Tracing the history of "New Literacies"

Ok, I have to say it...

I know that Dr. Kist is a scholar in this area and we've already heard a great presentation from Rachel, but I'm still finding the genesis and growth in the areas of New Literacies, multiliteracies, digital literacies, out-of-school literacies, etc, etc, etc. difficult to describe. It feels like they ebb and flow together and separately depending on who you read and how he/she is using the theories. While I thought I was getting closer to understanding this history, at least in an elementary way, as my presentation and paper due date draw closer, I'm becoming more confused and intimidated by the prospect of explaining it to others.

Sometimes I wish studying was more like mowing the yard. When it's done, there is no more to do, and you can look back and admire your work and feel...done... Scholarship feels more like this treadmill where your end-goal keeps getting farther and farther away the more time you spend on it. :)

My favorite teacher...

With all the new technology we've been learning, I've been wanting to push myself into additional uncharted waters.... So....last week I was determined to produce my first podcast and send it out with my weekly department email. I was able to make a very rough podcast...with terrible production values...but I did do it. I interviewed a few students and asked who their favorite English teacher was and why...

If you're interested to hear, although I'm pretty embarrassed because I now know how to make it better... feel free to visit my curriculum webpage. Here's the link:

http://www.ccsdistrict.org:8081/hck/cgi-bin/frame.pl?page=podcast_page.pl&id=rudd_l

I'm hoping that teachers will appreciate my attempts to learn something new and try something for their own classrooms. It seems important to be willing to fail, and that's not easy to do in front of adolescents. :)

An interesting podcast

Here's an interesting podcast on reading motivation and African Americans. It's connected to Mary's inquiry a bit, but very focused on what and how to motivate students.

http://www.voiceofliteracy.org/posts/38155

Another Ted Talk about creativity...and how schools kill it....

I was researching through Ted Talks for my paper and found these videos. I can't use them, but they are fantastic, so maybe someone else could use them at some point.

http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

Ted Talks...An author with a purpose

Here is one of my favorite Ted Talks. A popular author who has reached out to schools, teachers, and the community...

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/dave_eggers_makes_his_ted_prize_wish_once_upon_a_school.html

Lankshear & Knobel's (2004) Principles of Learning

In Larson & March (2005) I just found an interesting connection to Lankshear & Knobel's (2004) connecting literacy and new technology. L & K developed four principals of learning that had been transformed by the integration of new technology and literacy. Their principles of learning are explained and then L & M (2005) indicate their thoughts about the changes.

Of the four, two are very connected to my inquiry paper study on identity and diversity. First is the principle of integrated learning. L & K describe this as learning that is "organic and whole". Learning that is connected to our identity. L & M further this explanation by adding that teachers must understand how Discourses are constructed and provide learning opportunities that open doors for those connections.

The second principle is the principle of productive appropriate and extension in learning. L & K describe this as giving learners the opportunities to learn without social conflicts. New learning should allow students to transfer discursive practices into new spaces. L & M add that students ought be able to bring their 'funds of knowledge' to their new experiences.

These two principles, while seemingly obvious on the one hand, are key to understanding part of the breakdown with diverse learners. Do teachers follow these principles of learning? Would more diverse learners be successful if more teachers did?

All the connections..

I really enjoyed tonight's presentations! BUT, now I keep thinking about all the ways my line of inquiry intersects with what we learned tonight. I really like the 'what's in your suitcase' symbolism Petra used. Since I've been spending time digging into identity theories and how identity impacts literacy, that symbolism made a lot of sense. Some of my difficulty, and the question I think many teachers and researchers struggle with, is how do you help diverse students understand that what's in their 'literacy' suitcase is valuable, but not always enough for "success" in our middle class, majority-ruled culture?

I guess I'm talking more about the skills they have in their suitcase than their past experiences...although even their past experiences and the way they have come to define the majority culture might be juxaposed to what might be 'acceptable'...

Of course, Rachel's research is aligned with my interest also because I believe if there is a bridge from the literacy of diverse students to a 'majority accepted' or SAE (Standard American English) literacy, it may successfully come via new, or alternative, literacies....

Great job ladies! A lot to think about!

One of my favorite YA author "tweets"..

Here's a link to Laurie Halse Anderson's twitter page. I love her writing, and she's just an incredible person to know and enjoy.

http://twitter.com/halseanderson

Redneck & Hillbilly Discourse

I just read a fascinating article with the title above. The full title is Redneck and Hillbilly Discourse in the Writing Classroom: Classifying Critical Pedagogies of Whiteness. (Beech, 2004) Although it's not necessarily connected to my chapter's topic (writing instruction of diverse students), the article's guiding questions are applicable.

