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Date:         Thu, 1 Oct 1992 20:05:09 -0700
From:         James Crosswhite <JCROSS@OREGON.BITNET>
Subject:      Computer Travels

Computer traveler again. A few days ago, I tried to
distinguish between teaching students how to write and
teaching them how to use computers. Since I was saying that
some of what was being done with computers seemed to me a
diversion from the goals I set for my own courses, I
promised to post my conclusions about what computers are
good for in the way of teaching writing. Considering my
purposes, in the writing courses I teach and supervise,
there are two benefits which are significantly more
important than all the others.

  First, computers make it much easier both to write and to
revise what one has written. I know this is a simple point,
but it seems to me immensely important. And I know that word
processing programs don't themselves lead to more or better
revising for writers who are disinclined to revise or who
don't know how to revise successfully. But leading students
to revise well is one of the main goals of my courses. If I
teach them to do this, they can make a very powerful use of
the word processors that are available--with only entry
level training in word processing. On the other hand,
they could learn to master word processing programs without
becoming better writers at all. There are lots of typists
who are High Masters when it comes to the technology of the
typewriter but who cannot compose the kind of writing they
can type...or anything close to it.

  Second, networked computers increase the opportunities for
and the kinds of communication that can go on between
teachers and students and among students themselves. They
make this communication much more efficient. Written
communication can go on during brainstorming, conceiving,
planning, drafting, revising, recanting, or after
publication or posting. And this can go on in class or out
of class. Students can hold electronic conversations and
generate questions at issue. They can formulate theses as
answers to those questions. They can send their theses to
one another for comments. They can communicate about what
kind of structures the theses seem to generate. They can
transfer first versions of papers to one another, and
transfer back suggestions for the next version. They can
send questions or files to the teacher and the teacher can
send back responses. And so on and so on.

  In an ordinary classroom, this is an incredibly slow and
cumbersome process.  I have seen classes in which 20% or
more of class time is taken up just shuffling paper among
the students. Usually, class is the only time/place in which
written communication can be exchanged. The exchange itself,
as workshop leaders know, requires a degree of cooperation
and responsibility that is not always present in required
composition courses. Networked computers, with electronic
conferencing, bulletin boards, file transfer and e-mail (and
so on) can put an end to that era of slow, cumbersome paper-
exchange.
  There are lots of other ideas inside this one. When a
scheduled class meeting is not the only place where this
exchange goes on, then students can work at a less
artificial pace. It's great to stretch out the writing
process so that a class can work together inside it, instead
of just before and after it. But it's a bit unrealistic to
think that the process is punctuated on a MWF schedule.
Networked computers make it easy to communicate in writing
outside of class, in new places, at new times, whenever and
wherever teachers and students need to. This seems to me a
tremendous advantage.

  I want an efficient, easy-to-learn word processor, and I
want 24 hour-a-day access to servers (or remote machines)
from classrooms, labs, and from home and res hall computers
via modems. (And I'd like a new quadra for myself, please,
with enormous memory and a big color screen and a color
printer and a scanner and lots of software.)

 There are lots of other ways to use computers to teach
writing. However, for my purposes, these two seem to have a
different measure of importance from all the rest.

  I'll be back.

--jim crosswhite  jcross@oregon.uoregon.edu
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU