Question about Response
If anyone is interested, I have a pressing question as I work on my thesis: How doesthe way we (as writers/students/teachers?) view response change when that response comes from writing we have posted on the Web? As opposed to the response we get within a classroom? I'm not even sure how to ask this. Posting writing on a blog opens us up to response from a much wider audience, so the awareness of this must change something in our attitudes about writing. I'm hoping there's a link here to my paper on educational blogging... I'm still getting to know blogging.
posted by April @ 9:40 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Great post, April.
You really got me thinking. Here are some first spontaneous thoughts - and in fact spontaneity I think is one of the primary features of online commenting - which is neither a good or bad thing, necessarily - are first thoughts, best thoughts?
But today's students are familiar and comfortable with online conversations and might actually be more willing to converse on line rather than face-to-face F2F in the office.
When responding online, my comments are more readable - not only more legible but also more organized than margin notes in pencil. And because my online comments are permanent, I am more cautious.
One of my colleagues just told me about how his method of commenting on a friend's draft via Microsoft's "Track Changes" is different from how he comments by hand on a draft. By hand, he might just cross out a sentence and suggest a different version. But with Track Changes, he is more apt to suggest rethinking without actually modelling the new sentence. He says this is because it is easier to make a comment than to rewrite.
Another part of online commenting is the idea that it can be iterative - I might comment to this post now and again later as more thoughts occur. Typically with a margin or end notes, once they are made, I don't have other chances to add to them.
I promise more later.
April,
My laptop is in the shop getting fixed (its screen was going crazy), so I don't have your email to reply to, so I'm going here instead (sorry).
Email me again about the writing center. I'd love to help you, but I have to think about time. We can chat.
Regarding online responses to student writing, you might check out what Terra Williams wrote for Lisa's class blog in Fall 2005, responding to my question (the first thing she wrote on the post):
link
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