Module 6 reflection

                                       Building Community in Online Writing Class

            According to Re-embodying Online Composition: Ecologies of Writing in Unreal Time and Space by Ken and Shannon, it shows that there is a debated topic on whether online writing class is good for students to learn writing, “many research indicates that more than 75% of online and hybrid teachers, despite expecting that they would continue to teach in these environments, responded with “near-audible ambiguity” on the success of the endeavor” (p25). What’s more, some faulty believes that students are disadvantaged by the OWI in such areas as the improvement of critical thinking skills (p25). However, setting the primary goal of online writing class at building community by positing way of “making do,” rather than enhancing the technology of online class, students can benefit more from it.

Before we think about how to build community in online writing class, we’d better figure out why we should build community. As mentioned by Ken and Shannon, “in a face-to-face, or “seated,” classroom, we may reasonably expect our learning communities to form organically” (p26), where students get to know each other without conscious awareness of their own or others decisions. In a f2f classroom, students can feel each other as a person through small talk, gesture, voice, or even clothing. On the other hand, in an online writing classroom, community can also be built: students can be encouraged to know each other through simple technologies, such as email, real-time chat that allows for exchange of biographical details, and so on. All of them can help to produce familiarity as in f2f classroom.

            Except for that, the text created by students needs the existence of community in online class. For example, group work, discussion and peer review require students to escape from the tyranny of isolated cognitive process model. Moreover, even an individual essay is created based on a complex ecological web of knowledge formation, rhetorical expectations, and lived experiences. In all, it can be concluded that building community in online writing class is not only beneficial, but also necessary.

            Based on some suggestions initiated in Re-embodying Online Composition: Ecologies of Writing in Unreal Time and Space, I conclude three ways for teachers that can help to build community in online writing class. The first one is to design assignments that contribute to community building. For example, in a group project, students gradually understand “community” as an entity that contributes to knowledge and communication. Even while they join in a small community, students get mutually engaged in a project of creating knowledge and communicating meaningfully about it.  Conducting a questionnaire is also a good way to help to build community, which requires students to think carefully about how their language and assumptions will be negotiated and interpreted by a specific audience. In the process, students become aware of community in class.

            Sharing a general topic is helpful for building community as well. As they negotiate possible topics, students acknowledge their own embodied experience and the relative distribution of their information and knowledge, and connect their distributed knowledge with classmates. Another benefit of this way is that it can be done with very basic technological tools. However, teachers should help student to realize that sharing a topic doesn’t mean giving up their autonomy in learning community.

            There is another interesting way that help to build community mentioned by Ken and Shannon, which is introductory exercises. Although I have never heard about then before, I am attracted by them because they give students a variety of ways to present themselves to one another, and get them to talk. There are many forms of those exercises, such as video recording, taping, or even just a self-introduction blog. In such an exercise, students get empowered to join their online groups from a position of authority.

            When guiding students toward collaborative interactions with their classmates and teachers in online class, they are not only pushed to learn more about writing, they also grasp a deep understanding of social breadth of knowledge. When more and more people will see the advantageous side of online writing class, the goal of re-embodying online composition mentioned by Ken and Shannon can be achieved.

Works Cited:

Gillam, Ken, and Shannon R. Wooden. "Re-embodying Online Composition: Ecologies of Writing in Unreal Time and Space."Computers and Composition 30 (2013): 24-36. Print.