Beech questions the sweeping notions teachers often use when talking about their white students and how they are educated. She points out that many poor, working class, white students self-identify (or are identified by culture) as something different than the mainstream, educated, middle class populous. Those students who hold the label as 'redneck' or 'hillbilly' or even 'white trash' will often confront tensions with academic discourse in much the same way diverse students do. She goes on to talk about how writing instruction needs to be cognizant of that fact.

These ideas apply to my inquiry in two ways. First, diverse or minority students aren't all alike. We can't just 'lump' them together, assuming they have the same Discourses (Gee) and tensions as any other minority student. Of course, this seems obvious, but it again underscores why Ogbu's research (for example) brings so much discussion and dissonance. This also connects to some of Gee's writing when he indicates that some of our research on minorities, especially African Americans, have inadvertently blended African American students = Lower class students.

Second, the article uses a quote from Harris (2003) that says the purpose of a college composition course is "not to leave one community in order to enter another, but to reposition themselves in relation to several continuous and conflicting discourses. Similarly, our goals as teachers need not to be to initiate our students into the values and practices of some new community, but to offer them the chance to reflect critically on those discourses--of home, school, work, the media and the like--to which they already belong" (p. 105).

I really like this quote and it makes me ask the question...what IS the purpose of writing instruction for minority or diverse students? Are we providing an entrance for them to a standardized, majority culture, OR are we judging as inferior. Where is that line?

Thinking about Ogbu and academic identity

I referenced Farnham & Ogbu's (1986) work in my previous post, and I've trying to think through it carefully this week. I'll try to generalize some of their ideas for this post..

By using a cultural-ecological framework, these authors hypothesize that from a young age, Black Americans form an oppositional social identity, an oppositional cultural frame of reference, and fictive kinship that labels different types of academic success as "acting white". By referring to other studies, Farnham and Ogbu give evidence that Black Americans have formed an identity in opposition to the majority culture due to their involuntary immigrant status, the job ceiling they have experienced, and the substandard education they have historically received.

As a result of this oppositional identity, they have also formed a collective identity that is the basis for a fictive kinship. This 'family' identity makes it difficult to perform outside of acceptable norms and behaviors which have been taught from a young age.

Farnham & Ogbu (1986) go on to cite their own study at Capital High where they studied 33 students for more than one year. While all of the students were Black Americans, some were considered high achieving and others were considered to be low achieving in their school.

The study concludes that Black American students don't engage with academic expectations due to the negative category of "acting white". Their research found a dramatic reaction, and their findings and generalizations have been argued in many ways for many years.

Of course, I'm interested in their theories as it applies to Black American students; however, I'm also interested in how this cultural-ecological framework might apply to class issues as well. As we were talking about literacy cultural differences in our seminar class on Thursday, I was struck by the fact that in every country we spoke about, the lower-class students received a substandard education and had less opportunity than students from the middle or higher class. Lower SES students certainly don't alway experience the breadth of experience and collective identity that Black Americans do; however, I wonder if this culture doesn't in some ways act in a similar fashion...

Could the 'membership' in the lower SES define a student's identity enough to impact his/her academic performance? (I'm not talking about not enough money for tutoring or buying notebook paper or books, necessarily.... I'm thinking about that almost subconscious connection of a group membership....)

As I work in Canton, I feel intuitively that I'm hearing more of these 'class-related' stories from students; however, I haven't studied it systematically. I'm sure there are many studies that look at this phenomenon, but I need to decide if it's a rabbit-trail at this time.... :)

Writing for your community

A lot of us have reflected on Howard's (2008) chapter in the Handbook; however, I find it an interesting chapter to connect to new readings. For example, on page 251, Howard concludes, "The act of writing, particularly the aspiration to be a writer, has created a distance between writers and their communities, even when, or especially when, they aspired to speak for their community."

For my inquiry paper, I have been reading many articles that tie into African American identity and academic achievement. Many of the research questions stem from conclusions Ogbu & Farnham (1986) developed. These researchers described the fear of "acting white" as the signifcant factor that explains why African American students sometimes do not achieve well in our schools. Ogbu (2003) also discussed this theory in his analysis of the African American students in Shaker Heights.

I have found many articles that primarily want to argue against Ogbu's theory, AND I've found an article where Ogbu is trying to defend his original statements and explain his stance that has been miscontrued. As I've read Ogbu's work, I thought his insights were profound and articulate. BUT others have found him offensive and worked against his theories. I wonder if this is an example of a writer trying to speak into his community and finding resistance and angst?

