new technologies
Christina Haas
Computers and Composition Vol. 16.2 1999 pp. 209-228

The author argues for complicating current views of writing technology, specifically views of the relationship between old and new literacy technologies. Using a Vygotskian theory and a grounded theory methodology, the author explores the uses of old and new technologies of three contemporary work sites to ground claims that (a) competing visions of what technology is and what it can do are operative in contemporary workplaces, (b) multiple literacy technologies are copresent in the conduct of work, and (c) more advanced literacy technologies are not necessarily the most powerful within work cultures. The case studies are also interpreted through the lens of Bijker’s theory of sociotechnical change.

           

Reading between the code: the teaching of HTML and the displacement of writing instruction
Nicholas Mauriello, Gian S Pagnucci, Tammy Winner
Computers and Composition Vol. 16.3 1999 pp. 409-419

The introduction of hypertext markup language (HTML) into the composition classroom often complicates traditional text-bound assignments. The process of incorporating HTML codes into writing can be frustrating because HTML is difficult to learn. More time spent learning coding skills may mean less time spent learning other writing skills. In many ways, learning HTML is like learning a second language. Unlike other pedagogical tools, though, HTML seems to blur the lines of our discipline. It turns the traditional composition course into a hybrid language/writing/computer course. This reshaping displaces traditional writing activities with technology-based instruction, thus challenging the notion of what constitutes appropriate curricular content within the composition classroom. This curricular change necessitates political action on the part of technology-focused teachers, for instance the establishment of new types of teaching collaboratives and the rethinking of departmental policies.

The new frontier: conquering the World Wild Web by mule
Morgan Gresham
Computers and Composition Vol. 16.3 pp. 395-407

This article offers a close examination of the effects that teaching hypertext markup language (HTML) has on students’ perceptions of class goals in a networked composition classroom. A networked classroom that requires students to send documents using a file transfer protocol (FTP) by command line and view the World Wide Web with a textual browser shifts the emphasis of the class from writing to coding. Helping students identify a balance between computer technology and writing goals becomes essential to a successful classroom.

Note: Vol 17.1 2000 – Issues of computers/instructors who use computers and questions of tenure

The influence of word processing on English placement text results
Susanmarie Harrington, Mark D Shermis, Angela L Rollins
Computers and Composition Vol 17.2 2000 pp. 197-210

A study was conducted to consider two issues: (a) whether differences might emerge in writing quality when students wrote examinations by hand The influence of word processing on English placement test results or on a computer and (b) whether raters differed in their evaluation of essays written by hand, on a computer, or by hand and then transcribed to typed form before scoring. A total of 480 students from a large Midwestern university were randomly assigned into one of three essay groups: (a) those who composed their responses in a traditional bluebook, (b) those who wrote in a bluebook, then had their essays transcribed into a computer, and (c) those who wrote their essays on the computer. A one-way ANOVA revealed no statistically significant differences in ratings among the three groups [F_(2,475) = 1.21, ns]. The discussion centers on the need for testing programs to examine the relationship between assessment and prior writing experiences, student preferences for testing medium, and rater training regarding the possible impact of technology on scores.

Computerized grammar checkers 2000: capabilities, limitations, and pedagogical possibilities
Alex Vernon
Computers and Composition Vol. 17.3 2000 pp. 329-349

Since commercial word-processing software integrated grammar checkers in the early 1990s, the composition community has scaled back its printed work on this technology to pursue more urgent issues of new technologies (new media, online composition, etc.) and their theoretical implications. Yet the functionality of grammar checkers has changed dramatically, and we should continue to explore the pedagogical possibilities of a tool now available whenever students compose on a computer. Grammar checkers remain troublesome and inaccurate—we should consider teaching students how to manage them and realize their potential despite their limitations. Grammar checkers allow us to discuss grammar at what called the most “teachable moment” (p. 46): the moment of direct application to student writing. We might also use them to discuss the problematic nature of standard, normative written language conventions and the authority behind such conventions. In the hope of re-engaging some scholarly and practical interest, this article a) reviews the literature of grammar checker technology in composition; b) analyzes the current grammar checking capability of the most popular word-processing programs in the United States, Microsoft Word 2000 and Corel WordPerfect 9.0 (2000); and c) concludes by suggesting uses of grammar checkers for composition teachers.

Written Communication

Disciplining Discourse: Discourse Practice in the Affiliated Professions of Software Engineering Design
Cheryl Geisler, Edwin H. Rogers, Cynthia R. Haller
Written Communication Vol. 15.1 1998

The authors report an investigation of the discourse practices of the “affiliated professions” of software engineering design. Lists of design issues generated by students in computer science and technical communication were compared to lists produced by experts affiliated with software engineering and by students entering an unaffiliated profession. The results suggest that (a) the affiliated experts addressed a more balanced set of issues, (b) the students in computer science looked more like the affiliated experts in their attention to technical issues and more like the unaffiliated students in their attention to human issues, and (c) the students in technical communication looked more like the affiliated experts in their attention to the human issues and more like the unaffiliated students in their attention to the technical issues. The results are discussed in terms of a landscape of highly clustered, fractured, and stratified affiliated professions over which students travel during their educational and professional careers.

