“In much of this new composing, we are writing to share, yes; to encourage dialogue, perhaps; but mostly, I think, to participate. In fact, in looking at all this composing, we might say that one of the biggest changes is the role of audience: writers are everywhere, yes, but so too are audiences, especially in social networking sites like Facebook, which, according to the New York Times, provides a commons for people, not unlike the commons that used to be in small towns and large…” (Yancey 5).
As Kathleen Yancey addresses, composition has entered a very public arena; however, that arena is much greater then ever before due to the international reach of the Internet. Now, all writing can become public, whether that writing is career-related––public relations materials, advertisements, or technical documents––or education-related––a thesis paper, video essay, or presentation. Of course, blogs, tweets, and social networking website posts for personal use are all generally public already, and all are being used at increasing rates by people of all ages. Due to the social nature of modern composition occurring outside of the classroom, students are learning how to rhetorically interpret, critique, and respond to others’ compositions. So, a responsible pedagogy would address not only address how different mediums can be used for public discourse, but also how they already are being used by students outside of the classroom.
I concur with Elizabeth Clark’s declaration that: “The future of writing—based on a global, collaborative text, where all writing has the potential to become public—informs our classrooms and forms a new, ‘digital’ imperative, one that asks how we can reshape our pedagogy with new uses of the technologies that are changing our personal and professional lives” (28). In any core school subject, the most current and relevant knowledge in the field ought to be taught, and I believe relevancy is a key component in an effective pedagogy. Relevancy is not merely about teaching pupils skills and knowledge that they can use in their own life, it is also about allowing the skills and knowledge that they are already exercising and developing in their daily lives to influence teaching methods in the classroom. There is probably no subject extracurricularly practiced more by students than composition. This is evidenced by the immense popularity and extensive production and preoccupation with viewing both videos and memes all over the Internet.
One idea that provides a response to Clark’s “digital imperative” is what Geoffrey Carter and Sarah Arroyo term a “participatory pedagogy.” A participatory pedagogy allows for student composition that is socially and personally relevant and easily publishable for widespread public consumption, critique, and collaboration. George Siemens describes a participatory pedagogy as, “one that does not fully define all curricular needs in advance of interacting with learners. Learners are able to contribute to existing curricula” (qtd. Carter and Arroyo 293). So, this kind of pedagogy includes the creation of memes and videos, which offer students opportunities to not only participate by contributing to composition studies, but it also allows them to make meaning collaboratively with many others, adding to their own personal composition knowledge and skills. Participatory pedagogy also lifts some of the constraints that traditional composition pedagogy places on students’ creativity and allows for deeper engagement with learning and practicing rhetorical strategies in their composition.
Some scholars see participatory pedagogy as so unstructured that it is not even a pedagogy at all, and others believe that because it is so unstructured, “patterns in the learning process are not captured coherently” (qtd. in Carter and Arroyo 293). However, I believe trying to capture the creative and learning processes usually results in formalization of generalized processes that often exclude many students’ processes, which does a great disservice to them by restricting their creative and learning potential. A participatory pedagogy allows for a more natural composing process to take place, and engages students by appealing to their impulse for sociality.
The role of collective participation in meaning-making in the classroom is an important one that must not be overlooked since it reflects what is happening outside of the classroom. We are social creatures and we are becoming increasingly social through digital mediums. The need for collective meaning-making skills goes beyond our daily personal use of media. Social media in the workplace is also becoming incredibly common. Furthermore, many jobs require collaborative efforts in creating a finished product––documents, articles, advertisements, etc. Sociality is very much a part of human nature, as is the desire to share ideas and knowledge through language. Educators have a responsibility to their students and society as a whole to consider the current use of language in the world outside of the classroom, so that they can sufficiently address changes in composition practices and utilize technological resources inside the classroom.
I agree with Carter and Arroyo that, “Participatory pedagogy should [not] usurp traditional pedagogy” (299). It should be used in conjunction with traditional teaching methods. Students first need to learn rhetorical principles: what they are, how to use them, and how to use them for different audiences. Students must have an understanding of how to assess audiences, their beliefs, values, knowledge, knowledge needs, and what they are likely to be moved by in order to compose effective rhetorical pieces for those audiences. This brings us back to Yancey’s suggestion that audience is the most changed factor in the modern, digital world. While it is impossible to disagree with the fact that the modern audience has grown exponentially, I think it is as important to observe that the number of people composing in multiple modalities outside of the classroom has increased immensely, as well. Therefore, educators must consider this factor of sociality as a highly important and relevant component of modern composition in determining their pedagogical approaches to rhetoric and composition.
Works Cited
Carter Geoffrey V., and Sarah J. Arroyo. “Tubing the Future: Participatory Pedagogy and YouTube U in 2020.” Computer and Composition 28 (2011): 292-302. SciVerse Science Direct. Web. 4 Dec. 2012.
Clark, Elizabeth J. “The Digital Imperative: Making the Case for a 21st-Century Pedagogy.” Computers and Composition 27 (2010): 27–35. Web. SciVerse Science Direct. Web. 4 Dec. 2012.
Yancey, Kathleen B. “Writing in the 21st Century: A Report from the National Council of Teachers of English.” (2009): 1-9. NCTE. Web. 4 December 2012.
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