Readerly/Writerly Texts

Abstracts of Essays
(and Notes on Contributors)

Special Issue on Texts and Technology
Fall/Winter 1999

Volume 7,  Number 1

The Electronic Director: 
Hypertext and Performance-Based Teaching
Stephen Cohen
University of South Alabama
________________________

As hypertext has made its way from the computer science lab to the academic community at large and beyond, it has become a critical commonplace that we are in the midst of a textual revolution the effects of which will be at least as far-reaching as that sparked by the spread of the printing press. Long before the advent of either hypertext or poststructuralist notions of language, however, the limitations of print were acutely evident to at least one group of literary scholars and teachers–those concerned with drama, and particularly with performance-based criticism and teaching. As teachers of drama, we struggle to impress upon our students that as complex as the textual artifacts with which we deal may be, they are in an important sense merely by-products of a still more complex object, the play as performed. In this essay, I will explore the potential of those characteristics of hypertext that distinguish it from printed text–electronic text's interactivity and malleability, as well as hypermedia's ability to link not only words but also sounds, still images and video–to provide teachers with a new tool that reveals the performative essence of drama in much the same way that other hypertextual theorists would use the medium to illustrate poststructuralist claims about language in general. And in so doing, I hope to use the relationship between hypertext and dramatic performance to cast a new light on, or at least raise some provocative questions about, the nature and function of hypertext, and the relationship between poststructural theory and hypertextual practice.

Writing in Cyberspace: 
The Pedagogy of Immersion
Kate Kiefer
Colorado State University
_____________________

As Internet tools have found their way into composition classrooms and pedagogy, teachers have had high hopes for what Petyon and Bruce frankly describe as "a transformed classroom" (66). Barker and Kemp characterize the potential of network pedagogy as enfranchising, egalitarian, and collaborative, while Minock and Shor use their network assignments to create a "collaborative, democratic and nonauthoritarian community of adult learners" (355). Not all forecasts are unfailingly positive: Sirc describes "off-task behavior" that looks rather like an evil twin of the electronic communications described above, but he also notes that teachers might embrace such apparently self-centered writing to enhance our notions of textuality (265). The most useful overview of attitudes toward and research on electronic communication tools is in Hawisher's "Electronic Meetings of the Mind," in which she describes the most commonly cited advantages and disadvantages of electronic communication and the teacher/researchers who hold those views: because electronic conferences are text-based environments, they provide real audiences for writers, encourage a sense of community, and involve participants equitably even though they can also encourage flaming, communication anxiety, sensory overload, and ineffective use of class time (84-93).

Whether they base their pedagogy on research or classroom experience, teachers who cite advantages of electronic communication tools are reacting to their sense of how their students and classrooms change when teachers introduce these tools that link a classroom to the outside world. My impressions coincide with the experiences of these thoughtful teachers. What I should like to pose, however, is a different explanation for why teachers see these changes in students who use electronic tools. We need to target research to help us better understand the potential of the networked computer classroom as a site of sophisticated learning. And that new understanding of writing may lead us to develop new conceptions of effective writing pedagogy.

Participatory Research
in a Mixed-Mode Classroom
Traci HalesVass, Mary Queen, 
Stephen Ellison, and   Joanne Addison
University of Colorado-Denver
_________________________

Teachers of writing increasingly use some form of computer-mediated communication (CMC) to supplement conventional courses. These types of courses have been labeled "mixed mode" courses (Hiltz). Usually, mixed mode courses require the use of email, electronic discussion groups, MOOs/MUDs, and/or electronic newsgroups in addition to face-to-face meetings. A survey of recent literature reviews on the use of CMC within educational environments reveals only one point of agreement among researchers: the use of CMC can improve the learning opportunities for our students when it leads to more equal participation and shared inquiry. However, often it reinforces systems of relations that do not lead to more equal participation and shared inquiry (Barker and Kemp, Hawisher and Eldred, Gruber, Selfe, Yagelski and Grabill). In other words, our initial enthusiasm concerning the potential of CMC has turned into an optimistic skepticism as research reveals the many ways in which it is used to reinforce existing social inequities. As Yagelski and Grabill conclude: "In short, as the uses of CMC continue to expand dramatically in classrooms at all educational levels, important questions remain to be addressed about the effects o CMC on teaching and learning and the relationship between CMC and traditional classroom practices" (12).

