A Pedagogy of Play: Integrating Computer Games into the Writing Classroom

Traditional distinctions between work/play and classroom/gamespace create barriers to computer games’ integration into academic settings and the writing classroom in particular. For a writing class, the work/play distinction often relegates games to an object of analysis in which students critique the games but have little invested in the gameplay itself. After examining briefly how historical changes in education created these distinctions, we offer an alternative position that places play and gamespace within the realm of the classroom. In so doing, we open up a gap for computer game theory to inform the pedagogy that can be practiced in a writing classroom. We show one such example of game theory informing writing pedagogy—the theory of emergent gaming. We then offer an example of an enacted emergent pedagogy in which students play the massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft throughout the term, composing self-determined, rhetorically focused writing projects informed by play and written for other game players.     

Interacting with computer technology in secondary schools

In this article I reflect on my teaching and scholarship with computers in secondary schools during the past 20 years. I chart how changing technology and changing expectations for technology shaped my teaching and student learning in the writing centers and classrooms where I have worked.     

Speaking on the record: A theory of composition

This article explores ways in which some of what has been achieved through the use of writing can be achieved in the domain of the oral and ways in which the use of oral forms might be revalued as literate composition. Toward these ends, I introduce a new word and practice to provide a counterpart to writing in a spoken modality: Spriting in its general form is the activity of speaking “on the record” that yields a technologically supported representation of oral speech with essential properties of writing, such as permanence, and offers possibilities of editing, indexing, and scanning but without the difficult transition to a deeply different form of representation such as writing itself. Literacy is defined here as the sophisticated structures and elements that characterize linguistic stories and ideas, largely but not completely independent of the material ways in which these structures are realized. That is, this article distinguishes literacy from letteracy, which refers to textual decoding and encoding abilities, and I introduce another new term, prosodacy, which refers to oral decoding and encoding abilities. Based on outcomes from two years of exploratory empirical work with adult learners and young children using novel spriting software I designed and developed for them, I discuss four areas in which spriting-like activities and technology can have a positive impact on literacy development and education.     

Self-regulated learning through writing on computers: Consequences for reading comprehension

The overall aim for the present study was to analyze the consequences for reading ability among the children of a computer supported self-regulated learning environment in grade two. By means of a quasi-experimental design in a natural setting, an experimental group (n = 39) was compared to a control group from a national sample (n = 3409) on reading comprehension. The statistical analyses showed that the experimental group achieved better on reading comprehension both as a group (p < .001) as well as girls (p < .001) and boys (p < .05) separately. The proportion of high achievers was higher, and the proportion of low achievers was lower in the experimental group. In order to explain the level of reading comprehension in the experimental group Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used. The main explanatory factor for reading comprehension was writing with β = .44. As a tentative conclusion it was suggested that the extended writing in combination with the self-regulated learning environment can promote reading comprehension in grade two, whereas home literacy had no impact on reading comprehension in this context.     

Earl Ubell: Distinguished Science Writing Award.

The American Psychological Foundation's 1965 award for Distinguished Science Writing was presented to Earl Ubell, Science Editor of the New York Herald Tribune, in recognition of the high caliber of his writings in the field of psychology. A cash award was accompanied by an engrossed scroll which read: "For excellent reporting in various areas of psychology. Even when their content has been critical, his articles have been accurate and clear, and a contribution to understanding psychology today." Several of the 1965 award winner's previous accomplishments are also mentioned in the article. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Computer-assisted techniques to enhance transformative learning in first-year literature courses

When students use computers as learning tools, the whole process of learning, and, indeed, the learners themselves, are transformed. This article illustrates some techniques that foster transformative learning in computer-assisted first-year literature classes: first, a lesson plan on A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning that uses Microsoft Word functions, including format painter, tables, and annotation to explore meaning in context; second, a plan for learners to use subconference options in the Daedalus Interactive Writing Environment to analyze Oedipus Rex; finally, a demonstration of how students engage in a meta-reflection process as they explore Barn Burning with Freelance Graphics.Marguerite Jamieson is an English instructor at Anne Arundel Community College in Arnold, Maryland, and a doctoral student at George Mason University. Her research interests include forming bridges between adult learning theory and contemporary literary theory — especially drawing on transformational learning theory and the work of Mikhail Bakhtin and Lev Vygotsky.Rebecca Kajs holds a doctorate in English from Texas Woman's University with a concentration in rhetoric. For ten years, she taught the use of heuristic tools for reading analysis at the University of Texas at Arlington. She is currently an associate professor of English and Philosophy at Anne Arundel Community College.Anne Agee holds a doctorate in rhetoric from The Catholic University of America. A professor of English and formerly director of the Humanities Computer Center at Anne Arundel Community College, she is currently the college's Coordinator of Instructional Technology. Dr. Agee and Professor Jamieson have collaborated in a study of the learning environment in a computer classroom, the results of which were published in the Fall 1995 issue of Teaching/Learning Conversations. Dr. Agee has also published Using [Daedalus] InterChange as a Teachers' Journal in the Fall 1995 issue of Wings.     

How international is Computers and Composition?

In this article, I examine to what extent Computers and Composition: An International Journal for Teachers of Writing is international. My analysis of several aspects of the journal indicates limited international scope. I also discuss two issues important when considering the potential international scope of computers and writing research and practices: the differing uses of computers for writing by different language users and the differing concepts of identity and self in different cultures in relation to writing. I conclude with concrete suggestions for broadening our perspectives on computers and writing and making this journal truly international.     

Sexualities, technologies, and the teaching of writing: A critical overview

In this introduction to a special issue of Computers and Composition, the authors critically review current literature on computer-assisted writing pedagogies that grapple with issues of sexuality. Although this body of work is small, it points to provocative ways to develop our students’ critical and rhetorical sensibilities about the constructions of sexuality in our culture. Further, such work innovatively addresses the place of networked communication technologies in the interrogation of such constructions. The authors conclude with both an introduction of the work in this special issue that addresses the intersection of sexuality studies and computer-assisted writing studies and with a call for additional work in this field.     

藏文文字特征提取方法的研究

特征提取是文字识别中很重要的环节。藏文字识别中特征提取的方法有很多,但由于藏文字的字型有很多种特点,可以探索出适合藏文识别的最优特征提取方法。该文简述了藏文字型的特征及印刷体藏文字识别原理,主要讨论了符合藏文字的一种特征提取方法--网络点阵图形投影法。     

The influence of textese on adolescents’ perceptions of text message writers

Text messages are characterised by a casual language style, ‘textese’ (e.g., c u on thurs). This study investigated adolescents’ perceptions of the use of different levels of textese in digital messages which varied in their intended recipient (friend, teacher). Grade 8 students in Australia (N = 90, aged 13–14 years) each read six text messages purportedly written by a fellow student, and rated the extent to which they agreed (on a 7-point Likert scale) that the message writer was intelligent, paid attention to detail, used an appropriate writing style, and was friendly. Overall, participants rated message senders most favourably on all measures when they used no textese, and least favourably when they used high levels of textese. This pattern was even stronger when messages were addressed to teachers rather than same-aged friends. The findings suggest that adolescents are sensitive to both writing style and recipient when considering digital messages.