Blog Project: Purpose

The second generation of internet-based services which concentrate on social networking sites such as wikis, blogs, and instant messaging, Web 2.0 could very well be the wave of the future of college composition courses. During the course of this semester, I have studies various forms of digital literacies using different types of Web 2.0 technology and the use of these technologies in college coursework. As I have worked with students and their writing process over the past two years, both as an instructor and a writing center tutor, I have discovered a disturbing lack of balance in the understanding of composition instruction for certain groups of students. At UAA, our student body consists of students entering college directly out of high school, older adults entering or returning to college after many years of employment in the U.S. work force, students who come from a multitude of racial and cultural backgrounds, students from foreign-exchange programs, recent U.S. immigrants, senior citizens, single parents, married couples, high-school teenagers seeking early college credit, students who are home-schooled, students from public schooling. . . – the list goes on and on. In the 2008 Annual Survey of Colleges, the average UAA degree-seeking undergraduate student age was 28.8 years; this age is based on the average of 16,547 full-time and part-time students who have claimed a degree-seeking status and does not include those students attending for refresher courses or general interest (Rice, 2008). One of my areas of deepest frustration as an instructor is finding ways to assist my struggling students as they strive to understand the complexities of the English language and the writing process. This is where, in my opinion, some of the Web 2.0 offerings come into play. Today’s digital world requires a strong working knowledge of computer software for document creation, mathematical calculations, and research. Yet, these programs that are suppose to be “helpful” can create incredible exasperation for a student who has not had extensive exposure to the necessary software programs and internet functions. Add to this the missing understanding of currently used documentation styles, language barriers, or learning difficulties and you have the makings of a struggling, disgruntled, and, too often, failing student. The purpose for this project is to incorporate at least one part of Web 2.0’s networking tools, in this case, blogging, into my freshmen composition course to assess if using this type of networking tool encourages writing and enables increased success for struggling students.