Writing in Web 2.0 - Recently Updated Pages

Applications

tolsen — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 13:59:21 CDT

Applications no longer consist of the singular "web page" but come in many publishable applications such as "white papers" (policy papers), reports, journal articles, graphic organizers, and PowerPoints (all published on web pages), web page construction itself, and wikis, to name a few forms of online writing.

WIKIS: There are several sites which provide free templates for creating a Wiki. These allow students to collaborate online and create group-writing projects. The Wiki pictured below linked to pages on which students collaboratively defined specialized terms and posted "brainstorms" for their class projects:

This Wiki itself is a collaborative venture for our conference presentation on writing in Web 2.0. Like the class, it is constructed in the "Wetpaint" application, which provides templates as well as basic editing and uploading features. As shown below, the editing bar allows you to adjust the text, add links and photos, and save your edits.

Visit Wetpaint to set up an account: http://www.wetpaint.com/

What other applications will you and your students use?

Web pages: GOOGLE SITES
Visit sites.google.com and look at the video on starting a google site. Then, sign up! You can add students to your site, have students set up their own sites, or your college can create a domain name as well, which organizes student contributions in one site manager.

Resources:
About Google Docs from the National Writers Project:
http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/2639

Public Writing

tolsen — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 08:47:50 CDT

Defining "public writing."

Before incorporating a "public writing" assignment into a course, it is important to be clear about what is meant by "public."

Is the word "public" understood in terms of audience for or in terms of the purpose of the writing ?(see here Lede and Lunsford's 1984 "Audience addressed/Audience invoked").
Is the goal to create assignments that will help students write for a broader audience than the classroom's, a sort of "real-world" audience"? To perhaps have students locate writing in a public space of sorts?
Is the goal to expose students to "written discourse that attempts to engage an audience of local, regional, or national groups or individuals in order to bring about progressive societal change" (Weisser, 2004, p. 231)?
Is public perhaps a substitute for "digital" writing (in so far as writing on the web is "public," i.e. seen and read by others)?

Ultimately, how one defines public writing should be reflected not only in the assignment's design, but also in the ways the assignment is articulated to students. However, if it is understood, to draw from Weisser, as writing for change, then we will want to do the following with our students:

examine how examples of public writing are influenced by the context in which they emerged;
reflect on how social inequalities shape public writing.
consider the multiplicity of the "public" in public writing.
reflect on the definitions of "public" and "private." (Weisser, 2004).

Our definitions of public writing interlink with our goals for a writing assignment. If your definition of public writing is writing for change, then your definition is closer to Weisser's. This type of writing occurs both on and off the web but always for a public audience. If your definition of writing is writing professionally, then your definition will center on public writing as web-based writing, and it will be concerned with how the form and style match the content and appeal to the audience. And then if your goal is to teach students to express themselves (including expressing their opinions on academic topics) and to find their voice in the classroom, then their writing will include expressive elements as well as academic elements.

Web genre

However one defines public writing, moving writing to a web interface implies confronting the issue of web genres and their multiplicity. Reflecting on their own practice of incorporating web writing in their first year writing courses, McKee and Edwards (2005 ) remind us that "teachers must understand the heterogeneity of documents on the World Wide Web and the heterogeneity of possible responses to those documents, and maintain such an understanding in incorporating Web-based assignments into composition curricula" ( p. 197).
Equally important is to recognize the variety of discursive practices on the web, and to acknowledge that students may be more familiar with certain types of web discourse than we are (McKee & Edwards,2005).

Professional Writing

Public writing and professional writing overlap in certain genres; assignments should clearly state expectations and students should examine examples, if they are trying to write professionally. Policy papers are one example of this type of writing, and policy documents of many types can be found online. For example, Oxfam International publishes policy papers, first with a summary of the document and then with a link to the document itself.

The Bonner Foundation provides guidelines for students who want to write policy papers:
http://www.policyoptions.org/ and http://www.policyoptionswiki.org/index.php?title=Main_Page
(The second link provides specific instructions on how to write a policy paper.)

Resources

A good place to go for resources is Computers and Composition Online: http://www.bgsu.edu/cconline/home.htm
For an example of research writing for the web, check Shipka's "This was (NOT) an easy assignment" at http://www.bgsu.edu/cconline/not_easy/index.html.

Ede, L. & Lunsford, A. (2003). Audience addressed/Audience invoked. The role of audience in composition theory and pedagogy. In V. Villanueva (Ed.) Cross-talk in comp theory. A reader (pp. 77-95). Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.

