6.23.14: Pedagogical Tool Review – Paradigm Online Writing Assistant: www.powa.org

6.23.14: Pedagogical Tool Review – Paradigm Online Writing Assistant: www.powa.org

Introduction to Pedagogical Tool Review:

          As both the popularity and availability of distance education continues to rise, it’s imperative that writing instructors keep an eye on both extant and emerging pedagogical tools so we can provide students with the most effective options for learning writing in our contemporary, technologically-driven world. And there are, arguably, few other disciplines that are as impacted by online learning technology as much as writing. Indeed, in their text, Writing across the Disciplines, Joyce Neff and Carl Whithaus argue that “the ability to write well has never been more important. In today’s technology-driven economy, more people than ever before are required to use the written word…businesses want employees who can write, and colleges want to graduate students who can write” (126-7). It is with this exigence in mind, then, that I reviewed the Paradigm Online Writing Assistant website, (found at www.powa.org).

          Paradigm Online Writing Assistant was created by Chuck Guilford, an emeritus English professor at Boise State University. He has thirty years’ experience teaching English composition, creative writing, and literature at both the graduate and undergraduate level. Further, he’s a longtime member in the N.C.T.E. as well as the 4C’s. I think that these foundational criteria are certainly important, and arguably necessary, for creating an online, English pedagogical writing tool. Neff and Whithaus agree that “faculty involvement with distance and distributed learning technologies needs to occur in the development of these technologies” (17). Thus, based upon Guilford’s rather impressive educational and professional background, I reserved high expectations for the website he created to help teach writing online.

What is Paradigm Online Writing Assistant?

          According to Guilford’s companion text publisher, Paradigm Online Writing Assistant offers strategies for mastering the writing process. It includes help with discovering, organizing, revising, and editing writing. It also has chapters on thesis/support, essays, informal essays, exploratory essays and argumentative essays. In addition, the book offers a clear, concise discussion of how to use MLA documentation. (Wordcurrent Press 1)

How the site provides online writing instruction:

          The site offers the user an intuitive, logical, easy-to-navigate platform. The main writing topics are listed across the top of the screen, oriented from left-to-right, in a scaffolded-learning order. Within each of these topics are several subtopics relating to that given writing stage. The topics are arranged as follows, and a brief description of some of the contents and features are also provided below:

·         Invent

o   covers selecting a topic, free-writing, using the “journalist questions,” dramatism (as championed by Kenneth Burke), and tagmemics. Within this topic, the student is guided through the initial planning phases of beginning a writing project and can be quite useful

·         Arrange

o   involves lessons and activities designed to help flesh out the selected topic. It includes activities for mind-mapping, networking, and developing paragraph order.

·         Revise

o   covers topics such as audience, writer’s voice, writing with precision and word choice

·         Edit

o   gives specific warning about reliance on word processing spell-checkers – certainly a useful recommendation for developing writers

·         Reflect

o   contains subtopics on making the writing project more interesting, such as using metaphorical language and developing strong openings and closings

·         Explain

o   deals primarily with the thesis. As the thesis is an essential component in academic writing, they are explained in full detail here. It offers lessons for how to create, reinforce, restate and/or summarize a thesis.

·         Convince  

o   provides informative lessons about developing arguments. It covers Aristotelian appeals, audience, persuasion tactics and even provides definitions and models of classical rhetorical forms for structuring an argument

·         Explore

o   specifically addresses exploratory essay creation. It provides lessons and activities for topic immersion and interaction, discusses the learning cycle (based on the work of Jean Piaget), as well as tips for revising the writing project for the reader, and lastly – introduces a more formal peer review activity

·         Document

o   provides informational lessons and activities related to creating a works cited/bibliography, hot to use parenthetical citations, how to provide proper documentation, what should be cited, and teaches the writer ten standard M.L.A. citational formats.

          These lessons and activities are easily accessed, written for the developmental writer, and I believe, do provide solid foundational information for creating a writing project.

Concerns about Paradigm Online Writing Assistant:

          The first issue I encountered with the site was the inability to actually register for an account. I tried logging in on several different browsers, which didn’t seem to help. I then tried to login with my Facebook account. Alas, also to no avail. Lastly, I sent a message to Paradigm via their Facebook group, explained my dilemma, and still have not yet heard back from anyone. Without a registered account, all of the content above is still available, but one cannot participate more actively in the “community” on the site. Without registration, a profile cannot be created, groups can’t be joined or created, and there is no ability to engage with videos, etc. However, even without an account, much of the site’s content is still available for use.

          The “community” at Paradigm Online Writing Assistant’s website leaves much to be desired. To begin with, the “my blog” page is inundated with advertisements for myriad pay-day advance type of loans. Further, there was not only a distinct lack of students’ writing under “my blogs,” but in fact, the space has been fully colonized by lending institutions, hot tub dealers, and other assorted vendors hawking their wares. Yet, when I clicked on “all blogs,” I did find actual entries. But, from the few posts that I read, it was apparent that the participants are at the developmental writing stage and their entries didn’t appear to directly engage with any of the lessons or activities that the site offers. Indeed, some were Twitter length opinions, others provided short, underdeveloped paragraphs. I was a bit disappointed, because I was hoping to see more engaged writing going on and I had certainly hoped there would have been commentary, peer review, and/or discourse taking place between the blog participants, and there just didn’t appear to be any interaction between the bloggers. It was as if the blogs posts were simply made, submitted, and seemingly abandoned. Finally, there was also a distinct lack of any instructor/facilitator/guidance presence, which is an additional concern. Like the blog features, it would appear that the website was created and then simply left to its own devices. Effective writing pedagogy demands the presence of an instructor/facilitator/guide, and www.powa.org failed to provide this essential component.

Conclusions:

          Therefore, while Paradigm Online Writing Assistant does have useful information, lessons, and activities for the developmental writer, the community if offers (or rather, lacks), falls very short and thus, strongly impacts my decision on whether I would personally utilize this site or not. I feel that it may be useful for providing information to developmental or beginning composition students who may need a bit more instruction on topic development, etc. However, there are other websites that can accomplish the same. It is my sense that a typical CMS would be able to provide and perform the informational tasks of www.powa.org, and would also be able to provide and foster a more genuine community of inquiry among the students/participants. 

          Ultimately, I think Guildford certainly had good intentions, and he did manage to create an efficient design, but the customization and/or interaction it lacks is seriously detrimental to its use value. We need learning systems that “balance the human and the technological,” (Neff and Whithaus 47), and I feel that Paradigm Online Writing Assistant only addresses the technological aspects. The human element of online writing instruction simply cannot be overlooked. It is with these factors in mind, then, that I hope to contribute this review to the continued development of online writing instruction technology. Indeed, as Neff and Whithaus so succinctly state, “poorly conceived technology is no better than a poorly written textbook” (22).

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Guilford, Chuck. Paradigm Online Writing Assistant. 2014. Website. Found at 

< http://www.powa.org/>.

Neff, Joyce and Carl Whithaus. Writing across Distances and Disciplines: Research and Pedagogy in Distributed Learning. New York, NY: Taylor & Francis Group. 2008.

Wordcurrent Press. 2014. Website. Found at <http://www.wordcurrent.com/paradigm.html>.