True, his thoughts have introduced many other interesting articles and discussions; however, I wonder how many have come at his expense?

They're here....

Yes, it's all the buzz in the curriculum offices around the nation. (Except for Texas :) The Common Core Standards were released on Wednesday. Don't miss grabbing a copy for yourself!

Seriously, this feels like a somewhat momentous moment. Has the federal government ever created specific educational standards such as these? Sure, each state will be able to 'tweak' up to 15% of the Common Core Standards for their own; however, the federal footprint will be great.

Lots of angst about that. It seems like we define excellence more and more stringently...

Here's the link: http://www.corestandards.org/

An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube

Here is a great, follow-up discussion to the Web 2.0: The Web is Us/ing Us, YouTube clip. The professor who created the clip is presenting. It's long, but fascinating!

A text-to-text thought...

I've been trying to read some of the references listed in the Handbook that apply to my chapter of choice. My chapter/topic is Ch. 31: Identity and the Writing of Diverse Students by Ball & Ellis.

I've read two articles:
1. Mavrogenes & Bezrucko "The Influences of Writing"
2. Langer "Beating the Odds: Teaching Middle and High School Students To Write Well"

Here is a connection I've been thinking about today.
In their article on writing influences, Mavrogenes & Bezruczko (1993) make two specific recommendations based on their study. Their second recommendation is to "...pay attention to affective factors such as teachers' expectation and students' self-confidence" (p. 244) I believe this can be a support for instruction in code-switching for students. Ideally, the affective factor of writing instruction recognizes that students use language in many different ways in their lives, and especially to second language learners or even second dialect learners, those different ways have merit and esteem in their various cultures. I believe there are ways to teach 'standardized' writing that acknowledges this truth.

In her article titled, Beating the odds: Teaching middle and high school students to write well, Langer (2001) points out five different areas of instruction between 'average' schools and those schools who are doing extremelly well. Two areas stuck out to me. One is the way teachers approached skill instruction (integrated vs. separate drills). The second area is evidence of connected learning done for instruction. Of course we can expect that integrated skills instruction was done in the excellent schools. The explanation of connected learning was, "Overt connections made among knowledge, skills, and ideas across lessons, classes and grades, and across in-school and out-of-school applications" This was also done in the excellent schools.

This again connects back to the affective factors. There is a need to use in-school and out-of-school literacies to learn well. This feels deeply connected to a student's self-esteem, AND it takes a very confident and talented teacher to build these connections.

This conversation connects to our class discussion too. We wondered how many writing teachers REALLY know how to teach writing or even how to write effectively themselves? This drastically impacts a teacher's self-confidence (affective factor) and therefore, the ability and/or desire to make connections that might be new and unfamiliar to students' 'out-of-school applications"....

Not really something new, but something I've wanted to do...

I've wanted to create some sort of writing portfolio that follows students from grades 7-12. BUT, I want it to be electronic and available for teachers and students.

Wouldn't it be a great resource for writing those college entrance essays? Wouldn't it be great for teachers to see the progression of a student's writing skills?

Alas, I can't seem to get our technology department to go along with me on this. I need to keep pushing, but I run out of time and ability to reason with them. Unfortunately our technology department does NOT have anything close to vision or even a framework for 21st Century learning..... BUT they do keep students safe from porn and Google Earth.

Here's an article that got me on this rabbit-trail:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/01/education/01schools.html?ref=education

The Collins Writing Program

At Canton City Schools, we have been mandated to implement the Collins Writing Program for the past two years. I wonder if anyone has had experience with this program and/or has any insights into its effectiveness?

I have many opinions and thoughts, but not a lot of research-based input.

http://www.collinseducationassociates.com/cwp.htm

slam poetry

We watched a clip regarding slam poetry in class last week, and it brought back a lot of fun memories for me. I was able to be a participant observer of a high school slam poetry team for over a year and complete a research project on their identity formation as individuals and as a group throughout that time.

For my own 'easy access' availability, and for anyone who needs to have slam poetry defined. Here's a good clip that introduces the idea.

What is the purpose of school instruction?

Ok, so I know that this question is pretty big, but I've been struggling with it for a long time. In Albertinti's chapter 24, Teaching of Writing and Diversity, he says, "The research reviewed in this chapter has demonstrated that achievement, access to instruction, and identity development as a writer often relate to ethnicity, race, gender, and disability." and "As we have seen, learning to write convincingly in accpetable discourses, is extremely difficult for students marginalized by ethnicity, race, class, gender identity, or disability."

