Sidler, Michelle, Elizabeth O. Smith, and Richard Morris. Computers in the Composition Classroom: a Critical Sourcebook. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2008.
This article focuses on the fact that teachers need assessment strategies within their classrooms in order to achieve the goals of reliability and validity.
What I like about this piece is the fact that the author thinks that networked writing is a good thing. The author says this in spite of the fact that she thinks writing must be orderly, regulated, knowable, and natural. I like that she makes this distinction, because many teachers, I know, are afraid of letting their students open up to technological practices because some relinquishment of teacher control is implied. Penrod states that this isn't so. Writing can be equally successful when collaborative and networked, versus when it isn't.
I am confused by Penrod's preference for qualitative assessment versus a quantitative assessment for grading. This is great in theory, but how can teachers with tons of students ever grade all of the papers they're responsible for without using a points system and rubric? I'd like to know more about instances in which this model was successful in classrooms.
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