Coley.+Alice+in+Wikiland

=Coley, Toby. "Through the Looking Monitor: Alice in Wikiland."=

//Computers and Composition// (2011). //BGSU :: University Home Page :: Bowling Green State University Home Page//. Web. 19 Mar. 2011. [].

Abstract
For the composition community, two forces have driven the research behind technology integration. The first is a penchant for theory and the second that of praxis. This pendulum can be seen through the logic of induction and deduction. The idea of taking classroom applications and developing theories from which these applications take on added meaning is straight out of the inductive method (something we get from our social science background). On the other hand, starting with a theory and developing applications for our practice owes a large debt to our humanities background (deductive method).

This article will focus on the second, or deductive, method. I shall begin with rhetorical theory of audience and apply it to the technology of wikis, a Web 2.0 technology, in the teaching of writing. In order to do so, an examination of how the rhetorical concept of audience plays a unique role in the development of a community with shared goals, which in turn emerge around a shared and communally constructed knowledge base is explored. In some instances, a wiki community may be compared to Thomas Farrell's idea of a forum, yet it seems to construct specific constraints on that system. In order to understand these constraints, I shall trace Alice, a typical first year composition student (though fictional), through the looking glass (the computer monitor), and into Wikiland in order to understand how the wiki challenges the rhetorical concept of audience in its conceptions as a single, limited, and multiple audience; determine how audience is constructed by the community and knowledge base through the forum; and ask how this digital media technology affects the assessment of student writing within this new conception of audience. It is my hope that this work will challenge researchers and scholars to offer “practicalities involved in designing a computer-mediated writing classroom” that will enable teachers to utilize wiki technology effectively (Takayoshi & Huot, 2003, p. 57)

Argument
This website, constructed by Toby Coley, examines the role of wikis in the composition classroom. Coley uses the fictional, yet realistic character of Alice to investigate the usefulness of the technology and how the role of writer and audience changes. Coley goes in-depth on the topic of audiences. He explores the different audience types and their effects on composition, community, and collaboration. He also closely examines the relationship between author and audience. There is a thin line between author and audience due to the nature of the wiki. Wikis aid students because the audience can become the author and contribute their knowledge to the wiki. Community collaboration is useful because many people can provide their input and contribute to the community knowledge. Wikis also allow students to see the effects of their writing in real world situations rather than simulated situations in a classroom setting. He argues that the purpose of the wiki is to draw collaboration between writers of various backgrounds and interaction from a newly defined audience. The rhetorical implication of this new wiki audience is the main focus of this article. The "web 2.0" audience that the creators of wikis will encounter hold a whole new rhetorical perspective; one that must be examined in the composition classroom. Coley also bring the issue of assessment to light. Teachers and professors are able to assess the contributions of users in order to determine who has successfully utilized a wiki to fulfill the assignment criteria.

Key Passages
"The wiki by its nature as an open source software program begins, upon installation, without any functional restrictions to the user base."

"Wikis are democratic in the sense that they offer anyone with access, the ability to participate in the conversation by locating that conversation in a public space (forum)."

"...the technology naturally offers a space for collaborative interaction among audience members from diverse and distant locations."

"The major reason the wiki engenders diversity in audience members is that it positions the rhetorical situation in an open forum and prompts public discourse through the space presented in the wiki."

"Wikis allow students to access a 'universal audience,' which therefore conducts the audience in the role 'equal to that of the orator in the tests of ideas publicly' so that the community or authors principles of action 'cannot arbitrarily favor certain people of certain situations,' thus providing a somewhat Neutral Point Of View (NPOV)."

"...the concept of audience has not been widely examined for its rhetorical implications to the members of the wiki community and teachers who would use the technology to enhance teaching and learning. This article will examine the identity of, and the space where, the audience gains its identity as such (the forum). In order to understand audience, the idea of the rhetorical audience perspectives that students encounter in this web 2.0 world are explained further."

"The wiki audience is both author and audience as these lines are blurred, since a given audience member may decide to contribute and thus take on the role of author and recreate his or her own audience."

"The audience to and for which members of the wiki community write, presents a fluid dynamic of interchanging and interpersonal definitions of what it means to be an audience member and what it means to be an author. Due to the intricate nature that the two rhetorical concepts share, audience and author maintain a reciprocal and cyclical relationship."

"The wiki provides a type of this forum for the community by enabling multiple perspectives to be weighed, considered, and altered if needed. The wiki community constructs a place 'where the normative 'content' and convictions of membership groups may be identified and expressed' (p. 88). As Farrell notes, this setting may be 'formal, informal, even conjectural and socially emergent,' thus providing a 'plurality of appearances' (p. 89-89)."

"In order to create and share this knowledge, the community must use rhetoric as a means of persuading members toward commonality."

"Wikis have the potential to "equalize knowled among student rather than penalize those with fewer technological skills," in part due to the low learning curve, ease of use, and constant accessibility (p. 59)."

" A wiki community as a discourse community adheres to many rhetorical principles that are driven by these motivations (interests, goals, and concerns); however, it admits considerable flexibility because of its changing and potentially broadening numbers."

Selected Works Cited
Berlin, J. (1988). Rhetoric and Ideology in the Writing Class. College English 50, 477-494.

Ede, L. & Lunsford A., (1984). Audience Addressed/Audience Invoked: The Role of Audience in Composition Theory and Pedagogy. College Composition and Communication 35, 155-171.

Ferris, S., and H. Wilder. 2006. Uses and Potentials of Wikis in the Classroom. Innovate 2 (5), Retrieved on May 04, 2008 from, http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=258&action=article

Garza, S. L. & Hern T,. (2005). Using Wikis as Collaborative Writing Tools: Something Wiki This Way Comes-or Not! Kairos 10(1), Retrieved May 04, 2008, from http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/10.1/binder2.html?http://falcon.tamucc.edu/wiki/WikiArticle/Home

Lunsford, A.A. & Ede, L. (2009). ‘Among the audience’: On audience in an age of new literacies. In M. E. Weiser, B. M. Fehler, & A. M. Gonzalez (Eds.). (2009).Engaging audience: Writing in an age of new literacies. (pp. 42-72). NCTE.

Ong, W. J., (1975). The Writer’s Audience Is Always a Fiction. PMLA 90, 9-21.

Selber, S. A. (2004). Multiliteracies for a Digtial Age. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.

Selfe, C. L. & Selfe R. J. Jr., (1994). The Politics of the Interface: Power and Its Exercise in Electronic Contact Zones. College Composition and Communication 45, 480–504.

Selfe, R. Techno-pedagogical explorations: Toward a sustainable technology-rich instruction. In P. Takayoshi & B. Huot (Eds.), Teaching Writing with Computers: An Introduction. (2003). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

[|Alice in Wikiland]