Case Studies | Academic Cypher

Category: Case Studies (page 2 of 3)

Annotations Remix

A remix takes the original version and edits or recreates in order to sound different from the original version. Below is a remix and response to the Digital Writing: Assessment & Evaluation Annotations created by Maury and Leslie.

I chose to respond to Maury’s entry on Crystal Van Kooten’s article, “” Toward a Rhetorically Sensitive Assessment Model for New Media Composition,” as the article was practical and a great example of digital (and multi-modal) writing. I have always been hesitant to assign multi-modal assignments because of assessment issues. Van Kooten managed to present an assessment model for multi-modal writing that is practical. I especially liked that she involved students in the assessment process via self-assessment and reflection. With an increase in multi-modal composing, it is important for students to know how and why they make decisions when writing. The self-assessment and reflection can help them to understand their rhetorical choices. Van Kooten shares that the first attempt was unsuccessful due to the rubrics, as Maury states, “being outgrowths of the print media rubrics.” With digital writing and composing in online spaces, we often resort to using the same tools and strategies even when they do not translate well into a new environment. Van Kooten’s model reminded me of our first discussion topic: the rhetorical situation. I recall a few of us mentioned that we would like to utilize Biesecker’s approach to the rhetorical situation in our composition classes, but we often end of teaching Bitzer’s approach to the rhetorical situation. Van Kooten provides an approach to new media composition that presents the complex and interactive rhetorical situation that Biesecker discussed in his article. Van Kooten’s model makes connections between the technical features and rhetorical strategies; the rhetorical situation isn’t a flat author-subject-audience.

Crystal Van Kooten’s model of New Media assessment of multi-modal compositions.

I chose to respond to Leslie’s entry on Brunk-Chavez and Fourzan-Rice’s article “The evolution of digital writing assessment in action: Integrated programmatic assessment,” as it was a case study and provided a concrete look at digital writing assessment. I like the idea of being able to see things “in action.” I was immediately drawn to their argument about redefining what counts as writing and preparing students for writing in new mediums. Before I started teaching at Christopher Newport University, I taught exclusively online. Although the courses were all online (some asynchronous and some synchronous), many of the students had no idea how to write online. They were unfamiliar with how to write on a blog or discussion board. They were also unfamiliar with visual rhetoric. A part of my problem, and this connects back to Maury’s entry, was that we were required to use a course wide rubric that was not designed for digital writing. I like that the digital writing assessment system allowed students to have an audience outside of the instructor. I think that the other 4 outcomes are important, but helping students to understand the importance of audience awareness greatly impacts their writing (both process and product). I agree with Leslie’s evaluation. University of Texas at El Paso’s (UTEP) program sounds wonderful, but I do not think that it is replicable. Cost and labor issues are important factors to consider. The Writing Program Administrator would have to have the funds available to implement all these programmatic changes. In addition, there are already labor issues in regards to adjuncts. The downsizing of adjunct staff and the increase in class size does not sound like the best approach. This seems like a step in the right direction; however, I do not think more students, less instructors, and more technology is the answer.

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Annotated Bibliography: Digital Writing Assessment & Fairness

February 4, 2014 / Chvonne Parker / 0 Comments

Poe Mya. “ Making Digital Writing Assessment Fair for Diverse Writers.” Eds. Heidi A. Mckee and Dànielle Nicole DeVoss. Digital Writing Assessment & Evaluation. Logan, UT: Computers and Composition Digital Press/Utah State University Press, 2013. Web. 3 February 2014.

