An initial note on working with online resources: It’s a little cumbersome (for me, at least) to write about a text (such as the Moxley & Meehan piece) without having a hard copy in hand to refer to. Similarly, I’ve found in my E101 class that it’s hard to discuss an article that students have read online unless they have hard copies in front of them to jog their memories.
I do, however, like the idea of having resources such as the rhetoric and composition wikibook online, especially in a period of tight education budgets. It’s also nice to be able to access these resources from anywhere and not have to be dependent on a hard copy. On the negative side, I wonder about possible differences in how knowledge is retained from reading information online versus reading from an old-fashioned book. I believe my brain processes information obtained from a printed page differently than from a screen, with better retention from the former. It could be that our brains will start (or have already started) adapting to new ways to process information. It looks like this issue is being discussed: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/books/27reading.html.
I like Moxley and Meehan’s idea of working collaboratively with blogs, discussion forums, class websites, etc. I’ve benefitted enormously from the ideas and samples posted on BSU’s first-year writing program website. I’m not sure yet what I think about using discussion posts. As with any kind of impersonal communication, there’s some risk of miscommunication. To me, it’s not as enjoyable as discussing things in person, but I can imagine how people with different personality types might prefer this way of communicating. Online forums are a great way to share things like videos, visual images, etc. In addition, students need to know how to use them as they will no doubt be used with more frequency in the workforce.
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