Page 169 - Composition in Convergence The Impact of the New Media on Writing Assessment

136 CHAPTER 5

The last desire path was filled with obstacles. Conducting deep and
continuous writing assessment is time consuming, sometimes men-
tally draining, and often physically exhausting for my eyes. Something
else happened while this path was under construction, though. I truly
enjoyed every moment with these students, watching them work
through assorted design problems, technical considerations, and media
selections. As they sought my comments during the stages of produc-
ing an assignment, assessment became an easy give-and-take between
writers and readers. The class initiated and responded to questions of
visual rhetoric or written rhetoric, as I regularly made available one or
two of the class members' projects to critique. Evaluation became an
ongoing part of the course, not just an add-on at the end of the semes-
ter. The desire path for melding hot and cool technologies in Room 25,
while obstacle filled on some days, was forming.
The students and I no longer saw ourselves as students and pro-
fessor as we journeyed down this path. Instead, we were designers
and writers who collaborated on various projects. The divisiveness
surrounding responding and grading assignments seemed less so.
When I put forward comments, suggestions, and a grade for an as-
signment, students did not have the usual sense of detachment that
comes from their being disappointed by not receiving an expected
grade. Rather, students paid attention to my comments and sugges-
tions to improve and they tinkered with their projects to reflect those
changes they thought were worthwhile. The individual grades be-
came less an object inflicted on the class and more a benchmark from
which students could develop future revisions. My grading hand
feels lighter than it has in years.
Traveling down this desire path in writing assessment taught me
that annexing hot and cool technologies adds complex layers of sty-
listic and rhetorical reasoning, decision making, and language use as
well as technical ability that highlight student proficiencies, weak-
nesses, and literacies in a profound way. The coolness of computer
technology mediates the heat of writing assessment practices that
require instructors to guess at the proficiency of middle-range stu-
dents. And the computer's distancing effect combined with visual el-
ements in electronic texts reduces the possibilities of having me fall
under the spell of those writers who are facile with language but
who labor with ideas or techne.
Grading also became a much easier process for me in Room 25. Be-
cause of the established audit trail, the continual interaction with