No More Forgotten Flash Drive

I loathe flash drives.  I always have. A part of this loathing comes from my inability to remember to pull the stick out of my home computer and put it in my work bag or vice versa. That one crucial file I need is always 30 minutes from where I need it. But this is only part of my flash drive loathing. I’ve heard horror stories about corrupt flash drives, dogs chewing up flash drives, stolen flash drives, etc. I’ve had students who could not complete assignments because of lost or stolen flash drives. I’ve tried avoiding the use of flash drives using email and Google Docs to transfer files. But it seems I’m always forgetting to upload something. So last year, when my good friend Marc pointed me to Dropbox, I was a bit skeptical. The way he touted the site, I would never forget my flash drive again. I knew that would never happen. But it has.

Dropbox is, at the base level, an online storage site. But unlike many online storage sites, you don’t have to remember to upload your files. When you sign up for a Dropbox account, you are prompted to download the program. This program is a little over 14mb, but it’s worth that tiny bit of space on your desktop. When you install the program and set everything up, you create a “Dropbox” folder on your computer. From there, you can drag into the folder all the documents or folders you want to access from other computers. Don’t worry, you have room. Dropbox starts you with 2GB of space! As soon as you load a file into the Dropbox folder it auto-syncs (and we’ll talk more about this in a moment). When the file has been successfully synced, a little green check-mark appears by the file name or icon. (You can enlarge the image below to see the sync icons.)

Desktop Dropbox

So, just where do these files sync? Well, that’s the beauty of Dropbox. You can link your computers. I currently have links between my laptop and desktop, but I can add my work computer as well, should I choose to do so.  All I have to do is download the program file on each computer and use the created account.

Now, the best feature–for me, at least–is that each time I modify a document, Dropbox updates the copy. I can change one word in a document, and every Dropbox copy of that document will reflect the change in under a minute. I don’t have to remember to re-upload the file when I’m finished editing as long as it stays in the Dropbox folder.

But, let’s say I don’t have access to one of my computers and I don’t have administrative abilities to put the Dropbox application on the computer I’m using. In that case, to access my files, I just log in to the website. Here, I can access all the files I put into the folder on either my desktop or laptop. It’s that easy.

Dropbox Online

But the sync doesn’t stop there. I can share specific folders in my Dropbox with other users. So, for instance, if my dissertation chair was a Dropbox subscriber, I could easily share my dissertation file with him. Then, he could have access to anything I put in the file. I could get his feedback on chapters literally as he was saving the file.

So far, I’ve found only one program that doesn’t quite update as it should. The Scrivener program (via Literature and Latte) that I use for a good portion of my writing doesn’t always fully save the last change I’ve made to a file. So, I’ve learned to drag Scrivener projects out of the Dropbox folder and onto my desktop until I’m finished.

And Dropbox starts you out with 2GB of space. You can’t beat that, in my opinion. You can upgrade for a minimal fee ($10 a month for 50GB). Or, there’s the option to gain free space by inviting your friends. With enough friends, you can gain up to 3GB of additional space. That’s not a bad deal.

If this post has inspired you to test Dropbox, do me a favor and use this link. It gets me a bit more free space, so you can consider it a thank you for introducing you to your new favorite site.

So now, I believe I’ll work on some flash drive art. After all, these flash drives are rather obsolete, now. At least for me.

The Literature Review: A Preview of Major Research

I’m beginning the research for my literature review with this post. In general, for each section I explore, I need to answer a few basic questions. I’m beginning with a modification of Burke’s Pentad that looks like this:

1. Act: What happened? What is the action that began the research?  [These questions focus on the history of composition that led to the research.]
2. Scene: Where is the research happening? What is the background situation? [These questions focus on the setting of the research--institution, selection, etc..]
3. Agent: Who is involved in the research? What roles do these individuals play in the research? What role do they play in the larger picture? [These questions focus on the researchers and subjects in the research]
4. Agency: How do the agents act? By what means do they act? [These questions focus on the studies completed and the methodology used]
5. Purpose: Why do the agents act? What do they want? [These questions are focusing on the purpose of the research]

In addition to these questions, I am also looking at specific questions for each of the major areas for my literature review. Some of these are generic right now because I don’t have enough background to delve into deeper questions, but I’ll get there. Right now, I wanted to get something on paper to get me moving in the right direction. To keep up with this research, I’ll be posting along the way. The posts will answer the questions for a specific section of the literature review. Here are the baseline questions that I’m starting with for each section.