In this article, we will add to the current discussion concerning the effects of CMC on teaching and learning through the participatory research we conducted in the Fall of 1997. Participatory research can be defined simply as research in which all participants in the research process help to design, conduct, and disseminate the research. Through the use of participatory research, and the multiple perspectives it relies on for validity, we can provide a more complex picture of what happened when CMC was integrated as a supplemental teaching environment in our conventional classroom. Our research focuses on the use of CMC within a graduate course at the University of Colorado-Denver. In conducting our research, we employ an adaptation of James Porter's forum analysis and Ann Hill Duin and Craig Hansen's theoretical framework, which focuses on issues of social construction and interaction, situated literacy, distribution of power, and accessibility. The purpose of this research is to explore the ways that students and teachers can use CMC in order to foster learning opportunities for students through equal participation and shared inquiry.


Reading the Internet: 
A Carnivalesque Discourse
Geneviève Van de Merghel
San Diego State University
______________________

This article analyzes the Internet as a modern instance of a Bakhtinian carnival, a space where the constraints of officialdom seem completely overthrown, and the people revel in excess and freedom. The Internet community resembles the marketplace Bakhtin describes as the stage for carnival, not only because it is a center of commerce, but also because it is filled with loud and confusing voices clamoring for one's attention. This polyvocality and excess of language–known as "infoglut" online–are typical of carnival. Vernacular language online also overturns many conventions of standard English, while hypertext offers its users an opportunity to displace the strict monologism of established society. Unabashed cheating and stealing are similar examples of liberation and the overturning of social values. In addition, pornography is central to the Internet and reminiscent of the grotesque body found in Rabelais's works and other carnivals Bakhtin explores, not only in its potential to overturn officialdom, but also in its subtle oppression of disenfranchised communities. Flaming, trolling, and silence are other ways that freedom and discussion are limited on the Internet. Of course, too, the Internet is only accessible by a limited community, primarily North American and middle-class. But rather than co-opting the Internet's potential for realizable social change, these aspects of hegemonic control exist in dialogue with the liberating energies most people readily associate with the carnival atmosphere. The carnival is actually an adaptable forum that serves both the ends of society and of those who would subvert it. The Internet is in a unique position, as it is one carnival that is not limited by time. Therefore, officialdom does not get the "last word," by reasserting itself after the carnival period has ended. Continually running, the Internet offers realizable potential for social change.


The Sorcerer's Apprentice: 
21^st Century Metaphors for Teaching Language 
and Literacy in a Time of Chaos
Dene Grigar
Texas Women's University

John F. Barber
Midas Rex Institute
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As we think about literacy and language in the late twentieth century, what interests us is not the issue of education in the fourth century, but the way in which metaphors represent, inform, and ultimately shape our thinking about education and how they will continue to do so in the twenty-first century. Our concern over this issue of metaphor is derived from observations we have made about our students, that their literacy needs have changed drastically in the latter part of our century; that they are as products and proponents of a discontinuous, nonlinear literacy; that this form of literacy and language utilization is often dramatically different from the linear metaphorical models supported and promoted by our educational philosophies and institutions; that this forces a reconsideration of what constitutes language and literacy and their correct and/or effective utilizations; and that language and literacy teachers schooled in more linear approaches may be well served to adjust their pedagogies in ways that facilitate learning within such overlapping and nonexclusive metaphorical contexts. The way we will proceed in this discussion is to lay some philosophical groundwork concerning contemporary notions about metaphors, then touch on some cultural attitudes about the playfulness of language and metaphors, and finally, discuss ways in which discontinuous metaphors can represent, inform, and shape our thinking about teaching and learning language and literacy.

