Mapping a Digital Tradition

I wonder if alternative paths in composition can be paved through a variety of digital forms (modes, assignments) with specific purposes and a better understanding of audience. When interaction between audience members (peers & instructor) is limited to communication through composition only, then each interaction (post, comment) is a rhetorical opportunity that requires a student to quickly consider and negotiate audience in an unpredictable composition environment where any audience member or members (peers or instructor) can appear in a conversation at any given moment—forcing the student writer into immediate writing choices, which practices and improves their rhetorical skills.

Be Still, Focus Your Eyes, and Type

I have been thinking a lot these days on how digital learning is different from f2f classrooms. Throughout this exploration, I am allowing myself to make some lofty assumptions as I jump down a few rabbit holes. Maybe digital learning bypasses the social interaction in f2f and immediately engages the cognitive. This may make digital learning a more efficient way to learn with more learning opportunities (clicks versus movements) within a given time and space. In a traditional f2f classroom, the student may divide their attention between social interaction and using in-class technology. However, the online student sits solely in front of the computer screen, and is therefore fully engaged in clicking, composing, and metacognition. Rearranging desks and chairs may change the rhetoric of the classroom. However, these options are restricted to movement in a limited space. For instance, movements and positioning between student and teacher when conferencing or collaboration within peer feedback groups construct a reality based on physical interaction. These f2f interactions create cognitive schemas, stereotypes, and judgments that can be hidden or manipulated in a digital environment. This masking of identity changes the use of rhetoric within the online space. With a click, time can be controlled, and perception of audience, purpose, and situation can perhaps be manipulated to create knowledge that produces alternative and hybrid discourses.