Tricia Hermes, Kristin Rozzell, Julie Bokser, Blair Banwart, Sarah Brown and I had a good session in which we discussed the implications of links to sources embedded in student writing in lieu of in-text parenthetical citations.
Tricia generously shared examples from her initial efforts to try this in her WRD104 classes, and discussed the examples both as a reader and as a writing teacher.
The consensus seems to be that we should encourage students to experiment providing in-text links and to continue alerting them to the disciplinary conventions of citations and works cited such that they can be rhetorically savvy when confronted with audience-based choices and decisions in the future.
We also used this opportunity to reflect on the differences between digital literacy and critical digital literacy practices:
Digital literacy: skills and tool-based, often decontextualized — how to send an email; how to embed a video; how to make a hyperlink:
- Microsoft: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/digitalliteracy/overview.aspx
- White House: http://www.digitalliteracy.gov/
Critical digital literacy — or a multi-literacies curriculum: focuses on meaning making in context, including socio-economic issues — why would you want to send an email? Who, and under what conditions, would somebody want to watch a video? What are the rhetorical implications of that link?
- Folger: http://folgerpedia.folger.edu/Teaching_critical_digital_literacy (decoding, meaning making, using, analyzing)
- TeachThought: http://teachthought.com/uncategorized/5-dimensions-of-critical-digital-literacy/
If you have any suggestions or requests for WQ and SQ sessions, please let me know!
Thanks for reading —