Running Head: WRITING IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Writing in the 21st Century Elizabeth A. Deichler Sonoma State University

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Introduction The English teacher is in need of a set of educational aims to provide the changing digital environment of writing in the English classroom with a solid objective for the technological tools that are available. Participatory writing and amateur authorship are transforming the notion of writing and language in the classroom, but often these new texts are only being analyzed through the media tools they are created with, not critically examined for the larger implications they have for the content of English as a core subject. Progressive educational theory is a bold democratic mode of thought that allows the English teacher to have curricular objectives that focus on the student and the students greater impact on the world. The coupling of digital writing outlets with progressive thought will allow new text creating technological mediums to be ushered into the classroom through the English classroom with a well-founded communal intent to enhance students connections to society and their larger role in American democratic society. What Pragmatists Believe is Essential in Writing Writing itself has changed drastically, and one of the most divergent modes of thought about the aims of writing, progressivism, was at the forefront of this metamorphosis. To gain a full understanding of what this educational ideology entails, and its connections to writing in the English classroom, it is imperative to analyze core beliefs held by both its predecessor and one of the reconceptualists who still lives today. In the 1920s John Dewey wanted to break away from the industrialized education that was pervading society. Schools were focused on immigrant assimilation to American society, and therefore writing was focused on regurgitation and precise imitation, in order to function well in the growing economy. John Dewey (1903) believed that men who had non-educational

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means by which to be involved in public schools were choosing textbooks and writing standards in the English classroom, or any classroom for that matter. These standards were focused on the economy, not at all personal to the child, something Dewey was avidly against. He believed school to be primarily social, and that it was imperative for educators to connect school life to society and home life (Dewey, 2009). This social aspect was particularly imperative to studies in English, seeing as Dewey (2009) believed language was fundamentally and primarily a social instrument (p. 38). Deweys progressive philosophy asked schools to not just enable a student to understand the English language, but to be able to think critically about how they would use their language to better understand themselves, and the world around them. Dewey (2009) was also inclined to move text beyond mere written word, remarking that The image is the great instrument of instruction and that if a majority of effort was made into creating proper images of a subject for a child to remember, that the work of instruction would be indefinitely facilitated. (p. 39) While he may not have been referring directly to creating artistic imagery in the English classroom, he implied that it was necessary to move beyond the text and give children an impression of a classroom through visual stimulation, not just a piece of paper. Text conjures up a different image to each individual reading or writing the same thing, therefore these images are an interpretation of the text themselves and must be honored with the same critical analysis that written work receives. All of these new and innovative ideas in progressive theory focused on the participation of the individual in the social consciousness of the race. (Dewey, 2009, p. 34) The heart of progressivism stands to enhance and encourage democratic thought. Americas industrialization had started to ground work of the capitalist society that thrives today, and Dewey was creating a mode of educational

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thought that encouraged the continual reconstruction and communal input that is imperative to an American democracy. Henry Giroux built upon the values of Dewey and, in the 1980s through the current day, began to reconceptualize education in a more radical form of progressivism. He believes that democracy is never finished and must be viewed primarily as a process of democratization. (Giroux, 2004, p. 33) He sees society in a constant state of progress, therefore our education should be in the same state of continual change. Likewise, the English classroom and the definition of writing should be on this path of revision. Particularly, Giroux (2012) says, in a time when teachers are losing creativity due to having to teach to standardized tests that do not value originality we must acknowledge and encourage this change. Girouxs (2004) modern progressivism also calls out the inequality of education and that English classrooms should be evaluating not only what is written, but what is not written, who a text is written by, and for what purpose. This new birth of progressivism wants the student to challenge what they are asked to read, not merely relate it to themselves. While personal connection is still highly valued, what Giroux (2004) values most is that students question what it is they have become within existing institutional and social formations, and to give some thought to what it might mean to transform existing relations of subordination and oppression. (p. 35) This reconceptualized progressive approach to education is a politically charged ideology that urges students to exam the writing they are given, and further investigate their own. It asks for a multicultural perspective in the English classroom, and if one is not given, to ask why. Critical thought is of the utmost importance and should not be restricted to examining classic literature, but to analyzing the self and society. What Media Literacy Brings to Writing

