Page 186 - Composition in Convergence The Impact of the New Media on Writing Assessment

ACCESS BEFORE ASSESSMENT 153

in relation to the programmatic guidelines needs to develop some
type of protocol, or behavior, to pledge to work toward building a
community in cyberspace.
Of course, ethical access extends to student ownership of the
e-text, as outlined in chapter 3. It is at this point where an ethical as-
sessment plan for online student writing should emerge. New ques-
tions arise for ethical assessment. For example, how much
responsibility should students have in the evaluation of their
e-texts? Where should this evaluation come from, the instructor
only or additional external voices? How much value is the writing
instructor to place on external visitors' comments about a student's
class-based electronic text? How much privacy can be afforded stu-
dent e-texts in networked class activities? At what point in the evalu-
ation can or does the instructor's grading hand override or
overwrite the student's e-text? These are all critical questions to pose
as hot and cool technologies merge in the classroom. These ques-
tions, however, do not directly address "standards," the latest politi-
cal and media buzzword connected to assessment. Far too often,
standards are imposed on instructors and their classes from some
external constituency. Following the "local we" concept, any and all
standards are to be set by the community. In a cyberclassroom, this
may include the students, the instructor, and the writing program
administrator or the department and its policies.
Calling on the "local we" suggests that compositionists can
have writing standards that foster an ethical assessment program
for computer-enhanced classes. Tom Fox (1999), in proposing
seven points for minority student populations to gain access in
traditional writing classroom, offered several areas technorhetors
can strive for to make access to computer and assessment technol-
ogies ethical in the cyberclass:

• Use writing and technology to investigate societal dysfunc-
tion—racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism, and so on in inter-
networked spheres.
• Acknowledge that writing with technologies leads all writers
into conflicts and contradictions at times, and every writer
must search for ways to understand how these conflicts and
contradictions can make us better writers for a global audience.
• Realize that technologies expose institutional inequities in the
classroom, writing program, department, university, and stu-