If we believe that these "diverse" groups have discourses that are meaningful and powerful within their own community, I struggle with why we have to change all that just to acclimate them to the majority, middle class, American (US) culture. Of course I want diverse students to have success, but at what point do we perpetuate the problem by reinforcing its power in school?

Understanding Literacy as Social Practice

As it is with many of these types of books, I find the first few chapters of Local Literacies to be the most engaging on a theoretical level. Because I've been interested in these kinds of studies for a long time, I've found so much to ponder in the chapter 1 "Understanding Literacy as Social Practice".

(Now, in my mind, my knowledge of academic discourse wants me to disclaim that although I'm writing about chapter 1, I have read the rest of the book. I'm just choosing the ponder on points from chapter 1. :)

The following two quotes stick out to me because of my recent job experiences.

"People are active in what they do, and literacy practices are purposeful and embedded in broader social goals and cultural practices" (p. 11).

"Literacy practices are culturally constructed, and, like all cultural phenomena, they have their roots in the past. To understand contemporary literacy it is necessary to document the ways in which literacy is historically situated: literacy practices are as fluid, dynamic and changing as the lives and societies of which they are a part" (p. 13).

In class when we talked about the variety of Discourse communities we participate in, I thought a lot about my difficulties adjusting to the middle school teachers in our district. I've had continual struggles speaking with them, which I didn't expect. It's so intangible I can't quite explain it, but my high school teaching/grad student mentality just doesn't work for them. They don't like ambiguity; I believe that decisions should be constructed as a group and that might take time and complexity. They believe their students need strict rules to writing and reading; I maintain these skills are more fluid and multi-faceted. It has been a continual struggle in my job, but I've realized that part of the problem is also understanding how other curriculum specialists have communicated with these middle school teachers in the past. Once I tried to understand those communication patterns, I have been better at 'bridging' the middle school teachers from their historical discourse into possibly a more critical way of talking about literacy and pedagogy.

Of course, this is just my opinion, and they are nice folks. They might be nodding and smiling while they think I'm a idiot.

I understand that the quotes I took from the book are more about broader cultures and communities; however, reading and reflecting on them has brought some clarity to this area of confusion that I face.

Where did composition studies come from?

I've been taking several weeks to get through this article by Nystrand, Greene, and Wiemelt (1993) because there is so much to digest. I feel like you could take a course in just following the different ideologies and their scholars. In the abstract of the article, it says, "...the authors argue that the development of composition studies needs to be understood as part of a broader intellectual history affecting linguistics and literary stueis, as well as composition" (p. 267).

This is why the article has been so helpful to me.

In most of my courses, I've concentrated on reading. Of course while studying reading history, we have touched on many of the historical influences these authors cite. I also took a course in Sociolinguistics, which revealed some of these influences as well. In addition, throughout my general ed "Curriculum" courses, we have studied some of these broader historical movements. Finally, through my own research, I've been subtly trying to wrap my head around Bakhtin's theories. This article has helped me understand the history in not only composition studies, but also the historical influences in all four of these areas.

It's interesting how some articles just pull things together, and this one certainly fills in many blanks for me. I really do like the section on Bakhtin and Dialogism. I've read information about dialogism before, but I think by reading the history leading up to this idea helped me understand it more fully. This quote stuck out to me, "For Bakhtin, as for contemporary language scholars, it is the relationship between the individual psyche and the forces of social ideology and interpretive convention that focuses our efforts to characterize meaning in discourse" (p. 295).

As I study Bakhtin's influence in identity theory, connecting his views to Halliday (1978) has also helped me.

While this article is dense; it will be a resource to return to in the future.

"Local Literacies" and American Consumerism

While I wasn't able to attend our class on Monday, I did read quite a lot from the book, Local Literacies while on my trip. My husband and I had many conversations regarding globalism (especially American consumerism) and its impact on local literacies. As I read the chapter dealing with Mumtaz, the multilingual study participant, I thought back to our conversations.

The quote on pg. 186 really connected with my thoughts while in Costa Rica, "The different literacies in Mumtaz's life partly represent tensions and a mixing of values in forging new identities and reconciling conflicts about changing values...."

As the many Costa Rican natives cared for our every wish/need, I was struck by the identity bifercation that might be at play in their lives. Clearly, they were taught how Americans wanted their food prepared and served, how Americans (and Canadians) wanted their rooms cleaned, and how they wanted to be treated while on vacation. I couldn't help but wonder about how much the natives had to change their way of speaking and interacting. Of course, becoming conversant in English was the main characteristic of this; however, it went much deeper.