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Technology can be found in every facet of our lives, and the change it has brought to the notion of writing is evident in the interactions that students have with new digital mediums. No longer is a book the only source of writing, or an essay the only way a student can express his or her views on a particular subject. Burbles and Callister (1996) explain that hypertext is a new way writing is being structured. In hypertextualized format, an essay could be digitally submitted and have web links within it that could be overlooked, or could be clicked on by the reader to take him or her to a website, a video, or a sound clip that furthers his or her understanding of the writing. Hypertext is akin to footnotes, but on the web information is only a click away, so within three clicks an essay on Shakespeares Othello could be left behind in lieu of an artists interpretation of the play through interpretive dance. Hypertext allows a broadening of the notion of writing and asks of educators What is text, and how does the meaning of it change through personal choice? Inevitably writing is changing because the notion of text is changing. Gunther Kress (2003) best explains this when he says that words are empty until a person gives them meaning. The word car or house mean something different to everyone, because the images conjured in the mind are due to the personal connection someone has with that word. Text is what a person makes of it, and often time there is a visual element accompanied, if only in his or her mind. Furthermore, Kress (2003) explains that images can be read the same as books. The strokes of a brush, the shapes within the image placed in a specific area, and the color are all chosen to say something. In regards to the digital age, the emergence of internet memes (a spreading of an image or phrase online) are an expression of this artistic text. The online site Meme Generator (located at memegenerator.net) hosts a variety of images that are altered by many, all displaying different words that interpret that image in a new way. Words are having

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their meanings altered by the masses with a remixing of a photo, in essence making the creators teachers as well. Through the internet the creation of text is easy, authorship is claimed by anyone, and the whole process is participatory in nature. Whether collaborative or made individually to be shown to many, there is an innate social aspect to new media text creation that is evolving writing into a collaborative endeavor. Jenkins (2009) explains that participatory culture is one in which a person feels a connection, that what they create or say matters, and that is has a low barrier of entry that encourages creators of all ages to join and contribute to the community. The internet offers this through meme creators, blogs, and social networking sites like twitter and facebook. As long as you have a grasp of language, any and all are invited on the internet to become a member of, and share, with any of these communities. It is even an option to share articles online, through social media, from well-known newspapers like the New York Times and then have friends and family begin a conversation surrounding the topic. As for user created content, the same can be done on a website like YouTube, where anyone with access to a camera can upload a video to the site and let the world see, and comment, on their creation. Writing can even be done collaboratively through online written role-play games (RPGs), on such sites as WritingForums.org, where a cohort of individuals author a story together through a forum and act as characters in a story. Each of these new forms of media making is changing what a text can be, and who can make it. In the digital age, while writing in the classroom is focused on standardized tests aimed toward the individual, society is authoring new texts collectively online. Writing is no longer a singular act, it is one to be shared and worked on together by the many. As Kellner (n.d.), an advocate of multicultural education in the classroom, would say, it is a multiperspectival

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endeavor. It is allowing students the opportunity to view a variety of opinions and ideas that can better inform and help them question their own beliefs, and those of others. These new text creating mediums ask that all opinions have an outlet to be heard to contribute to a larger critical analysis of a text. There is more than the English teacher, more than the classroom there is a whole world of people that may open a students eyes to a fresh view of literature. How Pragmatic Reconceptualization of Writing in English Couples with Media Literacy Education The philosophical ideology of progressivism is an informative base of curriculum theory that shares similarities with, and can help enhance, the emergence of the new notions and aims of writing occurring in the digital age to promote a stronger sense of citizenship within American education. Writing has become relational, as Burbles and Callister (2000) would label it. It is no longer simply about the tools that can be used, but the way they affect how educators consider their subject and what products are shared through the internet and with whom. Dewey and Giroux would agree with this analysis as well since they both think that school is a social arena and one that affects individuals and groups. Progressivism can shape digital social interaction by asking that English teachers look at the personal and political implications of participatory writing. Media is offering new digital collectives through which to create text, and progressivism can offer the aims that texts can accomplish. Dewey (2009) grounded progressivism with the belief that education is the fundamental method of social progress and reform. (p. 40) English teachers can take this ideal and use it as an integral question aimed toward student writing. What does a student hope to accomplish with his/her writing? How does his/her topic

