Page 162 - Composition in Convergence The Impact of the New Media on Writing Assessment

HOT AND COOL TECHNOLOGIES 129

social necessities" that both accelerate and decelerate technological
advancement (p. 69). The media, as a strong shaper for public opin-
ion, send all of us mixed accounts regarding the competing class-
room technologies of computers and assessment. In turn,
administrations send mixed messages to departments and faculties
regarding computer and assessment technologies, as the social,
economic, and political messages waver on a regular basis. Conse-
quently, writing instructors are caught between accelerating and
decelerating technological use in the classroom depending on the
cultural tide.
Recognizing that the law of suppressed radical potential func-
tions wherever technology surfaces in a culture is important for
understanding how writing instructors can develop assessment
practices that align with the shifting demands for technology in the
classroom. The convergence process between these two technolo-
gies in Composition will be fraught with moments of acceleration
and periods of delay until the needs of the institution, social forces,
and, unfortunately, legislative and regulatory effects are met and
some kind of stabilizing environment occurs. The best news is that
stabilization does eventually happen with all technologies. How-
ever, no one can predict when this stability emerges. Currently,
computer technology is moving far faster than assessment tech-
nology, and compositionists have the ability to advance the stu-
dents' writing processes much more quickly using vastly complex
genres and hardware or software combinations compared with
what the standard evaluation methodologies can accommodate.
The result is that many faculty and programs are hindered in their
hopes to upgrade computer networks or systems because of the
economic aspects of technology. Simultaneously, faculty and pro-
grams are constrained by the social and political pressures that
drive the need for outdated assessment methods that evaluate writ-
ing in networked environments.
These realizations led me to recognize that the traditional writing
assessment practices so common to my department and to other
programs are usually inappropriate for the activities that take place
in Room 25 or in similar rooms at other universities. Nor do I think
these traditional writing assessment practices function well for the
types of writing students in grades K-12 need to learn to succeed in
college and in the workforce (see Hillocks, 2002, for an in-depth of
four state K-12 writing assessments). However, these older writing