As I watched the buses bringing the workers from their small towns and communities into our area, I was struck by the 'classes' that existed within the ranks of workers, in many ways based on literacy acquisition. The housekeeping workers couldn't speak much English at all; however, the guest service workers were almost completely bilingual. The waiters and waitresses fell somewhere in-between. It was fascinating to observe.

So many questions...I wanted to stay and ask, "How much of your literacy activities have changed since you've begun working at this hotel/resort?" "Do your new/different literacies bring tension into your life in your town or family? In what way?" "How do you use English in different ways than you use Spanish?"

These are just a few.... It was so interesting to think about this while reading Local Literacies...(of course, I struggled with the guilt of being the American consumer, the perpetrator of parts of the problem... but that's for another blog at another time.... :)

A Paradox

Ch. 18 Olson (2008) “Modern schools are mass institutions, instruments of a mass industrial society modeled on the factory and the military. The class, not the individual, becomes the primary unit of instruction “ (p. 285).

Before I read this chapter, I was reading the chapter by Ball & Ellis which focused on the Identity and Writing of Diverse Students. So much of the conclusions they discussed has to do with allowing diverse students to interweave their cultural and home identities into their writing identities into schooling so for a healthy identity to grow. I continually hear that high school and middle school teachers must differentiate instruction to meet the diverse needs in their classrooms.

These two quotes seem to equal a difficult paradox to overcome. How do I tell my English teachers, who may instruct up to 150 students on a daily basis, to differentiate their instruction in meaningful ways? School itself, according to Olson (2008) wasn’t even created to accommodate such a mandate. The military and/or factory don’t do this. How can this gulf of intention and need be overcome?

This same problem can be applied to our conversation about writing assessments and the weaknesses of rubrics. How can a teacher, realistically, grade massive amounts of writing without some type of standardized instrument? (Is this question showing that I have structuralist tendencies, or just that I've been working in the district curriculum department for too long??)

Reelate(ing) stories

Here is an interesting group in Stark County that teaches people how to use video to tell local stories. The group just celebrated the first round of movies last Friday evening in Canton, Ohio. It's a great example of writing, storytelling, local literacies, and identity.
http://www.reelate.org

Two great movies to watch are The Real BOLD BADMEN and Kim Ann's Short Film Night.

You will find links to the movies from the Reelate site.


(And, yes, I'm biased and proud. The idea was birthed and executed by my husband and two other friends. It's been a pretty interesting journey...)

Writing and Katrina

I found this great video connecting writing, identity, and Katrina survivors. There are some fantastic quotes and thoughts about literacies in general.

Writing and Identity

I've just been reading Howard's chapter on History of Writing in the Community and found it interestingly connected to my interest on identity. I'm trying to tie what I read back to theories of identities, especially those of Holland, Bahktin, and Gee. This chapter is a pretty easy connection on many levels. The beginning of the setion "The 20th Century: Change and Continuity" claims that not all writing communities viewed more compulsory education as a healthy addition and inclusion into their practices. A quote that really hit me was toward the end of the chapter. "Despite the availability of formal, postcompulsory education, many prefer independent, informal learning and literacy practices" (p. 251).

This entire chapter focuses on how communities used writing, in many ways to build, share, and perserve identity of individuals, organizations, families, etc.. Writing was often self-taught when this preservation or communication felt important and desirable. I think it's fascinating that the 'schooling', both compulsory and postcompulsory, was not necessarily always linked to writing in a favorable way. In face the quote tells me that many still prefer their independedent and informal literacy practices.

I especially love to study this topic with adolescents. We addressed this a little bit in class when we talked about texting. Adolescents today are reading and writing and constructing meaning and identity all the time, but schools ban many of these practices and force-feed the 5 paragraph essay. We teach the "Collins" writing program, whose structure introduces the ideas of multiple purposes for writing; however, we still won't allow anything other than full sentences written with pen and paper to constitute "school writing". (Sometimes, if the teacher is lucking enough to beat the race to the computer lab, students can actually use a computer for print too.)

I consistently struggle with how middle and high schools can let students use the form of literacies (writing here, specifically) that make sense to them to think and mean meaning in schools. It's a topic I wrestle with in my grad classes and in many conversations I have with my English teachers all over the district. This article, again, historically, points out the need for our perspectives to widen and pedagogy to become more flexible.

