Abstract
This article considers WiER's progression through its first four years, and focuses on how learning in the "electronic residency" has more to do with participating in a "reflective community" than it does with the technology that sustains the program.
It first appeared in ECOO Output 12(1), 1991, the Journal of the Educational Computing Organization of Ontario.
© Trevor Owen, Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser University
The Currency of Distance
I used to think that the currency of distance was the kilometre, but now I'm not so sure. Our use of telecommunications for writing and interaction in English and Language Arts classrooms suggests some other possibilities--and raises some questions too. How, for instance, might one consider--and then address--the "distance" that normally exists between writers and students?
When constituencies like these actually have the opportunity to interact freely with one another, and to control their own participation in the meaningful exchange of ideas, the currencies of distance change shape and tone. Experience and access begin to blend with equity and reflection as the once "distant" communities begin to learn more about each other.
And, not surprisingly, about themselves.
Teachers participate in the exchanges too, and incorporate the work into their programs as part of the existing curriculum rather than an event. They do it because they value student writing. And they do it because online links are language learning links.
The Writer In Electronic Residence Program
The Writer In Electronic Residence program connects English and Language Arts students in Canada with writers, teachers and one another in an animated exchange of original writing and commentary. The writers join with participating students and teachers to read and consider the student works, offer their reactions and ideas, and guide discussions between the students.
The program began in the 1987-88 school year at Riverdale Collegiate Institute (RCI), an inner city secondary school in Toronto, Ontario, and Cariboo Hill Secondary School in Burnaby, B.C. The project has been supported since its inception by the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University (SFU).
Writing, Not Computers
Students use word processors to compose their works, and their responses to the works of others, before incorporating telecommunications into the process. They connect directly to the host computer at Simon Fraser from their classrooms, school libraries, or offices equipped with a modem and access to a telephone line, and and post their writing in an electronic conference that has been established for them. Most of the original writing is poetry and short fiction, but other issues emerge from time to time that encourage writing in other forms. Often these come in response to particular issues or concerns expressed in one or more of the submissions, and discussions develop in which students explore their ideas with one another.
A Reflective Community
In each of our projects since then, our goal has been to promote considered response within a reflective community--online and in the classroom.
We want students to be in control of the media before them, and to utilize these media to broaden the shape and scope of the classroom experience. We want them to consider the value of revision in the writing process and the role that they may play in this--for themselves and for others.
And we want them to revisit their thoughts in light of the ideas they receive--to see the world as another might--and to respond in the language-rich environment that online computer conferencing systems offer them.
Conference ELECTRO-POETS
The first project, ELECTRO-POETS, was undertaken with poet Lionel Kearns from British Columbia between January and May, 1988. ELECTRO-POETS involved two classes: my own from Riverdale, and one with teacher Marion Poggemiller from Cariboo Hill Secondary School in B.C. The students and teachers involved embraced the online program as part of their daily classroom experience, and generated close to two hundred pages of original text and commentary.
SFU's involvement came as a result of the efforts of Dr. Gerri Sinclair, Director of the EXCITE Centre for interactive technologies in education. Dr. Sinclair is a frequent featured speaker at ECOO conferences.
Conference NEW-VOICES
The second project, NEW-VOICES, expanded the role of online activity within existing classroom programs, involving more schools from Ontario and B.C. Two students from RCI, Ekaterina Catsiliras and Erifili Morfidis, served as the editors of NEW- VOICES. Here is an excerpt from their introduction:
In the 1988/89 school year, Riverdale Collegiate Institute (RCI) operated "NEW- VOICES," a conference which involved the contribution of original works-in-progress and commentary on the works of others. The writers-in-electronic-residence were David McFadden, Guy Gavriel Kay, and Katherine Govier. The pieces which the students submitted were read, studied, commented on and sent back with questions and remarks.
The comments encouraged students to read over and revise their work. Revision was a crucial part of supporting the development of student writers. The ardent responses of the students were overwhelming. Many students felt free to respond to the writers' opinions and were not intimidated by the fact that they were questioning the opinion of a professional.
In this manner, third parties were able to join individual discussions and voice their own ideas. David McFadden shocked us all with his semi-cynical comments, which were of course designed to improve our writing skills.
The conference NEW-VOICES was not confined to the writers and Riverdale students. Cariboo Hill Secondary in Burnaby B.C., and Owen Sound Collegiate and Vocational Institute also took an active role.... August, 1989
They go on to include some rather lovely examples of student writing and exchange, including samples of new poetry submitted by the resident author for comment by the students.
