Solutions in writing
Scholars in composition studies can attest that writing facilitates the higher-level, complex, and critical thinking skills which assist in making connections and improving transfer. Johndan Johnson-Eilola asserts, “writing has always been about making connections: between writer and readers, across time, and through space” (17). Jarrat et al. remind us that writing is a "mode of learning" (48) which "leads to the construction of knowledge" (58). In this light, writing becomes the tool that facilitates transfer through the experience of deeper analysis, reflection, and organization of knowledge. While certainly beneficial, writing can also be seen as critical for achieving higher-level thinking. Walter Ong writes, "without writing, human consciousness cannot achieve its fuller potentials" (14-15). I would like to extend Ong’s assertion and add that the fullest potentials of human consciousness, that Ong describes, involve expanding one's conscious awareness by tapping into the prior knowledge storehouse logged in long-term memory, or, in other words, the mastery of transfer. I believe that just as mastery over certain knowledge domains, skills, or memory is possible, through learning "how to learn" and "how to transfer" human consciousness can achieve that fuller potential of bringing stored memory into consciousness through applications in writing.
Perhaps most important to this research, writing requires students to bring new information (even from technology) and prior knowledge into working memory and, as it is reflected upon and words are formulated for a writing task, create understanding, meaning, and synthesis. In other words, certain forms of writing can facilitate transfer despite the new barriers in shifting memory storage. Through the complex processes and analysis involved in writing, students are merging prior knowledge with new knowledge (taken in from external sources) to remake memory. When we write, we are literally composing memory by making old memories useful in new contexts (transfer). Cognitive scientists call this phenomenon "writing to learn." When writing to learn, "students reflect on a recent class topic in a brief writing assignment, where they may express the main ideas in their own words and relate them to other concepts covered in class, or perhaps outside class” (Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel 89). The good news is that we are already doing some of these sorts of writing tasks in the composition classroom. However, with the increasing reliance on digital technology we may need to expand our efforts on memory-building writing tasks and become advocates for writing as a tool for learning across disciplines.
When designing a technology-informed pedagogy for the digital age, it is also important to consider the advantages of digital technology. Transfer happens when learning is meaningful because it connects new information and experiences to previously stored (encoded as valuable and meaningful) information and experiences. Howland, Jonassen, and Marra believe that technology can offer experiences for meaningful learning. They argue that "technologies support meaningful learning when they fulfill a learning need-- when interactions with technologies are learner initiated and learner controlled, and when interactions with the technologies are conceptually and intellectually engaging" (7). Technologies provide authentic, real-world context and application for learning (Howland, Jonassen, and Marra 7). This sort of contextualization holds the potential to make learning more meaningful and offer greater connectivity to prior knowledge and experiences. Because the work done using computer technology is often more connected to real-world experiences, it creates a more lasting impression in students’ memory than less contextualized classroom learning.
Johnson-Eilola recommends another approach to technology in the classroom by beginning “to see some of the cultural tendencies toward connection rather than production in information systems such as the World Wide Web” (Johnson-Eilola 22). Johnson-Eilola's "cultural tendencies toward connection" speaks to the technological trend mentioned earlier toward opportunities for social learning and collaboration. Considering students’ dispositions toward social learning and collaborative environments, technology can help to facilitate that in the classroom. Howland, Jonassen, and Marra assert that "social networks...offer a means of constructing knowledge by facilitating collaboration and teamwork" (133). Similarly, Scardamalia and Bereiter pose the possibility of a new educational science emerging from "sociocognitive processing" (np). A theory of sociocognitive processing explains how increasing use of social networks and social media by students offers greater opportunity for "group thinking" to occur as a cooperative building of ideas. From a cognitive science standpoint, the communication process involved in social media and group collaboration requires students to practice recall and retrieval, thereby strengthening synaptic connections. It is essentially "thinking aloud" with the added benefit of synergizing the ideas and knowledge from numerous participants’ memory storage. Social media can also provide "knowledge-building environments" where "users create and continue to improve ideas rather than simply complete tasks" (Howland, Jonassen, and Marra 134). One disadvantage of writing that collaborative environments resolve is that "written papers require reasoning, but they tend to be one-way monologues without opportunities to respond to questions from an audience" (Howland, Jonassen, and Marra 135). Social networks or group collaboration can make up for where writing alone falls short by providing an interactive venue for trying out arguments and ideas and receiving immediate feedback. Greater collaborative work in the classroom offers many benefits and is welcomed by students raised with new media values of social learning. Paired with writing, collaboration may assist in greater reflection, synthesis, and consolidation processes as students rely on each other’s memory stores to discuss meaningful problems in the classroom.