Research and Argument

• When did argument (and not literature) become the standard in composition? Why? How?
• What forms of texts are designed to teach students argumentative writing?
  • How are these texts designed?
• Is there an emphasis on conducting research?
  • (Consider Booth, Colomb, & Williams’ The Craft of Research and They Say, I Say in this section)
• How are new instructors prepared to teach research?
  • (Look at the emphasis and lack of emphasis on teaching research in books like Clark, Villanueva, and Lindemann)

Current Student Research Trends

• How do students begin research?
• How do students conduct research when not guided by instructors or librarians?

Invention

• Do invention strategies exist that are taught for research?
• If so, which ones?
• Which traditional invention strategies facilitate research? How so?

Discourse Analysis

• How can discourse analysis help students better conduct research and write in a discourse?
• How is discourse analysis facilitated in a First-Year Composition class?
• Has this been done before?

Discourse Communities

• How has discourse community theory been used in teaching writing?
• How can discourse community theory influence my research?

Social Construction

• How has social construction theory been used in teaching writing?
  How can social construction theory inform my research?

Foucault

• How has Foucault’s theory of power informed discourse community theory?
• How can Foucault’s theory of power inform my research?

Bakhtin

• How has Bakhtin’s dialogic theory informed teaching?
• How can dialogic theory inform my research?

Social Networking

• How do students share “research” via social networking?
• Can this social network sharing be tapped into for class research?

Social Bookmarking

• How has social bookmarking been used in classroom settings before?
• Can these methods transfer into a First-Year Composition classroom?
• What is the general feedback on the use of social bookmarking in classes?

A Step Closer to Multimodal

I have to keep this brief; I’m on a tight deadline for revising my IRB application.

This morning, I attended a very informative Institutional Review Board (IRB) workshop. I’ve got an eight-page draft of my expedited IRB form, but there was one looming question holding me back. I want to create a multimodal dissertation and this really throws a loop in the confidentiality section. So, after a nearly three hour workshop that really detailed the IRB process, I got to talk specifically to the chair of the IRB Committee. It turns out, the only thing I have to do to get use of the research is add a clause in the paperwork. Not too shabby after all. Now, of course, I’m starting (and way early) to brainstorm ways of using the research in multimodal ways. We’ll see how that goes.

Now, I’m off to revise the IRB application. I’m on a tight deadline there, especially wanting to start the research in the spring and needing IRB and Graduate School approval prior to that.

Research and Composition History on Diigo: A Research Example

Over the past few months, I’ve spent a good bit of time trying to explain to friends, colleagues, and blog readers what exactly I’m doing for my dissertation. Everyone understands the concept, but not exactly why I’ve chosen the site I’m using or why I believe that Diigo, specifically, can aid student research. So, I’m going to set a specific example for all interested parties. I’m getting ready to explore, in online, PDF, and book format, the history of teaching researched writing in First-Year Composition. So, I’ve put together a list on Diigo specifically for a task (because that is one of the great features of Diigo).

You can see the links, annotations, and notes that I’ve added to the list without needing to join Diigo. This shows you what the list side of the site looks like. If you want to see what the webpages look like when they are annotated, you need to install the toolbar. But still, you don’t have to sign up to view the sites. If, however, you want to add your own annotations and notes, you will need to sign up. If you do sign up for an account and want to keep up with what I’m doing, please follow me on Diigo.

Please note that my research in this area is just beginning, so be patient. I promise the links will start rolling in shortly and you’ll get a good idea what I’m doing on the site. Hopefully, you’ll be able to see the extent this site can help students.

Transferable Literacy

Last week, a colleague and I got into a slightly heated debate about a grade on her student’s paper. The instructor wanted to reduce the student’s grade on a paper draft by a full letter grade because she the student was unable to change the spacing between lines in her paper.  Unfortunately, the debate was less about the pedagogical approach to such a grade reduction and more about the instructor’s approach to helping this student–and the rest of her class–acquire the literacy they need to adapt their paper to a specific format. The problem, as I see it, was two fold. First, the instructor did not recognize the teachable moment that happened upon her. Second, as with many new instructors, she had a few misguided notions about the literacies we should be teaching in our First-Year Composition classes. Last week, I made this a teachable moment for her; now, I make this a teachable moment for the rest of the world.

Teachable Moments

Before I delve too far into teaching, let me step back a second and explain the idea of a teachable moment. I had not heard this term before I began my doctoral studies, so I’m sure there are still quite a few teachers out there with no idea what a teachable moment entails. A teachable moment occurs when an instructor happens upon a moment or an event when she realizes that instead of chastising or penalizing students, she can take the opportunity as a chance to teach the students something that will help them in their lives–be it educational or personal. Let me give you an example.

