Where we stand: Week 4 #560wr

We are beyond whiteboard shots. We are also soon to be beyond research mode as all initial sources will be compiled by Friday, June 3, 2011, at midnight.

The second round of research presentations were more polished and much tighter. With technical difficulties at a minimum, we breezed through all scheduled student presentations, many of which offered various and sundry social roles of writing teachers. Here's a quick sample:

  • DJ
  • tech proselytizer
  • manipulator
  • activist
  • indoctrinator
  • Nostradamus
  • model composer
  • historian
  • master/apprentice
  • parent
  • mentor
  • listener
  • humorist
  • architect
  • other
  • body
  • stranger
  • whatever

If/where any of these social roles appear in our book is up to each researcher/writer pair, who will also need to come up with chapter titles. Among the potential chapter titles drafted in my presentation notes, two stand out: "The Pedagogical is Political" and "Those Who Can't..." The researcher/writer pairs focusing respectively on special considersations and how others determine the social role of writing teachers are welcome to use. 

I sabotaged my own presentations by forgetting my USB, but this was an actual benefit as it allowed for more discussion about potential writing locations. Meet on campus? Our assigned room? The library? Computer writing classroom? Or meet downtown? Bar? Coffeeshop? With a tentative agreement to converge on the Torch at 530PM, the Week 4 session ended. However, at least three researcher/writer pairs stayed more than 10 minutes after being dismissed to brainstorm aloud about their chapters. 

Prior to this week's session was some discussion on Twitter about the lack of conversation about the collaborative authoring project. Although 2/3 of the class are on Twitter, only a couple students discussed the course and/or used the #560wr hashtag. While some (myself included) may have been too impatient about this and/or too quick to disappointment, I'm concerned about the lack of a work record. As observed by one student, there really hasn't been much discussion about anything project-related outside of the weekly face-to-face meetings. Perhaps the biggest benefit so far in using Google Docs is its revision history. This allowed me to restore significant parts of the research pool that had been deleted by accident, but the revision history also provides a kind of record of when contributors did their work. If/when I conduct a collaborative authoring project again, I'll see about setting up a workstreaming service. 

Both the research pool blog and GooDoc are kind of a mess right now, each revealing an unfortunate assumption or expectation I once held. With the blog, I assumed tags pertinent to our agreed-upon chapters would arise in a natural way. With the GooDoc, I expected the color-coded order I attempted to impose would be enough as a guiding principle of organization. As neither of these proved true, some housekeeping is in order. Also, given technology issues some students have had in working with Google Docs, the research pool probably should have developed in a blog setting first. Having all source information in one place was a good idea; having it all in just one GooDoc was not a good idea. 

6 responses
I too am surprised that we have not discussed project related items. I still have a hesitant, restless feeling about the whole thing which on first instinct makes me feel inadequate because I am not sure what the "correct question" is to pose during class. I could sum it up to feeling like I am in a dark room feeling the wall inch by inch looking for an outlet to the light. Our presentations while individually rewarding, lack resonance in the classroom. Each presentation whizzes by, each presenter honing their own style of oration; before I can really grasp the full intentions of the specific message we are off to the next source. At this point I feel that the class definitely thinks there is 'I' in 'Team'. It is a race to the finish and we are all pioneers...I am ready to carry on but I will admit I am still sidling the walls.
It's not just you, Karen. While I led the Twitter-charge, I was quickly rebuffed. Apparently my concerns about on-going discussion outside of class are unnecessary since we have all "agreed'" on a topic, chapters, and research. Unfortunately, now I think it is too late to change anything, but I'm still not convinced that anything cohesive can come of this if there are at least a handful of us still wondering what the hell is going on.

I'm not ready to start writing. My chapter topic is still far too broad and I don't think that Melodie and I should be the only ones narrowing it and outlining it if this is supposed to be a group effort. It's not that I don't want to do my own work or that I want to micromanage everyone else's, I think we were in too big of a hurry to get to the end product and "race to the finish".

I strongly disagree that the collaboration starts now when we write with our partners, the whole project should be a collaborative effort -- and that means that we should be talking with everyone involved in and outside of class. Not constantly, but we should be talking about our topic, narrowing things, looking at the chapter outlines. Where are we going? What are our goals? We don't know, and we haven't even asked.

Twice I sat down ready to begin writing, because my gut reaction was to just start writing so that Jensie and I could begin to figure out, at a mininum, what we didn't want. I opened a GoogleDoc and then I ended up doubting where I wanted to get started. Because I am teaching, I have the ability to draw on personal objectives and concerns that correlate to my chapter. But the more I thought about this approach I wondered if what I want to write would mesh with Jensie's vision of our chapter? And how does our chapter fit with the other chapter visions? I even ran into Megan at the library and asked her if she was planning on writing in third person because I wasn't sure what tone to take. Conversational? Authoritative? My gut reaction was to jump in and, if Jensie didn't like what I was doing, I would rewrite or cut it. But I am not thrilled at the idea of Jensie and I liking what we're doing, developing a voice, and it not working with the rest of you, or worse, all of us producing disjointed chapters that lack connectivity and flow. Perhaps this can be corrected during revision, but my uncertainty is holding me back from producing.

With much love and admiration for my writing partners, M.

I am so relieved that you two posted. I saw Doc's blog about the shit his students write and I thought oh shit... I thought it was me opening my big mouth again. Ha. Anyway, yes, we should have narrowed the topic on week two in my opinion. I mentioned something last week but no one responded. Yes, agreed, the whole project should be a concern for each an every one of us. If by some chance this project gets published I want my name on it because I supported and agreed with the content. My concern about voice is that I do not have one yet. I am not a teacher, and know far less about teaching than many of my classmates. It is a bit daunting. I probably will not have a google doc up and running. At this point I am struggling to find new sources for my chapter as my partner and I have a hint to where we want to go-it was not in the direction of my initial ten sources.
I am sure this will all work in the end but it is going to be a nail bitter for me.
I think you girls are making valid points here. Megan posted a similar post in her posterous blog that you might want to check out too. I think she gives some good advice but I think we need to discuss this as a class tomorrow at the Torch before we begin writing. I've started a bit of writing on our Goo Doc for our chapter but, like you guys, I found myself somewhat at a loss where to even go. We really need to discuss audience and voice, then I think things will be easier.
Fair points are being made here. Yes, we are all on somewhat independent trajectories right now, and yes, there has been a great deal of fogginess over what this topic covers exactly. Finding stuff that relates back to the social role of the instructor is not the easiest research. I'm going into a lot more detail on my views in my own blog post, but I think we're doing pretty well considering some limitations this class places on time. Collaboration is a great word, but It's something that all parties involved must want to do and there has to be some idea of what exactly is being collaborated on. I don't think that has really been too applicable up until about now.

In the end, I think we're going to come back to Earth and will all land far closer to each other than might be feared. When was the last time anyone here read a collection of essays/discussions that all honed in on the same conclusion or even the scope of discussion? Whatever form this collection of work takes (and that's really not important), it'll be a collection of viewpoints on varying subtopics of some relation to a larger topic.