David McFadden submitted twenty-five of his own, previously unpublished poems to NEW-VOICES and asked the students whether they might like to serve as "writers in electronic residence" for him. I must admit that I found this to be a most remarkable example of collaboration in the electronic residency. The event clearly confirmed the value and impact of telecommunications as an interactive and collaborative environment for writing.
Conference WIRED.WRITERS & Conference WRITE.NOW
Our next program operated from January to June, 1990. WIRED.WRITERS featured the return of Toronto-based novelist Katherine Govier, and poet Lorna Crozier from Saskatoon, who also served as writer in residence at the University of Toronto (UofT) that year. They were joined later in the project by Vancouver novelist-- and ProvinceCrawford Kilian, who moderated a special conference in student fiction. Two younger writers, Gary BarwinRitz Chow of Toronto joined the program serving as mentors to the secondary students.
WIRED.WRITERS involved ten secondary schools and/or school districts in Ontario, B.C. and the Northwest Territories. Another conference, WRITE.NOW, opened for students at the elementary level with writer Emily Hearn.
Taken together, the Writer In Electronic Residence programs have already reported how writing to learn in the computer conferencing environment supports developmental writing and interaction. We have also seen how a sense of place is inherent in the text, like in this piece from Sue Qitsaulik from Pond Inlet, in the Northwest Territories.
THE STRUGGLING STORY OF SURUSIMIITUT
In the year 1922 a baby boy was born from an Inuk mother. She loved her baby with all her heart. The father of the baby felt the opposite. He was hurt, that his wife had borne a child that did not belong to him. The father Attanga knew it was part his fault that his wife had borne a son from a Scottish Whaler for a pair of binoculars. The child was born in a sod house where they would live every summer. In the winter they would live in an Igloo at the edge of the beach. Making these houses took a lot of time, because they had to cut out every block and set everything after the sod house or the Igloo was done. After they settled in, they were very tired from all the work they had done in order to have a comfortable home.
As the child was growing up, his mother Attanga had named her son Surusimiitut which means, "he's with the children, in Inuktitut". Attanga had named her son Surusimiitut because the child grew up without any children his age to play with. She had hoped he had friends so he could be happier. It broke Attanga's heart every time she saw her son playing by himself. She would cry at night because of this. On top of that Surusimiitut's step- father didn't want anything to do with him. The only reason he let his wife keep Surusimiitut was because Attanga had always wanted a child and he knew she would go crazy if she had to give her child up for adoption.
As the years went by, Surusimiitut had two brothers and one sister. By this time his mother was very old. His step-father had never taught him how to hunt. So he was afraid that very soon his parents would die. He often thought to himself, "How am I going to take care of my two brothers and my sister when our parents are dead? They are still too young for Father to teach them to take care of themselves." Father had never taught me how to hunt because I was not his blood son. If he were to teach me how to hunt he wouldn't be able to teach me everything because he is very old.
One day when he was out getting ice for water his sister came out running and crying. He had run after her wondering why she was crying. When he caught up to her, he asked her "Why are you weeping?" She looked at him and said "Will you take good care of me now that mother and father are dead?" Surusimiitut had realized his biggest fear had come true, now that both his parents were dead. They had died from old age. He didn't know what to say or do when his sister asked him. Surusimiitut hugged his sister and answered, "I will do my best to take care of you and my two brothers Saittuq and Alookee." The first few weeks of survival were very hard for Surusimiitut. He had to learn how to be a hunter and a provider for himself, sister and two brothers.
He was lucky that his mother used to tell him stories of his grandparents. She used to tell him that they had lived and how they had gone out hunting in storms and come back with food. That made him very happy, he was able to get food by the stories his mother had told him. Every day he would go out hunting hoping he would be able to catch some fish or seal, knowing his brothers and sister depended on it. While he was out hunting he would think to himself, and ask himself, "When my Saittuq and Alookee grow up, how am I going to teach them how to hunt the proper way. And my dear sister Qi, am I raising her right? I have no idea how to teach her how to sew and do all the other things a woman does."
Over the years they all managed to survive. Surusimiitut's brothers and sister were all very grown. One day the two, Saituq and Alookee decided to go hunting by themselves. They had told Qiqqaaq to get the pot ready for cooking around evening, since they knew they were going to come back hungry. They were gone for the whole day. In the evening, Qiqqaaq and Surusimiitut were getting worried. They would go out and check to see if there was any sign of them coming. When It was Qiqqaaq's turn, she went out having the same feeling that she would not see them. Way far in the distance she could see a dog team coming. She ran inside the igloo telling her brother that she could see a dog team coming to the camp. They waited anxiously. When the dog team finally came Saittuq and Alookee were on the sled. They came running into the igloo telling Surusimiitut that they had seen some Inuit and they gave them some puppies if they would give them some food to eat and invite them to sleep in their Igloo.
