Behind the Scenes

           Behind the Scenes        Head to Head        Postmodern Riff         

Exploring how we learn to write – how we learn to use, develop, get better at writing technology is something I am very much about. In that sense I find the field of composition very interesting perhaps even more so than the sexier philosophical perspective of rhetorical investigation.

Wikis were relatively new at the time we conceived of this study. What that actually means is that wikis were old hat in the realm of public usage and popular culture, but most of us dinosaurs at the Academy still didn't know what a wiki was.

As we discussed a possible project for the last graduate student class of our career, we became excited at the prospect of new technologies making writing public and offering unique potential for collaborative work. In particular, John became excited at the notion of telling student Jimmy, "so you're Aunt Gladys is an English teacher, huh? Then get her on the wiki to respond to your writing and make some suggestions for revision."

As far as I know, though, there never was any actual Jimmy or Aunt Gladys, just that initial excitement at the notion of writing taking on a different importance, a different meaning, as it becomes accessible and not just another English paper for my English teacher.