In “Making Digital Writing Assessment Fair for Diverse Writers,” Mya Poe argues that digital writing assessment must consider fairness in order to provide an equal opportunity to all students. Digital writing assessment is becoming more important due to the rise in digital writing and multimodal composition. Poe presents two theories about assessment and technology: “writing assessment as technology” and “writing assessment with technology. First, writing assessment is a technology. Poe sites the work of George Madaus, who argued that assessments fall under “very simple definitions of technology—the simplest being something put together for a purpose, to satisfy a pressing and immediate need, or to solve a problem” (qtd in Poe). Second, digital writing is being assessed through automated essay scoring (AES). The research on AES is mixed. On one hand it has been shown as reliable. On the other hand, the programs are said to have the “raced ideologies of their designers” (4). In response to this, Poe presents 3 key terms in digital writing assessment: validity, reliability, and fairness. She defines validity and reliability; however, the focus here is fairness.

Fairness is fundamental to digital assessment because through fairness instructors are able to “make valid, ethical conclusions from assessment results so that we may provide all students the opportunity to learn” (7). Poe uses the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing as a starting point for developing more equitable large-scale digital writing assessments. Using the Standards, Poe presents that fairness guidelines require the following:

Thoughtful design
Extension of fairness through the entire assessment
Data collection (locally sensitive data through surveys, ethnographic research)
Interpretation of evidence in context
Frame assessment results for the public

Under the fairness, instructors consider the goal of the assessment and to ensure that students understand the purpose of the assessment. In addition, when interpreting assessments, instructors consider the social context and connect writing program data to institutional data. The fairness guidelines also encourage instructors to gather evidence about digital identities, understanding students’ past digital writing experiences and the nature of those experiences. The Standards “provide us ways to think about the interpretation and use of assessment results” (14). Digital writing assessment has to go beyond traditional rubrics to seeing digital assessment as a way for instructors to make informed choices for the benefit of their teaching and student learning.

The questions posed in Poe’s work (and in the entire collection) remind me of our initial class discussion where we talked about defining a network and understanding the affordances and roles of networks. Poe’s work aims at the question: “How might the multimodal, networked affordances of digital writing affect issues of equity and access?” (Preface). This goes beyond questions of access to the network but also the benefits that sad network offers to that particular group. A minority group may have access to the network, but lack the knowledge or ability to capitalize on this access. This could be a network of physical friends and co-workers or a digital network.

Poe’s work also made me think of assessment as a kind of boundary genre. Boundary genres are defined as genres that “may actively participate in interprofessional struggles about hierarchies, dominance, and values, helping to create, mediate, and store tensions” (Popham 283). Assessments work in this way, as scholar-teachers we struggle over the role of assessment and when and how to assess. Assessment goes across professional disciplines/boundaries because teachers, administrators, and the public use them to make changes to pedagogy, develop policies, and judge quality/effectiveness, respectively.

I am still pondering the connection between boundary genres and networks. Would boundary genres serve as nodes, providing connections between disciplines and groups in order to redistribute information and communicate between different points?

Works Cited:

McKee, Heidi A., and Dànielle Nicole DeVoss, Eds. “Preface.” Digital Writing Assessment & Evaluation. Logan, UT: Computers and Composition Digital Press/Utah State University Press, 2013. Web.

Popham, Susan L. “Forms as Boundary Genres in Medicine, Science, and Business.” Journal of Business and Technical Communication 19.3 (2005): 279-302.

Images:

Deuren, Joe Van. “Fairness heading” Balanced Life Sills. Web. 3 February 2014.

Tarbell, Jared. “Node Garden.” Gallery of Computation, 2004. Web. 3 February 2014.

Suzanne’s How Stuff Works? Activity: Memory

January 27, 2014 / Chvonne Parker / 0 Comments

This activity confirms my fear/dislike of the Cloud. I pretty much write down or print out everything. I refuse to allow others to have ownership of things that I need or create. I just cannot allow it to happen. To avoid this, I try to maintain control over “all the things.”

The majority of my files are on my Mac hard drives (I have two MacBooks) and on two back up drives. I have several giant binders filled with articles that I have read in classes, used as sources in papers, or plan to read for future research projects. I do not like any of the clouds. I even download and convert my ebooks to pdf, so I can have them saved on my computer and back up drives.

