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Symposium Presentation Descriptions
(click on the title to see a description of that presentation)
10:00 - 11:00 a.m. Session I
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"Blogging Science: The
Sociology and Rhetoric of Scientific Knowledge Production Online."
Aimee Kendall Roundtree, Univ. of Houston—Downtown
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"Bill Gates: America's #1
Teacher of Writing?" Talinn Phillips, Ohio University.
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"Empowering the Silent
Minority: Invisible Students in a Hybrid Writing Class." Robin
Evans, Oklahoma State University
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"Facebook, Online Student
Networking, and Strategically Designed Student Selves." Spencer
Schaffner, Center for Writing Studies, Univ. of Illinois,
Urbana-Champaign.
11:15 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. Session II
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"Making Knowledge in a
Multimedia Authoring Minor: The Interface Between Professional Writing &
Rhetoric and Computer Science." Paula Rosinski, Elon University.
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"Pre-History and
Image-Making: A Case History Examining Early Design Practices." Lisa
Baird, Purdue University North Central
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"Can Blogs Foster an Interest
in Writing?: An Analysis of a Blog Assignment in the Composition I
Classroom." Rob Koch, Gordon College.
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"Writing Ourselves:
Voices in the Virtual Stream." Sabrina Gaskill, Mesalands Community
College.
1:15 - 2:30 p.m. Keynote Conversation
"Computers &
Writing—A Discipline?" Cynthia Selfe, Fred Kemp, James Inman, and
Cheryl Ball.
10:00 - 11:00 a.m.
Session I
"Blogging Science: The
Sociology and Rhetoric of Scientific Knowledge Production Online." Aimee
Kendall Roundtree, Univ. of Houston—Downtown
Blogs have gained popularity, influence and controversy. Today, it’s
estimated that the Internet contains over four million blogs. Many serve
as the writers’ diaries or journals; they share mundane observations and
epiphanies. Still others espouse particular political views. Of late,
blog have made headway in scientific community. Surprisingly, scientists
have embraced the media with minimal self-reflection. A search in
popular scientific academic journals and para-publications such as
Scientific American and Nature uncovered no heated debates over blog
legitimacy to rival those currently underway in broadcast journalism.
My presentation accomplish two ends: (1) to categorize scientific
blogs into identifiable and differentiated types and (2) to evaluate how
scientific blogging differs from articles, presentations and
emails—three other modes of scientific writing and communication. It
will examine two objects of study—one from the Los Alamos National Lab
and RealClimate—to show that scientific blogs hybridize discursive
patterns, rhetorical purposes, and formal components common to multiple
traditional scientific genre. Scientific blogs also expose cultural,
social and subjective factors influence the production and proliferation
of scientific knowledge; to this end, they have both personal and
professional implications for scientists. I will use Bazerman, Gross,
and Swales to frame rhetorical and linguistic style typical of
scientific articles. And I’ll use Hert and Lewenstein, Rzepa, Johnson
and Pinch to discuss scientific web sites, emails and presentations.
"Bill Gates: America's #1
Teacher of Writing?" Talinn Phillips, Ohio University.
As Microsoft's WORD program continues to dominate the market, many
writing teachers have become concerned about this domination and also
question the usefulness of many features. Given that there are more
copies of WORD in the U.S. than English teachers (McGee and Ericsson),
Bill Gates' inanimate program is quite possibly having a greater impact
on Americans' writing than anyone else. A critical examination of WORD's
implicit pedagogy therefore has important implications for writers and
the teaching of writing. The goal of this synchronous session, then, is
to give WORD a comprehensive rhetorical critique. What kind of argument
is Word making about the nature of writing? How does it implicitly
define “good” writing through its programming choices (Selfe and Selfe)?
And as scholars like Welch and Lanham have worked to draw our attention
beyond the power of one particular program to the ramifications of word
processing itself, it's important to ask: How does WORD fit into the
larger context of typing words on a "page" instead of writing them?