The ideas of writing to learn, contextualized learning through technology, and sociocognitive processing become important for the composition classroom in the digital age. I recommend using these approaches to construct classroom activities that are designed to strengthen memory during specific stages and draw awareness to how certain types of activities can assist with transfer-related processes. Before diving into concepts for classroom activities, it is important to note that although I am organizing activities by stages of learning, many of the activities serve to assist processing in more than one stage. For example, I have ordered building memory mansions in sensory reception because of its involvement with the organization of information as it is coming into working memory. However, it is just as helpful as a tool for memory processing and retrieval. I organized pedagogical ideas in this fashion to emphasize each stage in the process and some of the ways we can better engage those processes in the classroom.
Perhaps most important to this research, writing requires students to bring new information (even from technology) and prior knowledge into working memory and, as it is reflected upon and words are formulated for a writing task, create understanding, meaning, and synthesis. In other words, certain forms of writing can facilitate transfer despite the new barriers in shifting memory storage. Through the complex processes and analysis involved in writing, students are merging prior knowledge with new knowledge (taken in from external sources) to remake memory. When we write, we are literally composing memory by making old memories useful in new contexts (transfer). Cognitive scientists call this phenomenon "writing to learn." When writing to learn, "students reflect on a recent class topic in a brief writing assignment, where they may express the main ideas in their own words and relate them to other concepts covered in class, or perhaps outside class” (Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel 89). The good news is that we are already doing some of these sorts of writing tasks in the composition classroom. However, with the increasing reliance on digital technology we may need to expand our efforts on memory-building writing tasks and become advocates for writing as a tool for learning across disciplines.
When designing a technology-informed pedagogy for the digital age, it is also important to consider the advantages of digital technology. Transfer happens when learning is meaningful because it connects new information and experiences to previously stored (encoded as valuable and meaningful) information and experiences. Howland, Jonassen, and Marra believe that technology can offer experiences for meaningful learning. They argue that "technologies support meaningful learning when they fulfill a learning need-- when interactions with technologies are learner initiated and learner controlled, and when interactions with the technologies are conceptually and intellectually engaging" (7). Technologies provide authentic, real-world context and application for learning (Howland, Jonassen, and Marra 7). This sort of contextualization holds the potential to make learning more meaningful and offer greater connectivity to prior knowledge and experiences. Because the work done using computer technology is often more connected to real-world experiences, it creates a more lasting impression in students’ memory than less contextualized classroom learning.
Johnson-Eilola recommends another approach to technology in the classroom by beginning “to see some of the cultural tendencies toward connection rather than production in information systems such as the World Wide Web” (Johnson-Eilola 22). Johnson-Eilola's "cultural tendencies toward connection" speaks to the technological trend mentioned earlier toward opportunities for social learning and collaboration. Considering students’ dispositions toward social learning and collaborative environments, technology can help to facilitate that in the classroom. Howland, Jonassen, and Marra assert that "social networks...offer a means of constructing knowledge by facilitating collaboration and teamwork" (133). Similarly, Scardamalia and Bereiter pose the possibility of a new educational science emerging from "sociocognitive processing" (np). A theory of sociocognitive processing explains how increasing use of social networks and social media by students offers greater opportunity for "group thinking" to occur as a cooperative building of ideas. From a cognitive science standpoint, the communication process involved in social media and group collaboration requires students to practice recall and retrieval, thereby strengthening synaptic connections. It is essentially "thinking aloud" with the added benefit of synergizing the ideas and knowledge from numerous participants’ memory storage. Social media can also provide "knowledge-building environments" where "users create and continue to improve ideas rather than simply complete tasks" (Howland, Jonassen, and Marra 134). One disadvantage of writing that collaborative environments resolve is that "written papers require reasoning, but they tend to be one-way monologues without opportunities to respond to questions from an audience" (Howland, Jonassen, and Marra 135). Social networks or group collaboration can make up for where writing alone falls short by providing an interactive venue for trying out arguments and ideas and receiving immediate feedback. Greater collaborative work in the classroom offers many benefits and is welcomed by students raised with new media values of social learning. Paired with writing, collaboration may assist in greater reflection, synthesis, and consolidation processes as students rely on each other’s memory stores to discuss meaningful problems in the classroom.
The ideas of writing to learn, contextualized learning through technology, and sociocognitive processing become important for the composition classroom in the digital age. I recommend using these approaches to construct classroom activities that are designed to strengthen memory during specific stages and draw awareness to how certain types of activities can assist with transfer-related processes. Before diving into concepts for classroom activities, it is important to note that although I am organizing activities by stages of learning, many of the activities serve to assist processing in more than one stage. For example, I have ordered building memory mansions in sensory reception because of its involvement with the organization of information as it is coming into working memory. However, it is just as helpful as a tool for memory processing and retrieval. I organized pedagogical ideas in this fashion to emphasize each stage in the process and some of the ways we can better engage those processes in the classroom.