Page 13 - Composition in Convergence The Impact of the New Media on Writing Assessment

X PREFACE

In the pages that follow, I try to understand what Yancey's fourth
wave in writing assessment looks like. How does this new phase in
assessment differ from older periods in terms of historical signifi-
cance, textual characteristics, student ownership of the text, validity
and reliability, teacher practices, and access to important technolo-
gies? Important shifts occur in these areas as the two technologies in
Composition— computers and writing assessment—play an in-
creasingly more important role in the teaching of writing. Moreover,
there is much for writing instructors and their programs to discuss
and discover in the convergence process, because it appears as
though different institutions will enter and resist these new contexts
at various stages. We need to see convergence in Composition not
just as a global phenomenon that affects the entire field but as a suc-
cession of liminal moments that ebb and flow over time. Conver-
gence is also a highly localized happening as well in that each
institution's political, social, economic, and cultural forces will
shape the way the technologies are blended. What looks right in a re-
search-based university may not fit a 2-year college or a compre-
hensive state university.
That is why the material presented in these chapters is not as pre-
scriptively written as some readers may have liked. Although I do
offer suggestions and ideas based on what has worked in my class-
rooms over the last few years, that information should be taken
solely as suggestion and idea generation. If studying convergence
has taught me one thing, it is that anything written as being "the
way" to implement instruction using technology will be outdated
by the time the book is published. Technology moves at a much
more rapid pace than publication. That is why I hope my work is
used as fodder for discussion, consideration, and improvement on
what has been presented to date. There are many ways to work
with the convergence of technologies in the writing classroom;
each of us has to seek out what works best for us, our students, and
our programs. Perhaps there are talented graduate students or ju-
nior faculty who can take this material, improve on what has been
written, and lead the field into the next waves of technological con-
vergence. I certainly hope so.
To return to Dennis Baron's 1998 essay: Regardless of the levels of
convergence that emerge in Composition, Baron is right: None of
us—neither students nor teachers—should forget our day jobs when
it comes to technology and writing. Writing is a significant aspect of