F/OSS and Writing I: Literal Impact of F/OSS on Composition
Examining the impact of F/OSS on the writing process is worthwhile because it touches on both the theoretical and practical aspects of the problem of incorporating F/OSS into the composition classroom. This is the case because F/OSS can enhance the writing process in a composition class by providing both a literal and a figurative construct for managing the class. The literal construct can come in the form of a content management system, or CMS. The most well-known CMS in higher education is Blackboard, a proprietary CMS, but there are many F/OSS equivalents, such as DrupalEd, Moodle, and Sakai. A CMS provides a Web portal that allows students to log in and view reading assignments, check grades, and post in discussion boards.
In addition to CMS, there are many F/OSS word processors and writing aids. One example of a highly specialized freeware word processor is Q10, a bare-bones word processor designed to minimize distractions to maximize output. Q10 runs by default in full screen, forcing Windows users to press alt-tab to leave the program, and the writing window takes up all but a sliver on the bottom that has a word count, page count, the filename, and the time. Users can set alarms to go off after a set amount of time, providing a mental impetus to get as much writing done before this alarm goes off. Although this feature was designed around National Novel Writing Month, which is all about getting down as many words as possible in as short a time as possible, the alarm feature can be used for freewriting prompts, which is just one example of how it can be used as a teaching aid. Creative writers might be familiar with advanced story-building software that helps writers keep track of plot, characters, and scene descriptions. Storybook is an open source program that has many of these functions, providing an alternative to the expensive story-crafting suites found in the pages of Writer's Digest. In beginning short story workshops, where students explore plot, characterization and other basics of fiction writing, Storybook can serve as a powerful teaching aid by providing an immediate parallel to what might otherwise seem like vague concepts. Through keeping track of these concepts with the software, students can start to get a handle on them more quickly.
Although Q10 can be used for essay writing, it is not at its most powerful when doing so, and Storybook will be of little use to students outside of a short story workshop class. Many students will be accustomed to using Microsoft Word to compose their essays, and it is important to note the niche that Word has created within the academic community. What I advocate in this Web text is not that OpenOffice supplant Word, but that OpenOffice and other F/OSS solutions find a niche of their own within the academic community, particularly in the composition classroom. Many students will come to the composition classroom with a working knowledge of Word and can apply it to their class projects. Many others will come to the same classroom with no knowledge of any word processor or means to afford one. OpenOffice and F/OSS programs will find part of their niche among the latter group. Another way to expand the niche for F/OSS is by applying the open source model to composition, which I will discuss in the next section.
Previous: F/OSS and Visuals III: Multimodality Next: F/OSS and Writing II: The Open Source Writing Process