“Writing” much more than words on paper
By Lauren Karch
“I didn’t really choose to be in the Digital Writing Center, it was just the only ENG 111 class that would fit in my schedule but I am very glad that it turned out that way,” says sophomore Hillary Swift.
It seems many English 111 and 112 students feel that way. Instead of a traditional paper, Swift’s final project for the class was the creation of an iMovie about a political issue which utilized video clips, music, photos as well as written text.
Not all text is created in Microsoft Word. Digitized technologies have changed the processes, spaces, and products of writing in school, in the workplace, and in society, and Miami University is working to integrate those changes. Started in 2006, the Digital Writing Collaborative is an English Department initiative of instructors putting digital writing into the hands of students. This type of writing integrates video, audio, and visual elements into text, and offers students instruction in applicable and diverse methods of communication.
Heidi McKee, one of two directors of the DWC, says the main mission of the program is to develop and sustain a culture and community of digital writing, learning, and teaching in all areas of English Studies, especially the College Composition Program. Instructors meet periodically to share ideas for integrating digital technologies for writing and research into the classroom.
“Some of the main things that bring us together are a series of workshops and teas for instructors of 111 and 112 and anyone else interested,” McKee said. “We [the administrators of the DWC] go around to classes and do hands-on instruction. We work with projects involving audio essays and digital storytelling projects, and develop skills in areas such as as just using the internet for meaningful research.”
“Being in a digital media class really taught me the importance and effectiveness of visual information, especially now in the 21st century,” Swift said. “We were able to utilize many of the same techniques in our videos as we would in a paper: voice, audience, ethos, pathos and logos!”
Swift said video creation taught her a new way to share information—and that information even found its way into a neighboring school system.
“I let one of my sister’s friends who works at a local school borrow my iMovie, and she has shown it to several classes that address my topic,” Swift said.
First-year Tyler Elliott agrees that digital writing courses have applicability outside the English classroom. For his 111 class, he created a video emphasizing the importance of stopping climate change. He combined his own videos with audio and video from other sources to create a “rhetorical remix.”
“The use of multimedia is part of my everyday life, so it was nice to take a different approach to it,” he said. “I would definitely say this kind of project is an interesting concept, and I could use it in other academic areas.”
Most of the students impacted by the Digital Writing Collaborative, McKee says, are those enrolled in ENG 111 or 112, the required first-year Miami Plan courses. About half of all students enrolled in these classes for the past year received instruction in laptop and computer classrooms, and well over half of the ENG 111 sections offered for Fall 2010 will involve laptop work.
The Digital Writing Collaborative also writes grants for digital materials. Since its inception, the program has acquired video and audio equipment. This fall, the English department will be home to seven laptop classrooms.
While the addition of digital writing widens the experiences of students enrolled in DWC courses, the key objectives of Miami Plan English courses—exposure to a range of rhetorical experiences, assessment of one’s own writing and the writing of others, questioning assumptions about language use, and forging an ability to interact with differing viewpoints—remain strong.
“I would say I’ve learned the importance of analyzing work through writing,” said Elliott. “Writing forces me to think about what I’m really learning when I’m evaluating a text.”