A few semesters back, I told my students that I would add the course deadlines to the calendar on Blackboard. This, I rationalized, would mean there was no way they could pull the old “I didn’t know it was due” excuse. Over the weekend, I spent hours carefully loading each deadline–papers, blogs, peer writing days, etc–into the Blackboard calendar. I even put a free participation grade on the calendar for the following class period. It was simple enough–all the students had to do was speak to me before class and tell me they saw the opportunity. Class started the following week and not a student even mentioned the assignment. I gave them until the beginning of the following class period. Then, I caved and asked if anybody wanted to take the offer. They looked at me completely perplexed. Then, one timid student in the back raised her hand and said:

We don’t know how to get to the calendar on Blackboard.

My first instinct was to scold my students for not speaking up ahead of time. But then, I realized that if I scolded them, I was missing out on an opportunity to provide them with this needed literacy. This, is a teaching moment.

Teaching moments are a great way to increase your students’ literacies, especially the e-literacies. We all take for granted, from time to time, that our students automatically know how to accomplish tasks on a computer. But when we stumble upon a skill they do not have, we stumble upon e-literacy teaching moments. It took me approximately five minutes to show my students how to access the Blackboard calendar and add the calendar to their Blackboard homepage. Now, once the calendar is on the homepage, the students don’t have to think about checking a calendar again in their academic career. All events entered into any class calendar are automatically loaded to the homepage calendar. So, at first, it seems like a useless literacy. But once the calendar was in place, my students began tinkering in the settings feature that allowed them to access the calendar. Immediately, they started changing the colors and layout of their Blackboard homepage. This, I knew, was a literacy they would remember. So, what does this have to do with teaching literacies?

Teaching General, not Specific Literacies

I use the Blackboard example because it demonstrates a need to teach our students a general literacy. In the long run, my lesson aided students in my class, but the lesson applied to any class they took that involved a Blackboard component. In core classes, we have to prepare students for the academic world. So, if we are going to prepare students, we have to make sure they understand how to apply what they learn in the classroom to their other classes.

In First-Year Composition, we teach students to research and write. We teach them to use the MLA handbook to appropriately format and cite their papers. Unfortunately, we also get a large amount of negative feedback from other departments about the use of MLA instead of APA, Chicago, Tarabian, or other style manuals that specific departments use. I’ve heard the argument that “X style manual should be used in classes where a majority of the students have declared X major” enough to know that even other departments don’t understand why MLA is our manual of choice. Yes, I realize that many of our students will have to learn another style manual. But that is why we don’t require students to memorize the MLA manual.

Teaching Adaptation

The literacy that we teach composition students is not an MLA literacy; it is a style manual literacy. If I teach a student how to distinguish between a scholarly journal and a magazine, this is a literacy she will carry into each subsequent class. The rules for types of works don’t change; what changes is the manner in which the student cites the publication. Yes, we require citations in First-Year Composition and yes, we require these in MLA. This is to help the students demonstrate more than just an ability to use MLA appropriately. If students can appropriately cite works using MLA, then I know I have given them the literacy to transfer MLA citation into other style manuals by finding the appropriate citation style and using the manual to appropriately write the citation.

Too many core class instructors want to emphasize their discipline’s specific features. This is not just the teaching of a specific style manual, but the teaching of a specific discourse, a specific way of thinking, or even a specific approach to studying for a test. In the grand scheme of things, I believe this is where we tend to fail students. We cannot make every student in our core classes decide to major in our discipline–and I should think we wouldn’t want all the students in our discipline. So why, then, are we so ethnocentric about our way being right. Why are we so hesitant to teach students skills that can be adapted to any class in any discipline? I’ve heard many professors telling me their students were not taught to write in composition. I have to agree with the professors; we don’t teach students to write in composition. That is a skill they should pick up in their K-12 education. Our job, if we do it properly, is to teach students to write in a specific discipline. But we don’t teach students to write to their major discipline in composition (WAC and WID programs do, but that’s another ballgame). We teach (or should be teaching) students to step into a discourse, analyze the key features, and write to that discipline. This is a transferable literacy. A student may write on global warming in composition and become a psychology major. If I don’t teach a specific transferable literacy–the discourse analysis–then my student will not be a “good writer” in her psychology classes.

Final Thoughts

If you teach core classes, think about how you’re teaching them and what specific literacies you teach your students. These are not always e-literacies, but they can be valuable literacies for future educational growth. If you teach something centered around your major, look at how you can turn this specific literacy into a more global literacy. And don’t be frustrated if your students don’t immediately pick up the literacy; sometimes it takes time.