I will argue that WORD's argument is, essentially, confused-that
while many of the more critiqued aspects of the program encourage a
product-privileged pedagogy of writing, that other, less discussed
components of the program support a more process-oriented pedagogy.
Further, that we can understand this confusion as WORD situated in both
literacy and secondary orality (Ong). This “and” perspective of the
program reflects not only the pedagogies it supports, but also the
“and”ness of the medium itself.
"Empowering the Silent
Minority: Invisible Students in a Hybrid Writing Class." Robin Evans,
Oklahoma State University
While such scholars as Cynthia Selfe, Gail Hawisher, and Todd Taylor
have drawn scholarly attention to the dangers and opportunities afforded
to at-risk minority students in computer-mediated composition classes,
there has been scant attention paid to the impact of technology on the
participation of minority students when the instructor herself is a
member of a minority group. In this paper, I argue that even as
African-American students are more willing to communicate with their
African-American instructors, they remain disinclined to voice their
opinions to those Anglo students who comprise the classroom majority. I
demonstrate that a combination of individual mentoring and online
discussion empowers the voices of minority students in the writing
classroom and increases their investment in talking and learning about
writing. Given educators’ concerns with technology, student retention
and the interaction of these two dynamics, such an inquiry seems
particularly timely.
My focus is on those students who used technology to integrate their
personal identity into their classroom persona. Several minority
students, as well as quiet mainstream students, enjoyed the freedom of
being honest online without confrontations or interruptions. One African
American male student was nearly failing at midterm. With a combination
of online communication, as well as tutoring and mentoring after class,
he completed the class with a “B” average. Three of the six minority
students dropped their enrollment in their second composition class
because their current instructors did not blend technology into
instruction.
"Facebook, Online Student Networking, and
Strategically Designed Student Selves." Spencer Schaffner, Center for
Writing Studies, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
As those of us who teach about emerging media and composition know,
it can sometimes be hard to keep up with our students' technological
literate practices. Early in 2004, the social networking software
Facebook was launched, and it currently supports between 2 and 5 million
users. All students in my courses use Facebook, and it is safe to say
that almost all college- and high-school-level classes have students who
"facebook" one another. Like Myspace, Livejournal, and other online
social networking software, Facebook enables the strategic alphabetic
and visual presentation of literate selves in networked relationship
with other users. Facebook, however, is a particularly scholastic
manifestation of social networking software.
Through discussions with my students at the University of Illinois,
examination of current online discussions of Facebook, and examination
of the forum as a faculty-user, I have compiled a set of working
observations about this social networking technology as it is situated
in practice. In this presentation I will align those observations with
developing analysis from multiple theoretical frames. By evoking social
network theory (as implemented by Lesley Milroy in her Belfast study), I
plan to explore the ways Facebook profiles enact and celebrate the
strategic representation of the academic "face" (as synecdochic self)
while succumbing to auto- representation via a list of predetermined
attributes. I also plan to analyze visual representations of the self to
the extent that such uses of the visual reveal ways that
auto-ethnographic representations now reposition the types of images
found by Hawisher and Sullivan (1999). Though I will engage in textual
analysis of facebook.com, no identities will be revealed and I will
describe only the relationships between platform and conventionalized
practice, thus not presenting research about human subjects per se.
11:15 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. Session II
"Making Knowledge in a
Multimedia Authoring Minor: The Interface Between Professional Writing &
Rhetoric and Computer Science." Paula Rosinski, Elon University.
I will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of a
new Multimedia Authoring Minor at my primarily undergraduate liberal
arts university and consider what kinds of knowledge it creates. This
interdisciplinary minor spans the disciplines of Professional Writing
and Rhetoric, Digital Art, and Computer Science. It was designed to
address the need for students to develop communication, design, and
technology skills in the context of disciplinary content, and its goal
is to give students the theoretical and practical experiences necessary
to create interactive new media productions. This minor is unusual in
that it encourages collaboration among humanities and science students;
it brings together faculty from diverse disciplines to co-teach; it
works from the assumption that writing, visual design, and computer
science are becoming inextricably linked; and it emphasizes that
creating new media productions requires authors to make a wide range of
rhetorical decisions, not only in terms of content but in terms of
technological decisions as well.
