Page 179 - Composition in Convergence The Impact of the New Media on Writing Assessment

146 CHAPTER 6

of learning in the computer-enhanced writing classroom can be ap-
plied to the students' involvement in the "real world" and what are
the best ways of measuring that learning? Questions like these be-
gin constructing the philosophical and practical implications for
more and better access in the college writing classroom and for fu-
ture assessment methods.
Compositionists must also consider their own views on technol-
ogy and whether their attitudes reflect an "instrumental or sub-
stantive" (Feenberg, 1991) position. That is, do we see technology,
in either assessment or computer form, as a value-neutral tool that
conforms to the needs of various writing purposes? Or do we see
these two technologies as another type of social system that reor-
ganizes the entire social world in our classrooms? Again, the an-
swers we ourselves put forward, and those solutions our programs
or departments establish, offer important insights into the implica-
tions for the types of access we desire in the college writing class.
How we answer these questions also will reflect how we come to
assess the types of writing produced in networked settings.
As a discipline, Composition should be speaking louder in recog-
nizing the importance of establishing and fostering multiple
literacies in our students to meet the demands of writing various
e-texts. Using the body of works produced by numerous scholars,
researchers, and teachers in the field, Composition needs to do better
in its investigation of what the pragmatic goals and rationales are
for incorporating these numerous abilities into the various levels of
college writing that now exist. There has to be greater discussion of
when and where, pedagogically, these computer-enhanced writing
activities can and should be incorporated into the entire writing se-
quence. For instance, what are suitable online writing activities for
basic writers or ESL students—do these instructors focus on chat and
lists to build fluency, or should they set up some sort of interactive
writing environment on DIWE or WebCT, BlackBoard, or others?
Would e-journal writing or blogging be better activities? Or should
these instructors create something more challenging for ESL
students, like a MOO?
Actually, when in the composition sequences should students MOO
or blog? Is entering MOO or blog space part of first-year comp, ad-
vanced composition, professional writing, or graduate study? At
what point in the students' composing experience does visual rhetoric
enter—or should it enter? Even though each institution has unique