Edwards, M. & McKee, H. (2005). The teaching and learning of web genres in first-year composition. In A. Herrington & C. Moran (Eds.) Genre across the curriculum (pp. 196-218). Logan, UT: Utah State University Press.

Weisser, C.R. (2004). Public writing and rhetoric. A new place for composition. In B. Couture & T. Kent (Eds.) The private , the public, and the published. Reconciling private lives and public rhetoric (pp. 230-248).Logan, UT: Utah University Press.

Writing for an Online Audience

tolsen — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 08:47:32 CDT

The Pros and Cons of Public Writing Online
The integration of old and new methods of writing is a complex issue that must be addressed with students. Students use a lot of technology, yet on the whole they have written their academic papers in traditional paper formats. Given this dichotomy, they may not understand instructions for creating academic writing in online environments. Academic writing includes such criteria as writing complex sentences to express complex thoughts. The written text may either be all on one page, unlike most web sites they are familiar with (perhaps in a file format rather than a web page) or the text may be written in a series of well-connected web pages.

Students will want to use existing habits learned in MySpace and other arenas, or they will resist writing in the new format altogether. K-12 online writing has mostly emphasized personal writing, collaborative / exploratory writing (blogging and wikis), and website projects where the writing is secondary to the content (as in a "web quest"). This kind of web writing emphasizes information, short passages, and only brief analysis. The purpose is to convey information (either about your personal life or about your topic).

Students entering the college classroom transfer these habits from their personal life and K-12 education. Consider the sites listed on Wetpaint's Higher Education wiki. Problems include casual language, lack of clear source citation, and lack of depth. Enthusiasm, however, is clearly evident and ideas are creative.

Other typical approaches for writing assignments include using online environments to do pre-writing. As one educator remarks in her blog Classroom 2.0: "online discussions might serve as a sort of pre-writing activity for essays, stories, or other written compositions to help students develop and articulate their ideas....students might use discussion forums to discuss debatable issues in preparation for persuasive essays on the same topics (which could potentially be published on blogs or wikis). Or they might use a blog post as a seed for an essay, inviting comments from other students to help them develop their ideas." Using Web 2.0 applications in this way can help students generate ideas, but what directions do they need in order to conduct the writing process in the web environment? When students complete their papers off line, and then transfer the finished product to an online environment, problems occur. Students may not consider their audience fully or meet their online audience's needs for presentation of content.

Writing, particularly in later stages,should be constructed in the application that will be used online rather than transfered, so that students conceptualize their paper in the designated application.

"It's my hypothesis that because interactive online writing shares some affordances with oral communication (e.g., audience presence and reciprocity), and other affordances with traditional written communication (e.g., a material graphic record), it can, in the context of effective instruction, potentially support “writing as inquiry” (Hillocks, 1984; 1986; 1995), providing a bridge between speaking and writing that promotes audience awareness and facilitates substantive, interactive idea development" (Classroom 2.0).

While many educators and researchers extol the virtues of using such digital communication media to support student writing, few have systematically demonstrated their impact on students' written products. There is clear evidence that such activities can engage students in writing in exciting and important ways, but not as much documented evidence about how specifically they improve student writing.

We continue this topic on the page Teaching and Assessment with Public Writing

Teaching and Assessment with Public Writing

tolsen — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 08:34:13 CDT

Questions to ponder before starting:

What drives our decision to locate a public writing assignment on the web will shape how we design, frame, teach and assess assignments as well as how we conceptualize the course. Below are some questions to consider before getting started.

For some guidelines, I first turn to McKee and Edwards and their article " The teaching and learning of web genres in first-year composition," in which they describe and reflect on their own practice incorporating web genres into their courses. They identify three important considerations for those who want to include web genres into their courses:

"We should acknowledge students' expertise in understanding, navigating, and composing in Web genres while also sharing our own expertise in analyzing and understanding genres..." ( p. 213). (They explain that students' "insider knowledge" often contrasts with the instructor's "insider knowledge,". They found that students' web pages sometimes reflected knowledge of web discourses in which they, the instructors, were not proficient.)
"
"We should cultivate an awareness of and receptivity to hybrid, changing genres both in ourselves and in our students..." ( p. 214).
"We should foster awareness of the multiple, overlapping influences on the composition of web texts" (p. 215).

For those who are considering incorporating on-line writing assignments into their courses for the first time, I would suggest four sets of questions which help clarify their intentions and facilitate assignment design.

Course goals questions

How does the assignment fulfill the course goals?
What content or learning outcomes am I willing to sacrifice to incorporate this web assignment?
What learning outcomes will I need to add to the course in order to incorporate the web assignment?
What criteria will I use to grade the assignment?

