Page 18 - Composition in Convergence The Impact of the New Media on Writing Assessment

Introduction: Composition
at the Crossroads of Convergence:

What Happens When Technologies
Intersect in Pedagogical Spaces?

Writing has always been aligned with technology, from the ancient
scratchings on cave walls to the present tapping of keystrokes on a
laptop. Technology, as media scholar Lawrence Grossberg defined it,
connects us to tangible means of making, remaking, and distribut-
ing commodities, services, materials, and cultural products
(Grossberg, Wartella, & Whitney, 1998). Writing also connects us to
these same areas, because many commodities, services, materials,
and cultural products depend on the written word in some way.
Like technology, writing is not an unconstrained part of soci-
ety—both are molded and managed by various social organiza-
tions, such as education and government, which make particular
decisions regarding production and use. Writing and technology,
then, share several important characteristics and tensions height-
ened by the arrival of the computer age: communication, power,
mediation, and determination. Each of these aspects has particular
roles as Composition undergoes its latest convergence with tech-
nology in pedagogical spaces.
With regard to communication, the rise of computer technology
in the writing classroom has moved writing beyond a closed aca-
demic exercise. Computer-based classroom writing has emerged as a
form of public discourse, with all the attendant variations of opin-

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