Adam Banks on African American language use online

Adam Banks' discussion of representations of Black English in online spaces was useful becaue it helped me think more critically about how identities are formed through written language. I think he makes a very insightful observation about how much of the critical commentary that addresses Black English has to do with spoken rather than written expressions. Indeed, it seems that in writing classes many have the stance of "it's okay to talk like that, but you'll need to learn to write like 'this' in our class." What is lost when we stifle certain modes of written expression for the sake of a dominant mode of expression? Online spaces not only provide a place for different kinds of ethnic written expression to flourish but they also allow members of ethnic communities to interact via these written expressions, potentially resulting in a cultural richness both represented in the space itself but also one that feedsback to the participants themselves. Writing, of course, is more than just physical representation of thought. Expressing oneself via "unrestricted" writing, especiall when interacting with others in writing, actually creats cultural richness, both in the written products that are created and in the act of creating for the participants. While this notion of writing is something that I have given some attention to in the past, I have never thought about what impact virtual spaces might have this kind of linguistic activity.

Ewriting Spaces as Safe, Gender-Fair Havens

The Tulley/Blair piece on Ewriting safe spaces really helped me come to a more specific understanding of my philosophy of teaching with technology. While the article as a whole was quite thought-provoking, I was particularly struck by the notion that the fulid, non-linier nature of hypertext does allow for the expression of multiple "voices," and it also provides a useful opportunity to experiment with combining the personal and the academic in writing, something that isn't easy to accomplish in a linier text.

One thing that has troubled me about using sophisticated technology in writing classes is how to assess student projects fairly. Some students come into the course with all kinds of technical skills while others come in with very few. Given the nature of the course - writing - it becomes difficult to zero in on student "writing" when many are so busy struggling with the technology that they struggle with the "writing" aspect of a given assignment. The Tulley/Blair article recommends using portfolio assessment as a solution to this issue, and I think it is a great idea. This allows students to work at different rates, so those that need a little extra time to figure out the technology can take the time and not feel rushed when it comes to the critical thinking of writing and/or crafting whatever the assignment is asking them to do. Having read about the theory behind this notion of assessment and participated in class like this, I feel strongly about its effectiveness as a means of providing fair and accurate assessment to all students.

Bolter: Part 2

Bolter's discussion of Ekphrasis really addresses an important point about how a newer media can remediate an older one. I think that a lot of popular writing has, as Bolter points out, taken a turn toward the visual in the last decade or so. The current ENG 111 Textbook comes to mind as a good example. So much of this text is purely visual explanation - flowcharts, photos, textual blurb boxes - and the raw textual elements, in many cases, are secondary to the visual elements, serving only to clarify what the visual has expressed. It's ironic, and beside the point of this reflection, that I still can't seem to get my students to open the book and "read" it.

I really enjoyed Bolter's example of Ekphrasis from the USA Today blurb about how often men shave on the weekends. From an information design standpoint, it actually makes a lot of sense to make use of the item being represented in the representation of some dataset about that item. Although, I'm sure there are scenarios where this could cause more harm than it does good, but it's still a revealing idea to think about.