Page 43 - Composition in Convergence The Impact of the New Media on Writing Assessment

10 CHAPTER 1

If this comparison of networked writing to the Panopticon is an
accurate one, then writing in linked classroom spaces continually
requires student writers to contemplate their audience beyond the
private exchanges with a professor or classmate or the semipublic
interaction with a peer group. Some students may find that con-
stant observation of their words in computer-mediated writing en-
vironments forces them to always watch their words or risk the ire
of their classmates or others in on the discussion. When interacting
with ideas in electronic environments, however, writers frequently
find they cannot watch what they say as they might do in a F2F
class. Should a discourse rule be broken, the violator will soon learn
that classmates will watch his or her words for the writer.
Students in my fall 2003 writing classes connected to online envi-
ronments proposed a new risk—the problem of trust. Theorists like
Howard Rheingold (2003) suggest that as students become more
savvy regarding electronically mediated communication, it is harder
for them to trust who is writing on the other end of the post. The
students cited numerous violations of trust in written communica-
tion found in online conversations as promoting the Panoptical ef-
fect, from police posing as teenagers to sting pedophiles to kids
posing as psychics in a chat room; the ability for others to pose as
someone they are not puts many students in a state of unease. Even
for many who write responses online for class discussions, their con-
cerns as to who might be on the other side of the screen is enough for
them to watch what they say. This may be particularly true for in-
ternational students, who are quite concerned about the U.S. Patriot
Act and how it could play out for them in academic settings. Conse-
quently, writing teachers need to discuss student concerns related to
trust, because it is a vital part of the communication process. As
Francis Fukuyama noted, "trust does not reside in integrated circuits
or fiber optic cables" (1995, p. 25). A sense of community frequently
can and does reside in integrated circuits, however, and if we hope to
establish writing communities in networked environments, particu-
larly in educational settings, trust building needs to be part of the
ongoing discussions related to writing.
A third risk is the student's use of silence in an online environ-
ment. In traditional classroom spaces, frequently an instructor can
tell whether a student's silence means assent, dissent, disinterest,
skepticism, thoughtfulness, or withdrawal by watching the stu-
dent's body language and reactions to the events surrounding him