“Is this on Google?”: Toward a theory and pedagogy of digital archives for composition teachers
Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to examine the challenge of unliteracy to teaching composition in the digital age and offer a tool for addressing it. Unliteracy, as defined in the work, is the occlusion of active memory work resulting in part from the speed, quantity, flexibility and immediacy of information in a digital culture. To address this challenge, this study develops the concept of archival literacy . This concept suggests that composition teachers and students must develop a richer understanding of how information is written to and drawn from collective memory in order to effectively produce knowledge. Next, this study examines the use of wikis serving as digital course archives as one means for developing archival literacy in composition courses. The findings suggest that wikis can be used to teach students about how information is stored and recalled in a digital culture and that these digital course archives can be useful reflective tools for composition teachers.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Sullivan, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Language arts|Rhetoric and Composition|Educational technology|Pedagogy
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