Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Ways online tutoring supports writing center pedagogy

Ø Hobson. Those who support the creation of OWLs claim that they democratize writing centers, encourage collaboration, remove authority and enhance tutor training. OWLs support social constructivist practices which underpin the ideology of writing centers.

Ø Harris and Pemberton. Synchronous chat force students to reflect, in written form, on their writing. Such reflection is viewed as a feature of the successful f2f tutorial. Students can also save the transcript of their online conversation and refer back to it as they revise their draft.


Ø Because online texts contain fewer clues to the composing process, students who are reserved may be emboldened to join the discourse. In addition, stereotypes of race, gender, and ethnicity may be less likely to impact the discourse.

OWLs democratize writing center access making it easier for groups such as the physically disabled, the learning impaired, part-time students, those with jobs that make it difficult for them to visit the writing center, commuting students as well as those who may not be members of the particular academic community to access the services provided by writing centers

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