Examining Internet use among low-income students

The citation for the article I mentioned is
Greenhow, C; Walker, J.D. & Seongdok, K. (2009/2010). Millennial leaners and net-savvy teens? Examining internet use among low-income students. Journal of Computing in Teacher Education, 26 (2), p. 63-68.

Equal access vs. the market

I've been making my way through the Bazerman & Rogers chapter on "Knowledge Within Modern European Institutions". Two different quotes stuck out to me toward the end of the chapter.

1. "Economic inequalities of nations that do not support the conditions necessary for the production of knowledge also challenge full participation in and access to knowledge" (Canagarajah, 2002) p.172. I realize that within the context of this chapter, the authors are talking about the availability of research journals and 'printed knowledge' that is available in developing worlds. However, I was struck by the quote because just this week I read an article (which is at school and I can't get the citation) that talked about how students from neighborhoods and schools of poverty differ in their Internet use from more suburban or middle/upper class students. While students in poverty spend time on the Internet, their habits are different than their higher SES peers, mostly due to the time the Internet is available to them and due to the tasks they use the Internet for. Knowing this information makes the above quote even more challenging to a democratic, education institution (school in the US) because our students from high-poverty areas are not gaining equal access to knowledge.

2. "The electronic revolution has also increased the incorporation of graphic, audio, and other data, including dynamically accessible databases within research publications" (Kostelnick & Hassett, 2003)p. 172. As anyone who read my 'thoughts and summaries' tonight in class, I was struck by the way Bill introduced his PowerPoint. He said, "Are you ready to watch my lecture?" Our ways of communicating knowledge have changed so drastically! HOWEVER, we also had the discussion about the very perscriptive ways dissertations are outlined. Even though this quote about the incorporation of technology may be true on many levels, the 'old standard' of the dissertation format is still very much cemented, at least in our college.

Very interesting...

Knowledge and the printing press

Carrying through with thoughts from my previous post and reading...

I've often dialogued, read, reflected on the impact of the printing on Christianity in the US and in faith communities that had previously only been led by one or a few Biblical "interpreters" for the people. The printing press changed all that, because everyone had access to the written knowledge and didn't have to rely on pastors/priest/etc. I've spent time connecting this to Martin Luther and the Reformation.

Anyway....I wonder if Web 2.0 will do/has done similar things to written and shared knowledge. Will it be as dramatic as it shapes knowledge? Does it shape knowledge in a unique way?

Musing about writing as a "keeper of knowledge"

I've been reading the Handbook of Writing Research, particularly the Bazerman & Rogers chapter on Knowledge Outside Modern European Institutions. In the first section the authors define knowledge and then compare the differences between oral traditions and writing.

These two quotes stuck out to me:
"The invention of writing made knowledge more readily and realiably remembered, transported across time and space, and shared, by copying, among multiple people and sites" (p. 143).

"Writing facilitates inspecting exact wording to hold authors accountable for what was said, as well as comparing accounts for inconsistences, differences, and contradiction" (p. 144).

Reading and thinking about these two quotes in light of the question of "authorship" (Prior & Lunsford) chapter AND connecting to a conversation I recently had with my husband about the practice of "tagging" on the internet has led me to ask these questions.

1. Has Web 2.0 made writing more flexible to interpretation, much like oral tradition, due to the way writing consumers can reorganize an author's thoughts and intentions for others?

2. Even the fact that I used the words "writing consumers" instead of readers seems important to me. Why does that seem to apply more to Web 2.0 use instead of reading text from a book?

3. Ultimately, what has technology and the ability to manipulate text done to 'knowledge' that authors attempt to communicate?

Collecting For Future Use and Thought...

Did You Know 4.0

Writing: How it all began

I've only read a couple of our Writing Research Handbook, but I am struck by two aspects from the history chapter. #1 The authors make the claim that art and writing are separate mediums used for separate reasons. Their argument makes perfect sense, but I think I've always thought of early, prehistoric drawings as the first signs of writing...ie. a form of written communication. I'm still pondering their distinctions. #2 The authors trace the first 'writing' as an economic necessity, basically a method of keeping track of debts in a community. I'm struck by the idea that writing was birthed as a type of early credit card.... a way to keep track of debt...:)

Of course, I realize that the intricacies of the accounting systems the authors describe can't be simplified quite this much, but again, before reading this chapter, I think I would have tied the first function of writing as tied to story-telling (ie. the art again) or a function somehow tied to recognize the after-life. As the chapter recounts, this function develops much later.

Many things to consider....