I think I may have trust issues.

Daniel How Stuff Works? Activity: Social Networks

January 27, 2014 / Chvonne Parker / 0 Comments

Social Networks Popplet

This activity was an eye opener. I was surprised that I wasn’t a part of more social networks. I use Facebook (not as much as I used to) mostly because it keeps me connected to ODU friends and classmates. I remember joining Facebook in 2004. It was excellent back then. I don’t like it so much right now. I love Instagram. I use SnapChat a lot. I only use Twitter to follow trends and when watching shows that have a fan base that utilizes Twitter (Scandal, Walking Dead, Banshee). I also like to use Twitter when watching award shows (Grammy’s, MTV Video Music Awards, BET HIp Hop Awards).

I hardly ever use my academic social networks. They are not interesting to me at all. I probably should think about that more and explore why those networks aren’t utilized. I should be using those for building social and professional capital.

Maury’s How Stuff Works? Activity: IFTTT and Networking

January 27, 2014 / Chvonne Parker / 0 Comments

Google Doc Response

Question #1: What did you think of IFTTT as a user? What about as a supra-network to “talk” and “do” things among your networks? How was writing your own protocol using their GUI (Graphic User Interface)?

Chvonne: I have had an account with IFTTT for about 2 years now. I have still not used it. Lifehacker recommended it as a way to increase productivity. Once I created an account and gained a better understanding of how it all works, I realized that I loved the idea, but have no idea what I would use it for. I think it is so cool. I wish I had more of a need for it. I often do not see the need to link things, so I was hesitant to allow access and to link to different networks to one another. I am not a big fan of making connections (mental connections but not many others). I finally decided on linking Facebook recipes shared with me to a Google Doc. I liked the idea of creating a recipe, so I let that guide me. Writing the protocol was straight forward. I think the software is very user friendly.

Jenny’s How Stuff Works? Activity: Types of Networks

January 27, 2014 / Chvonne Parker / 0 Comments

http://popplet.com/app/#/1579969

This activity was interesting because the network at my home isn’t very complex. My brother and I are the only ones who access the network at home. We use the same types of devices (laptop, cell phones, eReaders, and game systems. I noticed how complex my classmates’ networks were compared to mine (and Summer’s network). I can’t imagine that many people accessing the network. I don’t even know we have enough kbps to handle more than the two of us. I did find it interesting that some of these devices also communicate or connect one another. For example, I can access the media files on my laptop through the playstation. I can also access my nook and my brother’s kindle through my smartphone. Overall, I learned that things are more “networked” than I realized.

Summer’s How Stuff Works? Activity: Welcome to the Cloud

January 27, 2014 / Chvonne Parker / 0 Comments

Summer’s How Stuff Works? Activity: Welcome to the Cloud

Completing Summer’s How Stuff Works? Activity helped me to visualize how many connections I make to others through different cloud services. I also realized that I need to remove myself from the cloud a bit. I dislike not having ownership of things. That is a big part of why I refuse to put my music into a Cloud. I imagine one day that I’ll have to pay for space or access to the cloud. I refuse to allow a corporation/organization to control my access to music. I still buy CDs because of this fear. Its a bit crazy, but this activity helped me to see how much of my writing, files, etc are in the cloud. I didn’t have to add many technologies to the mind map because I could connect to the technologies already established.

Leslie’s How Stuf Works? Activity: Buses

January 27, 2014 / Chvonne Parker / 0 Comments

When I first read that Leslie had Buses, I was very confused. I immediately thought of an actual bus that transports people from one area to another. After reading her post, I realized that I know even less about computers than I thought. I knew that transfer data in a computer was a complex process, but I did not realize how complex. I took the quiz first, thinking that I knew enough about computers to make it through. Anyway, the most interesting part of this process for me was that Buses allow users to personalize their computers by adding peripherals. I am a big fan of Plug and Play devices. They are user friendly and allow me to make my computer fit my needs. Now I know that buses make this possible; buses make my computer adaptable.