I will also consider questions such as: What kinds
of assumptions about language, writing, and design do students from
different majors bring to the minor? Do students end up with a richer
understanding of multimedia writing and the role rhetoric plays in such
productions? How might the minor be revised so that it better achieves
its goals?
"Pre-History and
Image-Making: A Case History Examining Early Design Practices." Lisa
Baird, Purdue University North Central
Visual theorists such as Jay David Bolter and Lester Faigley have
argued that the increased use of computer-mediated writing compels the
field of composition to consider the nature of image-making as a textual
practice. These theorists turn to historical examples in order to
understand the nature of modern image-making. This paper extends the
arguments of Bolter and Faigley by presenting a case history of visual
representation from Upper Paleolithic cave drawings. In the past, Upper
Paleolithic people created images of their world. Along with images,
these artists used symbols as well as pictures, indicating that humans
had already begun to formulate abstract signs to stand for language.
In today’s visually-rich digital environment, a study of the early
pictorial representations of Upper Paleolithic people gives insight into
1) the interanimation of both images and symbols, particularly with
regard to the way in which the technology allows and constrains the
messages that are possible; 2) the formalization of textual conventions;
and 3) the way images and symbols have been/can be treated in the same
space, including interactive engagement with textual messages
"Can Blogs Foster an Interest
in Writing?: An Analysis of a Blog Assignment in the Composition I
Classroom." Rob Koch, Gordon College.
Can blogs be used to encourage writing beyond the Composition I
semester? What should a blog assignment look like so that it allows
students to build interest in blogging or journaling? Students enrolled
in three computer classroom sections of Gordon College’s ENGL 1101:
College Composition I during the Fall 05 semester were asked to produce
weblogs as part of the course. The students were surveyed at the start,
middle, and end of the semester to assess their prior blog/journal
experience, their perceptions of the blog assignment at each point, and
whether or not the blog activity has encouraged them to continue writing
after the semester.
This teacher research study analyzes the collected
data to determine the value of the writing assignment for encouraging
students to write in journals or blogs after the end of the Composition
I course. Since the research pool is composed primarily of
non-traditional and academically under-prepared students, the findings
are most applicable to open-enrollment and community/junior college
communities.
"Writing Ourselves:
Voices in the Virtual Stream." Sabrina Gaskill, Mesalands Community
College.
Virtual communities are evolving through media processes such as
blogs, web sites, Wiki, WebCT, and gaming. Marginalized voices are
emerging through a variety of distinct subcultures. These communities
are now gaining rapid world wide interest as social and educational
forces, and perhaps even as partakers in redefining how we perceive
literacy. The Chronicle of Higher Education has featured a variety of
articles discouraging faculty from blogging. Gaming and visual
representations are frequently censored in many school computer labs,
creating a rich environment for the emergence of subcultures. This
surfacing of language, visualization, and sound reinvents how we frame
ourselves as writers, communicators, and ultimately human beings.
Writing Ourselves will encourage participants to engage in the
virtual stream. The merging of textual and visual methods into the
realms of cyberspace will reveal participant communication practices in
the growing area of technological discourse.
1:15 - 2:30 p.m. Conversation
"Computers &
Writing—A Discipline?" Cynthia Selfe, Fred Kemp, James Inman, and
Cheryl Ball.
What defines Computers & Writing as a discipline?
Is it a discipline? What distinguishes it from the discipline of
Composition and Rhetoric, for example, or Technical Communication? What
research and what theory inform its pedagogy and practice? How are we
defined on the job market and then what roles do we play within our
academic departments?
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