Page 22 - Composition in Convergence The Impact of the New Media on Writing Assessment

INTRODUCTION XIX

and interactivity that writing assignments can have in cyberspace,
and that realization grows yearly as more instructors turn to hy-
bridized or fully computer-based composition in the writing class-
room. Most faculty have web pages, and many teach with programs
like WebCT, NiceNet, or BlackBoard for all or part of their courses.
There is, though, one area of writing instruction that is now being
emphasized in networked spaces: assessment. Until recently, per-
haps the last 2 or 3 years, in Composition there was a lack of sus-
tained inquiry regarding whether and how these two technologies
can be successfully blended. The condition facing writing teachers is
one in which computer technology sufficiently alters both a writer's
knowledge base and the definition of what is a text to such a degree
that fundamental writing assessment methods and terminology no
longer apply. Although the traditional language and ideas driving
writing assessment seem retrograde when compared with what
compositionists do in the computer-based classroom, these assess-
ment practices remain. The language, criteria, and ideas are ported
from paper to pixel even though one technology calls the other into
question. Consequently, a significant result of Composition's con-
vergence is a clash between two dominant technologies that exist in
the teaching of writing—computers and assessment—and the
struggle between the two leaves many wondering which one (or if
one) will fold into the other.

INTERTWINING TECHNOLOGIES: A SHORT HISTORY OF THE RISE
OF COMPUTERS AND ASSESSMENT IN COMPOSITION

Computers and assessment not only represent competing technol-
ogies in contemporary Composition Studies; each also reflects a
particular ideological domain in the teaching of writing. In these
days of colleges and universities being driven by "fast capitalism,"
a mix of highly mobile capital and the rapid distribution of infor-
mation plus capital through technological means (Kress, 1994),
compositionists increasingly find themselves considering strange
alliances in teaching writing to adapt to a new academic environ-
ment. For instance, some are developing various types of distance
learning writing courses, integrating basic writing classes with
"traditional" first-year composition, and linking writing to
nonhumanities courses, to name but three critical changes in
writing instruction. Yet few of these unions challenge a writing