TCQ

Web‐based training: An overview of training tools for the technical writing industry
Margaret Discoll and John E. Reid Jr.
Technical Communication Quarterly Vol. 8.1 1999

This article provides technical training managers with an overview of the range of Web‐based training solutions available to their organizations. The solutions range from individual drill and practice opportunities to live collaborative group learning. This article defines four broad categories and characterizes each. The most popular type, Web/computer based (W/CBT), is analyzed and four levels of W/CBT programs are presented. Included are tables summarizing considerations for selecting a development approach.

Note: 1999 saw special issues specifically related to web/distance learning/issues of internet

Technical Communication 

Testing Visual-Based Modules for Teaching Writing
Mike Markel
Technical Communication Vol. 45.1 1998 pp. 47-76

“A study of novice writers shows that instructional materials about writing that incorporate basic principles of visual design are more effective than those that are primarily verbal. Less-capable writers benefit most from materials that include the extra text-processing cues provided by the visual design. Narrative comments about the instructional materials show that writers are aware of the design elements and appreciate them. Technical communication practitioners, researchers, trainers, and instructors have a large role to play in improving the way writing is taught.”

 

Active Learning for Software Products
Michael A. Hughes
Technical Communication Vol. 45.3 1998 

“Shows how adult learning and situated learning principles can be applied to classroom-based software training. Argues that these techniques create instructional strategies that incorporate context-rich activities for work-oriented instruction.”

Hypermedia, multimedia, and reader cognition: An empirical study
David E Hailey Jr, Christine Hailey.
Technical Communication Vol. 45.3 1998

Distinguishes between digital multimedia, traditional multimedia, hypertext, and hypermedia/hypermediated.  Determines that readers learn best when presented with multimedia rather than hypermedia.

Note: Some interesting books being reviewed including Remediation / a lot of “usability” talk / looking specifically for work with software/about software / pretty sure Ken Jackson did a review on XML books o_O

Note: Issue 47.3 in 2000 has a lot of “guidelines for ____ “ in web-related areas

JAC

Reviewed: "Computers and the Teaching of Writing in American Higher Education, 1979–1994: A History by Gail E. Hawisher, Paul LeBlanc, Charles Moran, and Cynthia L. Selfe, eds." 

Making Room, Writing Hypertext
Collin Gifford Brooke
JAC Vol. 19.2 1999

Brooke argues that arrangement deserves a closer look while acknowledging that it makes sense that the cannon has been reduced due to the common linearity of writing practice.  Brooke uses hypertext and digital writing more generally as the basis for the claim that arrangement should be re-examined in our field. 

Reviewed: "Reality by Design: The Rhetoric and Technology of Authenticity in Education by Joseph Petraglia"

KAIROS

3.1 1998 : Copywrite, Plagiarism, and Intellectual Property 

Note: More models for distance learning / challenging the “order” or something that seems “disordered” 

Note: More on (re)constructing identities / questioning the “virtual”

http://kairos.technorhetoric.net/5.2/binder.html?coverweb/buckley/index.htm
Creating Software for a University Writing Course
Joanne Buckley
Kairos 5.1 2000

Work on software development and justification for use.  Buckley’s justifications range from the benefits of interactivity to the software’s ability to introduce students the terminology necessary for mastering grammar.

College English

Reviewed:
English and Emerging Technologies
Of Two Minds: Hypertext, Pedagogy, and Poetics by Michael Joyce; The Electronic Word: Democracy, Technology, and the Arts by Richard A. Lanham; The Cultures of Computing by Susan Leigh Star
Review by: Charles Moran
College English Vol. 60.2 1998 

Teaching Writing in a Culture of Technology
Chris M. Anson
College English Vol. 61.3 1999

This article details two ways that the author perceives writing instruction to be “pressured” by technology: 1) the replacement of “face-to-face” interaction and 2) distance learning.  The author believes that while technology provides many affordances, it also contradicts some of the “basic principles” of the writing classroom. Ultimately there is a call for rejecting certain uses of technology that might lead to poor teaching and learning. 

Visualizing English: Recognizing the Hybrid Literacy of Visual and Verbal Authorship on the Web
Craig Stroupe
College English Vol. 62.5 2000

Focusing on what he calls “hybrid literacy,” the author proposes ways and methods of teaching English in a new environment that is both visual and verbal in nature.  The visual aspects are manifested through hypertext and various aspects of digital composition. A “specific approach” to teaching verbal and non-verbal features in coding is provided by Stroupe.

CCC

Joseph Cornell and the Artistry of Composing Persuasive Hypertexts
Joseph Janangelo
College Composition and Communication Vol. 49.1 1998

Janangelo gives an account of students using hypertext to form persuasive arguments about their writing.  While acknowledging particular constraints to this method of instruction/assignment, Janangelo states that “although it is true that, given financial constraints and the power of print culture, most writing teachers will not be receiving many persuasive hypertexts any time soon, it interests me that some students are beginning to compose beyond print paradigms-even if they must simulate hyper-textual format to do so.”

Technology and Literacy: A Story about the Perils of Not Paying Attention
Cynthia Selfe
College Composition and Communication Vol. 50.3 1999

Here, Selfe argues that we are allowing technology to disappear (and this is most certainly backed up by the recent years in composition journals). Selfe notes that “As a result, computers are rapidly becoming invisible, which is how we like our technology to be. When we don't have to pay at-tention to machines, we remain free to focus on the theory and practice of language, the stuff of real intellectual and social concern.” She suggests that allowing the technology to disappear is when it becomes “dangerous” and that we must keep technology a topic of discussion and analysis regardless of how we view ourselves as humanists