Abstract
This article, by Barb Stevenson, considers how the Writers In Electronic Residence program operates in the Learning Resouces Centre at Viscount Bennett, an adult education program in Calgary, Alberta. Her remarks are instructive, beginning with the value of learning from one's experience and moving toward the creation of theory that, in turn, guides the Viscount program to build approaches to learning that had not been imagined before the school became involved in WiER.
Stevenson's notions begin with the value of incorporating student voice in the program at Viscount, and go on to reveal how this acceptance appears to make technological hurdles, like adding a telephone line and modem to a computer station, the "simple" problems. It is clear from her remarks that, compared to the substantial issues of changing conditions of work, evaluation, and the resistance to change she faced on the curricular front, issues of technology were the least of her worries-these she could control.
Part of Stevenson's re-conceptualization of teaching in the library is her discovery of WiER's value as reading material and a willingness to accept her discovery as, in effect, theory that can guide and inform new practice. She views WiER as a kind of "partner" in her teaching practice. In no way is WiER a "service" she needs to deliver. The library at Viscount Bennett reveals to the visitor how the acceptance and inclusion of such a partnership is intertwined with the activities that occur there.
This article first appeared in Telecommunications In Education (T.I.E.) News, 5(1), 1993 a publication of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), University of Oregon, Eugene.
© Barb Stevenson , Calgary Board of Education
Teachers often comment that they are successful the third time they try a new teaching approach. As we begin round three of the Writers In Electronic Residence (WiER) program, we can look back at the process of implementation and determine whether we can claim success.
We have over 3,500 students at Viscount Bennett Centre returning to upgrade their high school qualifications. Our students, aging from 19 to 69, attend for reasons that vary from the need to improve their marks to the desire to improve on a life dependent on social assistance. We have several good writers, many passionate writers and a wealth of life experiences to write about. It seems an ideal place to implement an enriched opportunity to write and edit.
We are fortunate to have an equipped physical setting and people to support the technology. The Learning Resources Centre (a renovation of the library) in the centre of the school, consists of a traditional quiet work area on the lower level and an upper level with a computer lab, plus several stations with differing technology available. Students are free to pursue independent learning or to work in groups on projects. One corner of the Center is devoted to the concept of a Writers' Corner. It is a place for writers to meet and share; a place for tutorial help with writing across the curriculum. Four months after opening, WiER became a part of this corner with the simple addition of a telephone line and modem to one computer station.
We do have some unusual difficulties to work around. Our teachers are all part time, making communication with them a challenge. Our students have busy lives; many have work and young children to care for outside of class. Like the teachers, the students are also not at school every day. Another problem is that WiER begins in January, in the midst of departmental exams, well before our second semester begins. Students in the fall and summer semesters miss out entirely on the experience of using telecommunications with writers and students across the country unless an alternative project is planned.
As the Project Teacher in the Learning Resources Centre, I signed on to WiER for the first round January of 1991 and then attempted to have the teachers buy into the concept. A few teachers sent their students with writing which I sent on-line. I also captured and printed out all pieces of writing and stored them in binders in the Resources Centre. I sent copies to the teachers of particularly informative critiques by the authors participating in the project. It seemed as though we had expanded our teaching force by the number of authors in the WiER project Some teachers brought their classes in to the Centre to read the writing in the binders and they wrote responses to some of the writing . We were invited to do a Show and Tell to senior administration. It all sounded wonderful, as many innovations do, but we were failing to attract all but the few teachers who already had a comfort level with word processing. We needed to get others involved. Very little writing by other students was being read. Students were thrilled to get responses to their work, but they never continued the dialogue with the writer on-line. They sent and got their reply - period. It was the same as handing back a paper with red circles--it went no further. We wanted the students to see their writing as a process. That was not happening.
The following fall two teachers decided to try to offer the experience of telecommunications to their classes. We identified a project already planned on the K12 Net bulletin board where schools were gathering information across the country for a geography assignment. Our two classes would answer their questions. In return, they would respond to questions sent by our students on topics related to conflict resolution . The students wrote a series of interview questions directed to three people: another student, a member of the community, and a student from a school in another part of the country, via telecommunications. Students had several writing assignments within the project which culminated in a video taped "Oprah" style talk show. For the show, the students assumed the persona of one of the people they had interviewed and answered the interviewer's questions. It was a special experience for the class. We learned the value of making the telecommunications experience not only personal, but shared with the whole class. However, next term - the teachers did not want to do it again. It had taken too much class time for the quality of responses received from the students who responded on-line. A telecommunications project that has a core of organizers such as WiER has to keep things running and to ensure that appropriate replies are sent removes the need for the teachers to spend excessive amounts time.
In the winter semester we signed onto WiER for the second time. Interested teachers selected some keen students to send and capture student work using a Macintosh and a modem in Writers' Corner. While the students involved enjoyed it, the activity was still outside of the classroom and WiER was seen by most teachers as valuable, but extra. None of our senior level classes participated due to a perceived lack of time and the pressure to prepare students for the diploma exam. After all, passing the exam is what the students paid for! Adult students themselves tended to view activities like WiER as extra and some even felt the teacher was shirking her duty when time was spent on activities not directly tied to the topic being taught.
This past fall WiER offered the reading workshop project. This allowed us to lure the teachers who were teaching reading strategies. Although the timing did not allow direct on-line activity, we still found the captured material formed wonderful resources for further teaching of reading and strategies. Now we could use WiER even when we were not on-line. Our pool of interested teachers was growing and we had a pool of students with some experience with telecommunication. We were moving to a 'critical mass' that would make the project viable. We are ready for round three to be the best yet.
While this process has been evolving, the Resource Centre itself has also evolved. We are involving more people in a wider variety of ways. The Writers' Corner has grown to include peer tutors for writers and noon hour workshops by teachers on selected topics. Students this term will be offered a series of workshops on "editing on the computer". In addition, we have added a new course in reading strategies. Writing, captured on-line from WiER, will be the reading material used to learn strategies for improving comprehension. The writing on WiER will also be used for editing on the computer since it is already typed with editing suggestions in the responses. As more teachers take ownership of WiER, we will get closer to our goal of having telecommunications integrated with classroom activity.
