Affordances of E-Learning Writing Environments

• In Event: 14.042 - Writing and Literacies in New Learning Environments

Abstract

For over three decades educators have been making a case for the transformative power of technology in learning. Online environments, if recognized and harnessed, can prepare learners for success in a world that is increasingly dominated by digital information flows. Additionally, student experience with technology can help prepare them to use a variety of tools for communication in the workplace, public spaces and personal life. The development of online writing environments offers students and teachers increased access to peer review and critique, as well as the ability to include multimodal features in their texts (Cope et al. 2011; Ellis, 2011; Godley, Demartino, & Loretto, 2014; Parkes & Kajder, 2010). These desired outcomes of technology use, however, are often blocked by constraints such as limited access to computers or the internet; lack of classroom time devoted to writing, feedback and revision; and accountability practices that narrow the curriculum (McCarthey, Magnifico, Woodard & Kline, 2013). While the presence of technology in classrooms may not bring about significant change in writing skills or achievement scores without significant curricular modifications (Cuban, 2001; Penuel, 2006), it is important to document interactions and outcomes in digital environments designed to support innovative writing practices.

Kalantzis and Cope have defined seven affordances of e-learning ecologies and contrasted them with the traditional forms of learning typically found in classrooms (Cope & Kalantzis, 2008; Kalantzis & Cope, 2008, 2012): Ubiquitous Learning describes a move from learning bounded by the four walls of the classroom and cells of the timetable to learning anywhere and anytime. Active Knowledge Making highlights a move from students’ passive knowledge consumption to their status as knowledge producers and designers of meanings. Multimodal Meaning shows the need for classrooms to move from traditional, isolated “academic literacies” to new media texts and multimodal knowledge representations. A move towards Recursive Feedback means shifting from retrospective judgment and summative, standardized assessment to formative assessment and constructive feedback, as well as an understanding of learning analytics. Considering the need for Collaborative Intelligence describes a shift from individualized, self-regulated learning to collaborative, communicative knowledge production and peer-to-peer learning. Metacognition describes a move from simple memory work, such as routines and definitions, to thinking about thinking and representations of knowledge. Finally, Differentiated Learning examines the need to move from homogeneous, one-size-fits-all curriculum to differentiated instruction where students may learn according to their needs, interests and identities.

This overview paper delineates these seven affordances of digital writing environments and discusses how these affordances have been realized in specific contexts, as well as reasons why they have proved difficult to implement in many formal learning environments. Such a discussion will provide an overall framing and lay the groundwork for the subsequent papers that will demonstrate to what extent these affordances have been realized.

Authors

• William Cope, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Alecia Marie Magnifico, University of New Hampshire

• Sarah J. McCarthey, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign