{"title":"Flexible use: Tracing technological propositions through an educational ecology","authors":"Jeanne Dutton","doi":"10.1016/j.compcom.2024.102907","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>To stave off extinction, many Small Liberal Arts Colleges (SLACs) have undertaken dramatic initiatives—often scripted by outside consultants—to bolster their financial solvency, increase their enrollment, excite donor interest, and revitalize their pedagogy, Writing Scholars like Overstreet (2022) and Devoss, Cushman and Grabill (2005) have called for more fine-grained analysis of the sites of Higher Education and the changes that occur in how they teach and engage in the activity of writing and composition. Though multiple studies have measured the efficacy of a newly introduced technological systems of practice to improve writing, much less research has gone into understanding the compositional design of what ‘good’ represents or how value may skew toward the various ideologies that support other stakeholders in addition to the implementing entity. Writing technologies, measured by the criteria of the very literacies which they enact (digital proficiency determining the value of digital tools, for example, mobile proficiency determining the value of mobile tools) often introduce cycles of spending in SLACs which compel them to re-invest in simulacrums of the externally defined modern or good even as the internal struggles that justify spending remain consistent and problematic. This study, borrowing from the spatial analysis of scholars like Pigg (2014) and genre studies of Spinuzzi (2003), looks at how the propositions of a 1:1 technology initiative cut across a local community and were shared, lived, and governed collectively to see the multimodal whole of a community plan to create innovation and improve their social condition.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":35773,"journal":{"name":"Computers and Composition","volume":"75 ","pages":"Article 102907"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Computers and Composition","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S8755461524000835","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"Arts and Humanities","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
To stave off extinction, many Small Liberal Arts Colleges (SLACs) have undertaken dramatic initiatives—often scripted by outside consultants—to bolster their financial solvency, increase their enrollment, excite donor interest, and revitalize their pedagogy, Writing Scholars like Overstreet (2022) and Devoss, Cushman and Grabill (2005) have called for more fine-grained analysis of the sites of Higher Education and the changes that occur in how they teach and engage in the activity of writing and composition. Though multiple studies have measured the efficacy of a newly introduced technological systems of practice to improve writing, much less research has gone into understanding the compositional design of what ‘good’ represents or how value may skew toward the various ideologies that support other stakeholders in addition to the implementing entity. Writing technologies, measured by the criteria of the very literacies which they enact (digital proficiency determining the value of digital tools, for example, mobile proficiency determining the value of mobile tools) often introduce cycles of spending in SLACs which compel them to re-invest in simulacrums of the externally defined modern or good even as the internal struggles that justify spending remain consistent and problematic. This study, borrowing from the spatial analysis of scholars like Pigg (2014) and genre studies of Spinuzzi (2003), looks at how the propositions of a 1:1 technology initiative cut across a local community and were shared, lived, and governed collectively to see the multimodal whole of a community plan to create innovation and improve their social condition.
期刊介绍:
Computers and Composition: An International Journal is devoted to exploring the use of computers in writing classes, writing programs, and writing research. It provides a forum for discussing issues connected with writing and computer use. It also offers information about integrating computers into writing programs on the basis of sound theoretical and pedagogical decisions, and empirical evidence. It welcomes articles, reviews, and letters to the Editors that may be of interest to readers, including descriptions of computer-aided writing and/or reading instruction, discussions of topics related to computer use of software development; explorations of controversial ethical, legal, or social issues related to the use of computers in writing programs.