Surusimiitut was happy to hear this because he didn't have any dogs.
The next day, the family that came in, had made an Igloo to sleep in. The leader of the family said that they would stay for a few days and wait for Surusimiitut's parents to come from the hunt. Surusimiitut explained to the family that both his parents were dead and he had taken care of his brothers and sisters for a long time. The man named Idlout was surprised that he had done a very good job in taking care of his family and that he did extremely well in this area. Idlout went on saying My father had told me about this area and he had said that this area you are in is a bad place to live. The hunting is very poor. Surusimiitut I am very proud of you. You are able to survive in the harshest part of the world and take care of your beloved ones.
He went on telling him that he had a young daughter who had no husband. If he were interested he would give his daughter to him as a wife. "I know Surusimiitut, if I give you my daughter and some dogs you are able to take very good care of them. You are a great hunter and a very wise man."
Qiqqaaq had married a man who was a shy and quiet. She had met him when they were passing by, moving to another community. She was happy and had taken good care of her family. She was very well of and had four children the last time Surusimiitut saw her.
As Saittuq grew into a man, he went up to Surusimiitut and said "Surusimiitut you are a very happy man with a family on the way. You have four daughters. They are not boys but having you as a father they can work just as hard. You look very happy, I don't want to be another load to you so I am going to go west. I have heard that they are short of men. There, I am going to go in that direction to look for a wife for myself." Surusimiitut was sad that his family had all grown and gone off. But he knew it was the best for them.
Alookee had gone south to study to become a priest. It was what he had always wanted to be. He wasn't sure if he wanted to get married and have children. He just wanted to serve God and help other Inuit. His last words to Surusimiitut was, "I will pray for you everyday and hope that God is always with you."
Surusimiitut and his wife had four daughters. He had hoped his children would be boys, but he knew he would never trade them for the world. He had taught them how to hunt and take care of themselves and how to survive in the deepest winter. The last time Surusimiitut was seen he was an old man with no wife. With his wife he bore 12 children. He was seen out on his camp with four other sod houses.
What Have We Learned?
We know now that language-based telecommunications links offer meaningful opportunities for language development and proficiency. And as we can see from pieces like these, students have the opportunity to control their own experiences and gain a very real understanding of themselves and one another through this control. Tolerance is promoted as a natural result of attempting to see the world as another might.
"Local Shape"
But we know, too, that a need exists to interpret experience within a meaningful context. To this extent, it is clear that these links offer an oral possibility as the students interpret their online experiences and give a "local shape" to them within the familiar setting of their own classroom.
Key Ideas
We think there are some key ideas that promote this interaction using telecommunications. The projects emphasize task, not technology, and they are language-based, involving participants in actively summoning language appropriate to the tasks at hand, and particular language in particular situations. Accordingly, they seek to empower learners by offering direct and personal access to activities that are relevant now. And they promote equity, increasing student access to experience by extending our reach out into the world and bringing what we find there back into the classroom--to meet existing curricular goals.
In short, online lines are language-learning links, and many meaningful opportunities to summon language flow naturally from them--both online and as a result of having been online.
What The Students Say
Students and teachers agree. Here's what they have said:
"What a WONDERFUL learning experience it has been," wrote student Yit Yin Tong, who is in her final year at Riverdale. "It has given me a new perspective on learning, and learning how to learn. With other writers of the world, we have all responded and contributed to one another. I see this as something that has changed my life...education shouldn't always be within classroom walls.
- Yit Yin received the Lawrence Weston Creativity Award for her work in telecommunications.
There is a transition from thoughts to words, a mechanical process of the brain that fills a 7" by 10" screen. I discovered that the best part about writing is writing. And being read is rather fun, too. In the past electronic writing conferences, I was most surprised by the reactions of those who read my pieces. I came to realize that when someone read my piece, the words were no longer my own, but rather the reader's. It was the reader's concept of my words, not the words themselves, that had life. The static sentences travelled in the interpretations of the readers. The small screen of the computer holds a great view. Not only can we glimpse the world through the computer screen, but the world can gaze back, into our rooms, into our faces, into our words.
- Ritz Chow, currently attends the Faculty of Pharmacy, UofT, and has worked with us online for three years now.
