4.14.part2

Harris & Wambeam

 

The researchers conducted an investigation comparing classrooms that integrate writing and discussions that are technologically based, with classrooms that don’t.  The ones using technology showed greater benefits because the writing had a wider audience and writers received immediate feed back.  Their theoretical positioning lies with Vgotsky and Bahktin: language and thought are part of social development.  With technology, we have access to a larger audience. 

 

The most fascinating part of this essay was the description of MOO and how places are described, resulting in, “…expanding discourse space boundaries.”  I don’t know if this is what the authors meant but I think of talking in outer space and then talking in the inside of a strawberry. 

 

I think that using technology can have all the benefits that they speak on but it makes me tired to think about.  I would not want to go on line and have to check how many times each person logged in.

 

Sullivan

This article has relevance for those going into the business world, or any industry in which they would be required to create texts with visuals.  The text felt dated to me because at this point word processing programs are taken for granted.   My favorite point brought up in this essay is how the way we think is changed by technology.  Technology allows for new ways of processing information, although on the flipside I suppose it could take it away as well.  I think the idea of considering form and its relation to text is interesting but I don’t see it’s relevance to the composition classroom.  Perhaps if it were a more specific writing class.  Technical writing, web writing, presentation writing.