Page 85 - Composition in Convergence The Impact of New Media On

54 CHAPTER 2

their strengths through the inclusion of graphics or sound as well as
through some placement of conventional alphabetic text. Also, this
assessment model accounts for the variety of e-texts students can
produce now and into the future as technology changes. Whether
individually or in collaboration with their peers, this concept ac-
counts for shifts in modalities. Last, this proposed set of assessment
outcomes respects students as real writers with genuine audiences
instead of seeing students as writer-apprentices who are learning
their lines.
Skeptical readers might be wondering how writing teachers can
implement such an assessment proposal into the networked compo-
sition class. Although this point is addressed more fully in later
chapters, suffice it to say here that much of the assessment can be ac-
complished using some of the basic, recognized methods
compositionists now rely on to conduct peer group evalua-
tions—checklists, portfolio responses, and student self-assessment
activities, as well as protocol interviews. However, the manner in
which writing specialists apply these items needs to be revisited and
reclaimed. Instead of studying the students' texts upon completion,
instructors appraise stages of the students' electronic writing to
reflect more authentic assessment.
Over time, as technology and new ideas regarding how to evaluate
e-texts develop, these methods will need to be refined and expanded to
adapt to the newer forms. Unlike writing assessment since the \ 8 70s,
the practices instructors use to evaluate e-texts will have to be revised
regularly to keep pace with rapid technological change. As Trent
Batson's (2002) article in Syllabus magazine indicated, e-portfolios
are emerging across college and university campuses as the next new
technological thing in assessment. As Batson described his University
of Rhode Island e-portfolio experience, the model merely ports over
traditional papertext concepts and places them into an electronic for-
mat. Composition has taken one older form of technology (the port-
folio, which has a 25-year history) and transported it to a newer form
(the Internet). Although e-portfolios may work now in the early 21st
century, as instructors and programs are in the dawning stages of
merging these two technologies, it is entirely conceivable that com-
puter technology will transform itself many times over in the next
few decades. These transformations will also alter how we write and
how we think of texts. Therefore, in their current state, e-portfolios
cannot remain a single answer for evaluating networked writing. As