Page 154 - Composition in Convergence The Impact of the New Media on Writing Assessment

HOT AND COOL TECHNOLOGIES 121

cool technologies is that convergence sometimes produces a luke-
warm response in the classroom. Colleagues were curious, but skep-
tical, as to what I was doing with any assessment procedures that
addressed online writing. "Too hard and time-consuming to be use-
ful," said some. "Interesting. But the results are not generalizable
enough," said others. "Stay with the portfolio idea," a small faction
argued. "It's a tried-and-true method."
Coming to terms with the blending of hot and cool technologies
means that compositionists need to seek out what elements of each
technology work with the other form and with the instructor's own
pedagogical philosophies, because these two technologies conflict
more often than they coincide. Instructors also need to discover how
phatic communication strategies function in academic settings, so as
not to misread students' efforts.
From teaching the students in Room 25 and observing how they
interact with each other and with the world, I have realized that my
values for what makes writing and instruction "good" have shifted
greatly. Seven years ago when I started teaching more extensively in
Room 25, I would have probably argued that good writing is situ-
ated in specific contexts and purposes as well as is grounded in sound
fundamentals. Good writing instruction helps students learn what
techniques and strategies best address these multiple situations.
However, today, I offer those who ask me a very different under-
standing of what good writing is. After teaching in Room 25, I dis-
covered that computer-enhanced writing depends on the following:

• Textual constructions that invite and include readers more than
exclude them
• Interactivity that moves beyond the semantic content of words
into the use of typography, punctuation, color, and so on
• Language use that continually begs for additional communica-
tion among correspondents (often phatic forms of communica-
tion)
• Maintaining a consciousness regarding different cultural mod-
els and biases in visual, aural, and linguistic representations
and reflecting multiple levels of meaning
• Establishing synthesia, the interplay of the senses, in language
use and mechanics that appeals to and send messages to both
readers' ears and eyes as well as encourages tactile responses
through linking, clicking, or pressing buttons