Page 110 - Composition in Convergence The Impact of the New Media on Writing Assessment

WHO OWNS THE WORDS? 77

these two technologies. The language Wickliff used to structure his
assignment's goals reflects an inherent dilemma with teaching in a
networked environment: instructors becoming too much a cowriter
in the students' work. Blair and Takayoshi outlined very well this
problem of the instructor as cowriter in hypertext assignments:

The text becomes our version of the text, depending on which direc-
tion we take our reading and on how much the writer involves us in
our role as reader and coproducer. Thus, our evaluation becomes
wrapped up in our creation of the portfolio as we make our choices in
the reading. With the hypertext portfolio, the blurring of roles of
reader and writer significantly blurs the evaluation process as well.
(Yancey & Weiser, 1997, p. 365)

This is exactly what occurred with Wickliff's assignment. The
students' hypertexts became his version of the e-text, particularly
when he required students to include some way for readers to add
to the document. With the roles of writer, reader, and evaluator
blurred, how are we to know whether Wickliff (or any other in-
structor) offers a solid evaluation?
My concern is that too many writing teachers overwrite the stu-
dents' work in these situations so that the students' e-texts con-
form more to the instructor's version of what an e-text should be.
Too often, the hypertext or e-portfolio bears the professor's design
more than the students'. The result is parallel to how younger stu-
dents' science, math, or history projects sometimes reflect the in-
fluence of an all-too-eager parent who is willing to jump in and
help complete the project. Blair and Takayoshi (1997) are right that
compositionists who work in networked space must be aware of
and able to negotiate their roles as reader and writer, because those
tasks certainly fluctuate in electronic communication. However,
Blair and Takayoshi's notion of writing teachers becoming
coproducers of the students texts makes me uncomfortable. A
coproducer is just that—one who creates the text simultaneously
with another. For me, this type of thinking suggests that students
will always be placed in the subaltern, apprentice, or silent role to
the more educated, experienced reader and writer—the composi-
tion instructor—who acts as colonizer or master of the e-text in the
classroom. Given that most students are so comfortable and famil-
iar with technology and certain communities, they may be the
more educated and experienced ones in the classroom. If student