Unburdening the Self in Virtual Worlds: 
The Marriage of Mysticism 
and Postmodernism in Virtual Reality
Roy Joseph, Texas A&M University
______________________________

Virtual worlds are products of human interaction with virtual reality machines. The physical media such as the interactive, 3-D computer screen in conjunction with the sensorimotor channels of the human users creates these worlds, which are simulacra of the real. These virtual worlds that exist only in the minds of users confuse the distinction between the virtual and the real. The human subject in a virtual reality environment finds herself suspended in a continuum in which the boundaries between virtual presence and actual presence, virtual time and real time, virtual space and real space are momentarily blurred. Virtual reality machines create a new form of textual consciousness in which the subject is liberated from the constraints imposed on the reader by the print medium. In other words, virtual reality creates a postmodern subjectivity in which the Cartesian self is dispersed and recreated many times over as s/he enters the virtual environment. The dispersal or deconstruction of the human subject that occurs in VR environments is reminiscent of religio-mystical experiences that emphasize the negation of the self. Bearing this in mind, this paper adopts a postmodern perspective in studying Virtual Reality and demonstrates how it can bring together seemingly contradictory phenomena such as religion and postmodern thought to illuminate an understanding of the impact that VR has on the human user. Instead of resorting to classical or modern communication paradigms that better address "sender-message-receiver" paradigms or "author-text-reader" paradigms, this paper demonstrates that alternative paradigms derived from postmodernism, aesthetics, and religion are better suited to studying new communication media that are not only multi-sensory but also radically interactive.

Teachers Learning (Not Teaching) HTML 
With Students: An Experimental Lesson Plan 
for Introducing Web Authoring Into Writing Classes
Steven D. Krause
Eastern Michigan University
_______________________

Web browsing software like Netscape has been widely available since about 1993, and I suspect all but the most devout of modern day Luddites in English departments have spent at least some time surfing the Web. However, all but a few enthusiasts in English departments have stayed away from creating Web pages of their own. While inadequate access to the proper computer accounts necessary for supporting Web pages remains a significant barrier for many teachers and students (a problem I will discuss in some detail in this essay), I suspect that many English teachers and scholars haven’t created their own Web pages or incorporated Web page composition into their pedagogy simply because they don’t know how. And when told that all Web pages are based on something called Hyper-Text Mark-up Language (HTML), many undoubtedly assume that this must be a complicated and impossible to understand computer language, certainly something well beyond the grasp of someone with no computer programming experience. The experimental lesson plan I describe in this essay is based on my belief and experience that this assumption is not true. Simply put, creating modest Web pages with text, links, and a few graphics is actually quite easy. It can be taught by teachers who are reasonably comfortable working with their computers and who are willing to learn more, and it can be learned by students with no previous experience.

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Notes on Contributors to Readerly/Writerly Texts's  Special Issue on Texts & Technology (Fall/Winter 1999)

Joanne Addison is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at the University of Colorado-Denver. She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in rhetoric, cultural studies, and empirical research as well as computers and writing. She has published articles in Written Communication, Computers and Composition, and Feminist Teacher, among others. She recently edited a book with Sharon James McGee, Feminist Empirical Research: Emerging Perspectives on Qualitative and Teacher Research, that is forthcoming from Heinemann Boynton/Cook Publishers.

John F. Barber is an educational consultant for a medical technology firm. His students are orthopedic and neurosurgeons. His classrooms are worldwide. In a non-academic vein, he is a dynamic figure. He manages time efficiently, pays his bills on time, and is often acclaimed for his ability to prepare extraordinary four course meals using only yogurt and granola. He has navigated the Mississippi River, been caller number nine, and spoken to Elvis. He's yet, however, learned to dance the Macarena.

Stephen Cohen is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of South Alabama. His work on Shakespeare, dramatic genres, and historicist criticism has been published in Mosaic, REAL, and Criticism. His essay in this volume is the first fruit of an abiding interest in drama and technology, and is an aspect of his ongoing research on the relation between performance and identity in the early modern and postmodern periods.