Institutional/departmental expectations and requirements questions

How much can I depart from more traditional genres of writing and still meet departmental/institutional expectations?

Genre and form questions

What genre(s) will the assignment model?
Will students post traditional essays on a web page? Or will they craft arguments that depart from the traditional essay and espouse a specific web rhetoric?
How familiar am I with other forms of rhetoric, including visual and web rhetoric?
What experiences with web rhetoric and discourses are students bringing to the course? For more on this topic, turn to McKee and Edwards(2005) and their discussion of students' "insider knowledge" which they define as "knowledge about how discourse works on the world Wide Web" (p. 206). This knowledge, McKee and Edwards argue, shapes how students conceptualize/ write their web pages.

Technical questions

How comfortable am I with helping students with the technical aspects of writing for the web?
How much technical knowledge will students have to master in order to complete the assignment? How and when will they get that knowledge?

Before we even approach adding a web-based, public writing assignment, do we know how we want students to write?

Resources
Edwards, M. & McKee, H. (2005). The teaching and learning of web genres in first-year composition. In A. Herrington & C. Moran (Eds.) Genre across the curriculum (pp. 196-218). Logan, UT: Utah State University Press.

Here is an online list of various evaluation standards for writing and digital writing (including the NCTE writing standards and the ALA information literacy standards:
http://digitalwriting.pbwiki.com/Standards+related+to+digital+writing

Reflection

tolsen — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 08:16:50 CDT

I am adding this page here because I need to pause and catch my breath. I find the wiki format difficult. I think I am not used to "thinking in public" which is just how I feel when I write here. I feel "exposed" in a way, as I contribute to these pages. What is odd about it is that when I write, I do like to talk through my thinking. Yet, for me, there is a difference between "talking" and "writing" in that when I write, my words are committed to a page, at least until I erase them.
Writing on this site really puts me on the edge of my comfort zone, and it makes me feel less creative. I am watching what I am thinking. It is slowing me down, and making me second-guess myself.
Do you think your students ever feel this way?

I am not very good about sympathizing with students who are uncomfortable with online writing. Yes, I think that some students feel exactly as you describe; they have told me that they prefer other methods. But there are other students who do not seem to mind. They write very spontaneously in any application; as long as they do not have to write out an outline or plan their discussion, they like to write on the screen. For these students, I do not think it matters whether they are online or not. They are used to editing as they write and are not used to slowing down and doing more deliberate editing. They do not like to think about their audience. To address your comment further, our differences may simple be the result of personality. I have no fear of looking foolish in front of my peers--whether that is online, in a workshop, or in a meeting. I am rarely self-conscious, to an extreme. In fact, I often point out my mistakes to my peers--I assume (not necessarily correctly) that my peers will treat my mistakes with humor and generosity.Plus, I like the experience of being a bit out of my comfort zone. However, when I am confronted by a peer who challenges me and expresses disapproval, it is a disturbing experience. I think that in the online environment, we could easily open ourselves up to this kind of challenge, but so far, in my experience, most people do behave with courtesy and understanding.

True. Still, I can't help but wonder how my writing process is affected by the medium, how it feels slowed down, and even censured. I think some students would genuinely struggle with the medium, and we should be prepared to provide them with examples of what they could do when their self-consciousness takes over their creative process...

I wondered whether I was so enamored of technology (this wiki) that my writing process changed without my awareness, so I have written out the steps in my writing below. While there are some new additions to my process, the core steps are the same. I think this confirms my argument that the experience of online writing is influenced by personal reactions. But isn't this true in the case of our students even when they write in an traditional, academic format (which is not usually public). They may still be very self-conscious or uncomfortable. As teachers, though, students are more likely to admit discomfort with technology than they might with a writing assignment they are expecting.

My steps:
1. For the wiki, Corinne and I discuss topics and I create page titles. Did some reading and thinking.
2. I choose two pages to work on, online. I don't draft anything offline, except for short notes.
3. Corrine responds using the threads.
4. We meet and discuss each others' plans.
5. I work on my next draft, online.
6. I go back and do some deeper reading; Corinne suggests some titles and I find resources in our library ebooks.
7. After reading and note-taking, I post some more replies and some new threads. Then I check out what Corinne is
writing.
8. I review my pages and edit for clarity, as well as do proof-reading several times. I also add new material (this is
ongoing).
9. We discuss how to use the wiki in a presentation.
10. I start wondering how it might look to others.
11. We continue the cycle until we run out of time (add new material, move items around, create graphics, edit, proof-
read).