Amy’s How Stuff Works? Activity: Wifi and Routers Quizzes

January 27, 2014 / Chvonne Parker / 0 Comments

WiFi Quiz: 3 out of 10

Routers Quiz: 4 out of 10

From this activity, I learned that I know absolutely nothing about the technologies that I use everyday.

January 21, 2014

The collection of articles on WiFi and Mobile technology on the How Stuff Works? website, though dated, provide some insight into the technology that paved the way for the sophisticated mobile technology that exists today.

Today, when one hears the phrase mobile networks thoughts immediately go to which network one is connected with and how strong that network is. Mobile companies promote their services by promising to have the fastest or the largest network. Verizon uses a series of commercials in which they ask customers to look at network coverage maps in order to show that their network provides more coverage.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFUUybc_M40&w=560&h=315]

Commercials, like these, only provide a glimpse into mobile/cellular networks because consumers are concerned with where they will be able to receive cell service and what the quality of that service will be. Mobile networks also known as cellular networks are wireless networks that utilize cellular radio towers to transmit frequencies. The image shows how the land area is separated into cells. the cells are serviced by different base stations, antennae, and transmissions. This image shows how complex the cellular network is. There is a lot of infrastructure behind the scenes.

This cellular technology is what enabled programs like Google Maps to get directions and provide the location of the nearest coffeeshop, hotel, movie theather, or whatever is needed.

Google associates information such as anonymous GPS readings with the cells to create a database of cell locations. Then various algorithms are applied to approximate a Blackberry user’s location related to the nearest cells. The more mobile towers and cells in the area, the more accurate the estimation of your location will be. Google expects accuracy to be within 1,000 meters, or 3,280 feet. (Dannenfeldt).

Behind the colorful maps, there is a lot of technology at work to ensure that users are able to surf the web quickly. In “How WAP Works,” Jeff Tyson provides an overview of how mobile devices are able to access the Internet on the go. According to Tyson, “ probably the most important factor in the birth of wireless Internet has been the proliferation of digital cell phones in the last few years.” In order to ensure a successful wireless Internet, “Nokia, Motorola, Ericsson, and Phone.com came together to create the WAP.” WAP stands for Wireless Application Protocol.

At the time of this article’s publication in 2000, “Making a web site accessible through a wireless device [was] quite a challenge…only a small portion of the more than a billion Web sites provided any wireless Internet content.” This is much different than today when most websites have a mobile version to make their websites more accessible to mobile device users.

Some wireless services that work with WAP are:

Short Message Service (SMS), also known as text messaging
High-Speed Circuit-Switched Data (CSD), which is 4 times faster than the standard data rates
General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), which provides data rates from 56 to 114 kpbs
Unstructured Supplementary Services Data (USSD), which is used to send text between mobile phone and application program in the network

Mobile devices utilize WAP for “transfer speed,” “size and readability,” and “navigation.” Because a typical device can transfer data at higher kbps, has larger display, and uses a mouse, WAP provides a workaround for wireless devices. Today, there are a variety of WAP enabled devices. Many people have smartphones, tablets, notebooks/laptops, and netbooks (small notebooks). Prior to this proliferation of devices, there wasn’t a clear bridge between computers and cellphones. An alternative was to purchase a portable internet device. Portable Internet Devices “combine the portability of smartphones with the functionality of a PC” (Dannenfeldt). These devices function in between cellular technology and computer technology. They were lighter than a computer but had more power than a smartphone. These devices would be the parents of modern tablets (iPad mini and Samsung Galazy Note 3). These came in different forms, such as notebooks, tablets, and sliders (Tmobile Sidekick). At the time of this article, 2008, portable internet devices were faster and more reliable than cellular devices. People who needed to access emails and complete larger tasks that couldn’t be done on a smartphone, would prefer one of these devices. Now, many people use smartphones and the newer smaller tablets as if they were computers. This technology is interesting because it provides a glimpse at how fast technology has advanced and is advancing.