Stephen Ellison is completing concurrent graduate programs at the University of Colorado at Denver, the first in Information and Learning Technologies with a focus on distance education, and the second in the Teaching of Writing with an emphasis on literacy in a technological environment. He teaches classes on Web design for both the University of Colorado at Denver and the Community College of Denver, and provides instructional design consultation for a variety of public and private corporations in the Denver area. He has been a technology grant reviewer for the Department of Education for the past two years in. Prior to being involved in an academic environment, he was the director of computer operations for a major Denver area home builder.

Dene Grigar is an Assistant Professor of English at Texas Woman’s University and specializes in rhetoric, technology and feminist theory. Her book New Worlds, New Words: Exploring Pathways In and About Electronic Environments (with John Barber, Hampton Press, 1999) speculates about the ways in which writing and thinking may or may not change when we move to virtual spaces, such as the World Wide Web, MOOs, and email. She is the co-founder and administrator of TWUMOO, a textual virtual environment for teaching, learning, and community service to women. She also serves as a member of the Instructional Technology Committee for the National Council of Teachers of English and the 7Cs for the Conference of College Composition and Communication.

Traci HalesVass completed her Masters Degree in English with a thesis on computer-mediated communication (CMC) in the composition classroom. She is now an Instructor of English at San Juan College in Farmington, New Mexico, where she teaches Basic English, Freshman Composition, and Composition for Technicians. She is coordinator for a new project at San Juan College, introducing computer-mediated communication into the composition classrooms, and is pursuing her doctorate degree at University of New Mexico in Organizational Learning and Instructional Technology.

Roy Joseph is a doctoral student in Speech Communication at Texas A & M University, College Station. His major research areas include studying interactions in human-computer interfaces, hypertexts and religious communication. He received his Master's degree in Communication Studies from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas in 1998.

Kate Kiefer is Professor of English at Colorado State University. Her research interests include writing across the curriculum, computers and composition, and applications of complexity theory to composition studies. Her most recent book is Transitions: Teaching Writing in Computer-Supported and Traditional Classrooms with Mike Palmquist, Jake Hartvigsen, and Barb Godlew.

Steven D. Krause is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at Eastern Michigan University. His research and teaching interests include the teaching of writing at all levels with computers, rhetoric and the Internet, hypertext, and publishing on the World Wide Web.

Mary Queen recently completed her M.A. in English at the University of Colorado at Denver and is currently writing two chapters for an introductory writing textbook, Writing Projects: Knowledge, Community, and Language, to be published by W. W. Norton. She will be pursuing her doctorate in Composition and Cultural Rhetoric at Syracuse University this coming fall.

Geneviève Van de Merghel is a Master's student studying English literature at San Diego State University. She is also co-founder and editor of PaperWeb Publishing and Bear Publishing, whose current projects include Understanding and Surviving America’s Stalking Epidemic, by Linden Gross, as well as educational pamphlets and a web site (http://www.stalkingvictims.com) that informs talking victims and the professional communities who seek to help them about this pervasive and often mishandled crime.

Janice R. Walker is Assistant Professor of Writing and Linguistics at Georgia Southern University where she teaches courses in Technical Writing and Composition, and online editor of JAC: A Journal of Composition Theory. Publications include The Columbia Guide to Online Style (with Todd Taylor), and articles on issues dealing with the intersection of texts and modern technology, including articles on intellectual property issues, electronic theses and dissertations, and an upcoming article, "Resisting Resistance: Power and Control in the Technologized Classroom" in Insurrection: Pedagogical and Theoretical Approaches to Resistance, edited by Andrea Greenbaum, that addresses the ways in which technology may be used to reinscribe traditional hierarchies. She also has two textbooks currently in press (co-authored with John Ruszkiewicz), Bookmarks: A Guide to Writing and Research and writing@online.edu, both from Addison-Wesley-Longman, that fully integrate writing and research processes with modern technologies for their production and distribution.