"At first I wasn't sure that I liked the idea of WIRED.WRITERS and especially the idea of telling someone that I don't know that I don't like (or *do* like) their piece of writing. But then you talked me into sending my independent study away and suddenly I *was* interested in reading and responding to others. When Crawford Kilian responded to my story I was amazed! I mean he's a published writer and he was interested in *my* story. In fact, he *liked* my story. (Which reminds me that I must send my response to him). But what really amazed me was that his advice was almost exactly what you had told me!"
- A student from Owen Sound Collegiate and Vocational Institute responding to teacher, Fran McArthur. Another student from Owen Sound considered her response to a comment she received from one of the writers this way:
When Lorna Crozier commented that some of the lines in my poem seemed heavy handed, she was right on the button. It's strange because she only suggested they were but as soon as I read that I knew it was true. Without even looking at my poem again I knew it was true. So, when I looked at the good lines I noticed that they were lines that I had written down when I was feeling the emotion. The other lines were ones that had been created to piece together the strong lines. Those that I had created *after* the emotion were too strong and made up.
Fake, I guess you could call them.
So, does that mean that I can only write something that is really effective when *I* feel the emotion? Maybe. It's common sense, I suppose, that what you're writing has to be felt before you can describe it?
I remember when I wrote the better lines in the poem that I really wasn't thinking about what words I was writing down. I was in a bit of a frenzy writing through my feelings. I guess you have to do that to be effective.
Go right to the core.
- Deanne Mallard
And,
"It was an odd pleasure to be taken so seriously."
- "Helga," Alternative Secondary Education II in Scarborough, Ontario.
"Insulting Red" - What The Teachers Say
Given comments like these, one might reasonably expect to feel some impact on the teaching/learning environment of the classroom. Here's what some of the teachers have said about that:
"You have really hit upon some key issues that we should be communicating to the uninitiated. Suddenly, teachers get credibility after years and years of useless circling errors in insulting red," said English teacher Sandra Hawkins from Columneetza Secondary in Williams Lake, B.C., of the similarity of the writers' comments to her own. She continues: "I have some of my best discussions with students (online...their comments) surprise me and they seem to feel the same about some of the comments I make here. You never hear us say, 'I promise I will answer that question eventually, but you are way ahead of the lesson right now,' in WIRED.WRITERS!"
Go Right To The Core
1991 marks the fourth year in which students write to learn, online, in the Writer In Electronic Residence Program. Over the course of our activities, we have experienced substantial growth and, as of this writing, it seems clear that every region of the country will be represented in 1991.
Our writers for this year include: Katherine Govier (prose fiction), Lorna Crozier (poetry), Susan Musgrave (poetry, prose non-fiction, humour), Rick Salutin (dramatic literature, prose non-fiction, humour), Daniel Poliquin (prose fiction), Robert J. Sawyer (prose science-fiction), and Emily Hearn (poetry & prose for young readers).
This year also marks the beginning an expanded partnership in the project. The Writers' Development Trust has assumed the administration of the program, while the Faculty of Education at SFU continues to support the online learning activities in a avariety of ways. The Ontario Arts Council, Literature Office contributes to the writers' fees, together with the schools, which each contribute financially to the program.
The Writers' Development Trust is also committed to promoting--and bringing-- Canadian writers and writing to classrooms. Each of the participating schools receives a collection of books by our authors, along with a bundle of publications in which they have published recently. Further, a number of visits will be made by the writers to some of the schools involved.
From Baffin Island to Williams Lake, Owen Sound to Whitehorse, teachers of English and Language Arts who have vibrant writing programs, and who seek to bring Canadian writers and writing into their classrooms will be using the this program to encourage students to participate actively in the writing process.
Talking or Writing?
Many online activities in education appear to embrace telecommunications as a "talking" medium. Given the textual nature of computer conferencing, the Writer In Electronic Residence program sees it as a writing medium. In fact, we encourage schools not to undertake their participation while online. Instead, we ask them to print up new submissions and responses regularly and offer them as part of their regular, in-class reading program. In this way, the students consider what they have to say and, when they are ready to offer it, they come online to send it.
While the student responses are usually conversational in tone, they are, in fact, considered. And it is precisely this reflective response we seek.
Validating Student Writing
For me, one of the happiest outcomes of this program is that it helps to validate original student writing as suitable reading material in classrooms--my own, and others'. As Nancy O'Connor, a student from Columneetza told me recently, "I feel qualified to read and comment on the work in WIRED.WRITERS."
I agree with her.
And that's not too far a reach.
