Page 36 - Composition in Convergence The Impact of New Media On

INTERNETWORKED WRITING 5

student's comments reflect the reality that, whether personally or
institutionally imposed, many writing teachers do adhere to a
strict sequence when teaching composition and that any disrup-
tion in the order fouls up the semester's learning activities. This
student's observation underscores how "learning productivity" is
often defined in education, as following an inflexible schedule of
events that culminates in a capstone assignment or course.
Here, too, computer-based writing instruction alters the method of
delivering course content, which shifts our understanding of "pro-
ductivity." As writing instructors have found, in an interactive, net-
worked environment, it is difficult to keep a rigid lesson plan or course
schedule. This is because the faculty member frequently responds to
multiple, individualized situations in the students' writing and think-
ing processes. Depending on the students' comfort levels with tech-
nology, some can move forward quickly whereas others take much
more time to accomplish the same task. Usually, in computer-based
classroom environments, I have found that the simpler the syllabus
structure, the easier it is to maintain a sense of direction and a sense of
discovery for both instructors and students. That way, students can
move at their own paces, and I can tweak instruction to serve where
the students are in the course. This seems to me to be more productive
learning, although the course looks and feels chaotic at times.
The concept of productivity must be redefined when computer
technology is introduced into the writing classroom. Whether us-
ing electronic discussion lists, web writing, hypertexts, MOOs,
and the like, the classroom always centers on the word and the
ability of others besides the instructor to discern meaning (not to
mention increasing the students' potential for developing solid
grammatical and spelling skills so a computer can respond to their
commands). Productivity no longer refers to a set number of
words or pages to be churned out; rather, productivity connects to
how effectively writers communicate in a given context. All this
alleviates the need for an instructor to follow a rigid daily or
weekly structure, because he or she constantly surrounds the stu-
dents with writing practice. The computer's potential for releas-
ing instructors from the confines of their planning books allows
them to reach the roots of what writing instruction needs to be
and what student writers need to learn—how to control their
thoughts and language to communicate with an audience, re-
gardless of genre. Students then begin to discover for themselves