My process
1. Taimi and I talk about the project.
2. I do some library research, do some background reading.
3. Spend several days thinking about what I have read.
4. Look at the wiki and the pages Taimi created. I am drawing a blank.
5. Share some of what I have read with Taimi through threads. Not sure what I am doing. Feel discouraged.
6. Meet with Taimi to talk about the project. I am inspired! Taimi encourages me to write in the pages.
7. Do more reading, and decide to contribute to the public writing page. I mostly share info from one of the sources I
read. I report more than analyze. I think in terms of questions. I go blank again.
8. Next day: back to write some more. Get stuck.
9. Next day: Read some more. Add a bit more to the Public writing page. Get stuck and frustrated and create
Reflection page so I can vent!
10. Start a PowerPoint using what I put on the wiki. Cut and past from the wiki to PowerPoint. Reorganize ideas in the power point. Then go back to wiki and reorganize pages there also. I start with the Public writing page. Cut sections out and move them to the teaching and assessment page. I go back to the public writing page and reorganize what is left. Talk to Taimi about using "you". Decide to edit. I start with the public writing page. Back to the teaching page again for coherence. Then editing... I am sifting, doing, undoing and redoing. Now I feel like I am going through my regular writing process!

Rubric Example

tolsen — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 22:45:51 CDT

The following list of criteria could be used to create a rubric for a student assignment in which students create an academic, researched web page.

Rubric for Professional Writing Online (web page):

Format:

Word count specified.
For wiki sites: threads are started and classmates and other members contribute.
For web sites, title is clear and site has no ads (use open-source applications).

Writing Style:

Specific audience is identified and addressed.
Context of the topic is clear.
Purpose of the web site is stated / thesis is evident.
Individual pages have clear topic sentences.
Argument is supported by critical analysis.
Textual organization is clear / connections are clear and logical within the text and between pages.
Clear headings are supplied.
Writing style is appropriate to the audience and also professional. Avoid casual language.

Research / Sources Used:

7 (or any number) of peer-reviewed resources are used.
Minimum of 10 (or any number) sources.
Supporting materials are used for the argument and in analysis.

Graphics:

Graphics and graphic appearance is appropriate. Graphic organization support the purpose of the site.
Images are used. Images are referenced and analyzed in the text.
Links are included. Links are relevant and annotated.
Other media is used as applicable / media referenced and analyzed.
Graphic design is appropriate, user-friendly / design is clean and clear.

Citation:

Includes Works Cited / Reference page
Internal citation is evident and follows MLA , APA or another style.
No plagiarism of quotations, ideas, visuals, or other media.

Institutional Outcomes:

Writing outcome is met.
Information literacy outcome is met
Technology outcome is met.

Examples of online writing by students

tolsen — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 21:53:36 CDT

The following examples from my own classes show both the successes and ongoing problems with public writing:

Published PowerPoints (involving primary research): http://www.tusculum.edu/faculty/home/tolsen/html/volume.htm

Wiki created to present textbook summaries and other information: http://servicelearningtusculum.wetpaint.com/?t=anon
Published "white papers" from the same wiki: http://servicelearningtusculum.wetpaint.com/page/Research

Traditional web page projects are easier for students; they are familiar with the format. See these projects on local history: http://www.tusculum.edu/cca/minorpages/mainstreetpage.html
These pages move away from the traditional web page "look" and towards the model of an e-journal:
http://mcavagrotti.googlepages.com/home (on violent media)
http://sleonard6007.googlepages.com/home (on gender)
http://absolutelynothing07.googlepages.com/home (on the effects of recycling)
http://shuckaby73.googlepages.com/home (on ethnicity)

The PowerPoint format is the most successful in that once students were told not to use bullet points and to develop paragraph-length analysis on each slide, they were very successful.

Although building a web page is a complex task, students were more familiar with the structure of a web page and were reluctant to include too much writing. They could conceptualize the design of the pages and most of them contain short bits of information rather than sustained or cohesive, extended writing.

The Wiki and the white paper both suffer from formatting issues, which show that students are not entirely successful in conceptualizing the graphic look of the paper nor the way in which an audience would read their contribution.

The "white paper" is a very promising format, since many policy papers (governmental, NGO, and business) exist online for students to examine.

The "e-journal" format (for lack of a better term) is an interesting form because it combines web features with traditional paper writing. For instance, the paper on recycling includes a video as well as links. When I tried this assignment in a later class, I did not allow for enough time to complete the paper and deal with the online environment. Plus, I did not start them in the application--I waited until the end, which was a big mistake. They were not prepared to "convert" their papers. They had already dealt with a lot of formatting issues just using Word.

