Page 39 - Composition in Convergence The Impact of the New Media on Writing Assessment

6 CHAPTER 1

the power of the written word, as real audiences respond to their
ideas while a machine carries out their requests.
This pedagogical change is not unrecognized by students, who
frequently react to the instructional shift in a positive manner. In-
stead of instructors telling students how to write, or explaining to
students which models to use in their writing, or even demonstrat-
ing to students what to put on the blank screen in front of them,
computer-based composition classes inspire students to take respon-
sibility for their education. As a result, students' enthusiasm and in-
terest toward the course increase. This point was made clearer to me
after a student in a College Composition II class wrote in his or her fi-
nal evaluation: "We continue discussions about topics and work
outside of class by use of classlists (e-mail)" and "By using hands-on
techniques and modern technology, she [the professor] conveys the
ideas of College Comp II in a way that the youth of today can
understand" (fall, 1998).
Students who come to our writing classes with little experience
in technology—albeit this type of student is becoming increas-
ingly rarer but still does exist in some places—can benefit from
these experiences. Several students wrote in their student evalua-
tions that although they were nervous entering a course that had
such a heavy focus on technology and writing, "the lectures and
assignments were interesting" and "the information learned will
help me in the future" (fall, 2003). Infusing technology into the
writing process made quite a few students think of themselves as
"professional writers" because they had "the opportunity to dis-
cover and present their work in a professional forum on line" (fall
2003). This dimension of having students see themselves as writ-
ers with a real audience is important for them to take genuine
ownership of their work.
The computer's promise is great for enacting Freire's (1993) "au-
thentic reflection" in undergraduate students' writing processes. Us-
ing online contexts, students develop a consciousness about their
writing simultaneously with learning about the world around
them. They begin to see that without another's recognition of their
words, writing has no purpose. In essence, electronic communica-
tion offers students a chance to see themselves as writers with an au-
dience. Once student writers are aware of themselves as being real
writers with something to say, they acknowledge—as this student
did—that their writing courses "open up the realm of greater re-