What can WAP enabled devices do?

Wireless Application Protocol enables such services as mobile ticketing. The user can purchase tickets to an event and choose to have the ticket sent via text or multimedia message. Phones that are WAP enabled can receive the message with the barcode, which can be scanned at the venue. (Roos). At the time this article was written, applications for mobile devices had not become as popular as they are now. Most smartphones have apps that allow the user to purchase and download the ticket all from the phone.

WAP also makes it possible for phones, such as the iPhone, to run preinstalled applications, such as iTunes. iTunes is a web application that was created/modified from the desktop version to run on Apple devices. WAP also enables the App Store to function on mobile devices. Apps allow users to do a variety of things, such as “track news, play games, help you finish your homework, plan and journal your workout routines, track work schedules and tasks, and find recipes” (Chandler). These advancements in mobile technology allow users “to perform almost all of the task’s you’d use your iTunes [or any other program] desktop for.” (Chandler).

These days, users are accustomed to downloading apps and games onto their mobile devices, accessing the Internet, and checking emails. Behind all of these activities are several layers of technology.

According to Tyson’s “How WAP Works,” here is what takes place when a mobile device with WAP enabled access a web site:

You turn on the device and open the minibrowser.
The device sends out a radio signal, searching for service.
A connection is made with your service provider.
You select a Web site that you wish to view.
A request is sent to a gateway server using WAP.
The gateway server retrieves the information via HTTP from the Web site.
The gateway server encodes the HTTP data as WML.
The WML-encoded data is sent to your device.
You see the wireless Internet version of the Web page you selected.

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Asynchronous Learning Activity:

How much do you know about your mobile device? Test your knowledge: Cell Phone Quiz

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Below are a couple of videos that provide a little more information about how WAP works?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qxu__YtYvKE&w=420&h=315]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2d200LIvv4&w=560&h=315]

Works Cited

Chandler, Nathan. “How iTunes Mobile Works” 09 March 2010. HowStuffWorks.com. Discovery. Web. 21 January 2014.

Dannenfeldt, Diane. “How Portable Internet Devices Work” 03 March 2008. HowStuffWorks.com. Discovery. Web. 21 January 2014.

Dannenfeldt, Diane. “How Google Maps for BlackBerry Devices Works” 03 July 2008. HowStuffWorks.com. Discovery. Web. 21 January 2014.

Roos, Dave. “How Mobile Ticketing Works” 26 June 2007. HowStuffWorks.com. Discovery. Web. 21 January 2014.

Tyson, Jeff. “How WAP Works” 07 November 2000. HowStuffWorks.com. Discovery. Web. 21 January 2014.

Images

Guo Meng, W. “Cellular Network Layout.” Digital Image. ES96T: Advanced Wireless Systems and Networks. Warwick. Web. 20 January 2014.

Lie, Robert “How WAP Works” Digital Image. Mobilefish. Web. 20 January 2014

Nita, Ilinca. “Apple working on radio app with iTunes support” Photograph. Unwiredview. Web. 20 January 2014.

Academic Cypher

Category: Case Studies (page 2 of 3)

Annotations Remix

Annotated Bibliography: Digital Writing Assessment & Fairness

Suzanne’s How Stuff Works? Activity: Memory

Daniel How Stuff Works? Activity: Social Networks

Maury’s How Stuff Works? Activity: IFTTT and Networking

Jenny’s How Stuff Works? Activity: Types of Networks

Summer’s How Stuff Works? Activity: Welcome to the Cloud

Leslie’s How Stuf Works? Activity: Buses

Amy’s How Stuff Works? Activity: Wifi and Routers Quizzes

What you looking for?

What area?

What’s happening?

What’s the Word?