Writing in Web 2.0 Home

tolsen — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 21:38:03 CDT

Welcome faculty! Teach and assess public, academic writing on the Web--whether students write websites, wikis, white papers, or PowerPoints.

Integrating Visuals with Text

tolsen — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 23:27:34 CDT

There are currently many composition textbooks which show students how to integrate visuals into their text, including how to construct their own graphs. The following is a compilation of advice from a few of these.

When do you use visuals?
1. Make the information readable—map out relationships between main ideas and supporting details.
2. Clarify complex ideas—“show” what you are also “telling” in your written text.
3. Focus your analysis—draw the reader’s attention to your written observation and dramatize your point.
4. Condense information—since visuals can “say” more, more quickly than words—if the visual is easy to “read”!
5. Visuals add energy to your writing.

Visuals can support your main point, illustrate your topic, and clarify your information. Do not use visuals as a decoration; use them to make or elaborate a point. Using diagrams and illustrations can make a spatial concept clear. Using comparative graphs and charts can illustrate trends in data and provide comparisons of amounts and values.

In the chart below, professor Richard Hay summarizes the use of the chat room by his first year writing students. It is a quick visual as compared to his explanation. However, the text (quoted below) compliments the visual—the information is complimentary because he elaborates on the situation after giving us the trend:

As the chart shows, I was doing substantially more (virtual) talking than my students in the first few chat sessions--87 more comments in the first session, 145 more in the second, and 110 more in the third. But during the fourth chat session, that despairing difference changed. Students began speaking more than their instructor--from just under 100 more comments in the fifth chat session to 451 more in the final chat session of the semester. In the end, students were talking more than me, and less to me and more to each other. Instead of simply asking a question and then waiting for the perceived omniscient instructor to provide the answer, the students began posing questions and asking for evaluations of their work and then providing the answers and the discussion themselves.

In this very structural graph, we can see the number of student interactions growing impressively and, because of the author’s textual explanation, we can imagine the types of comments that each bar in this graph represents.
(Richard Hay,“Virtual Conversations: The Use of Internet-based Synchronous Chat in Basic Writing,” Currents in Electronic Literacy Fall 2003 (7). 15 Oct 2008. http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/currents/fall03/hay.html.)

PLACING VISUALS EXAMPLE:
Consider the use of the image below and how it is used in conjunction with the text, from: “Violent images inquiry to launch” on the BBC News website, (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/2656863.stm). 9 Oct 2007.
Tuesday, 14 January, 2003, 13:37 GMT:

Violent images inquiry to launch

Inquiry reflects recurrent concerns over on-screen violence

The link between street crime and violent films, TV shows, video games and song lyrics is to be examined by a government advisor in the wake of heightened fears that violent imagery has contributed to rising gun crime.
Censorship of the UK entertainment industry will be reviewed by the Youth Justice Board, who will make recommendations for changes to rules, according to the Telegraph newspaper.
A spokeswoman for the Youth Justice Board told BBC News Online their research had shown that cultural factors did influence crime, and that they were planning to look more closely at the subject.
The board's chairman, Lord Warner, criticised some computer games, soap operas and rap artists for coming close to "inciting violence or dangerous sexual behaviour" in an interview with the newspaper.
"There's a case for reviewing whether we should regulate more rigorously," he said.
But the entertainment industry has insisted current rules are adequate, and said Lord Warner the government are not in a position to change them….

How well connected are the image and the story? The image does not clearly connect with youth crime, so why was it chosen? It makes an emotional appeal to the reader and draws the reader into the article, even though the article is not about the movie pictured (which isn’t even cited by name). In this way, the use of the visual is typical for the general press. If you use an image for an academic purpose, then you need to cite the source. You also need to consider if you are too far away from your topic.

Citing a Visual

Underneath the visual, add a numbered “tag” like Figure 1 or Table 1. Then, this visual can be found in your bibliography under this tag. After the tag, write in a heading. Put the complete source information in the bibliography.

Figure 1: Still shot from Halloween (1978).

Bibliography citation: Figure 1. Flixster. 2008. June 5, 2008. http://www.flixster.com/movie/halloween/photos?p=3271435.

Questions to ask as you add a visual:
o What mix of writing and visuals should I use?
o Will the visual support the text or the text support the visual?
o Where will the visual appear? Can I insert it into the text and where? Do I need to reduce the size of an image or
add color?
o Do I need to attach the visual as an “addendum” to the end of my paper? How do I refer to the visual in my writing?
o What impact will the visual have on my reader?