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relate to the world beyond the classroom? Does the theme in a piece of literature oppress or enlighten the non-dominant classes of society? New digital writing mediums can also look to progressivism as a theory that stands to embrace creativity and self-expression through new visual texts. Media is offering an avenue through with to create these texts in abundance. Jay Lemke (2005) goes so far as to say all of these new forms of media expression are connected to one another, they are intertextual constellations. This connection allows an English teacher to explore a book through video, image, and sound. English is becoming innately hypertextual, therefore writing should not be limited to words on a page, but should be explored through the vast imaginative engine of digital media. Dewey would be enthralled by these new forms of text, and his progressivist creed would ask that educators not only allow children to write in new forms, but to stress that it is an opportunity to connect writing to the self, and to others. Giroux (2012) is not far behind, for he believes Pedagogy should unsettle the obvious, encourage students to be self-reflective, teach them how to take risks, and expand their capacity for thinking imaginatively. (p. 68) Progressive education asks of the digital age that social networking and collaborative forum writing become an opportunity for students to learn who they are and what they can contribute to the world. Students should be discovering what new communities they want to be a part of, and not passively joining, but asking why it is they are interested in that social area and what they can do to extend their love and passion for their interest into society to better their offline community. New notions of text offer that voice in a variety of ways and English teachers can look to progressivism for an educational objective for these electronic tools. Writing will no longer need to focus on a dry analysis of a piece of literature, but can be an avenue to critically consider how ideas within classic literature can be a topic of discussion amongst current events,

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or could be used online to spark a larger discussion among the peers students have met across the world. How Might this Affect the Future of Education While these new ideas of text and writing in the English classroom are exciting and invigorating to traditionalist curriculum, it is important to analyze what may be gained by digital media, and what may be lost in the emergence of digital writing literacy. Authorship is one point of great contention among the discussion on writing in the technological era. Andrew Keen is a critic of the remixing that teens are doing of music, video, and text on the internet where a common piece of one medium will be altered to give it new meaning through the eyes of the creator. Keen (2007) argues that the introduction of so many amateurs in the digital world is creating a large question of credibility and actually affecting the ability of persons to critically think or hold a civic conversation. The experts are a dying breed in Keens eyes, and that could have consequences in the English classroom. His fears arent unfounded, for anyone can step into an English classroom and see that research projects have a heavy focus on what is reliable information on the internet (and if they dont, than the teacher is ignoring the implications of the digital age). Are analytical conversations on classic literature being sacrificed for lessons on what and who you can trust? Lemke (2005) may not agree that authorship should be left to the experts, but he agrees with Keen that trust is hard to come by, and classrooms may need to focus on critically analyzing the media because It is not just that we may be skeptical of their facts, we are also wary of the values and assumptions they purvey. (para. 39) If the aims of progressivism are met with digital media, schools may also begin to see that English could no longer be a singular subject. Dewey (2009) was an advocate of

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interdisciplinary education and believed that writing or language could be discovered through life skills courses like cooking or manual training. To Dewey (2009) the development of writing does not need a set track in school, but should naturally occur through the development of new attitudes towards, and new interests in, experience. (p. 38) Progressivism saw writing as an all-encompassing subject that shouldnt be restricted to one subject area. While Girouxs (2004) was a political standpoint, he saw learning transforming as part of a more expansive struggle for individual rights and social justice. (p. 34) This thought is one that is encountered in a History classroom, and often political commentary is restricted to that subject area. Why restrict it? Writing is done in every classroom, so closing it off to only the English classroom seemed ludicrous to a progressivist. With changing ideas of text, writing could even be incorporated into visual art, or artistic performance. Dewey believed in the visual being important, and Kress (2003) accepts that visuals are prevalent in the digital arena and can be read just as a novel. He even sees writing potentially becoming subordinated to the logic of the visual in many or all of its uses. (p. 7) Could art become a more everyday use of writing in the future, thus moving our English classrooms into those of the arts? With money in the arts dwindling, it will need to find a home somewhere, and when I taught English I was not averse to having a student express his or herself through an artistic representation of a scene in a book. These sorts of assignments are usually seen in extra credit portions of the classroom, but one day they may become something more substantial. Writing, to the progressives delight, could be learnt through a variety of subjects and become interdisciplinary in its teaching. Conclusion Digital media is completely altering the landscape of writing, offering up tool after tool that can be used to create new texts every day. But as Mark Beatham (2008-2009) points out, It

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is important that educators do not get lost in these tools, for without a strong understanding of the task, the content knowledge you want students to absorb, educators will only confuse and frustrate students. English teachers must look toward a strong curricular basis in which to discover aims for their education. Progressivism offers that strong base that concentrates on the importance of society, and most importantly in America as Giroux (2004) would say, our continued democratization. Through writing in the English classroom, teachers can explore the pairing of participatory online culture and the importance it brings to student voice in society. It is not the only subject to start this exploration in, but with the ever changing understanding of text, it is a subject that lends itself to delving into the digital unknown. With the interconnectedness of hypertext, social networking, and forum or blog based writing, English teachers have a deep well of social mediums that they can use to have students challenge themselves, and each other, as to what writing is, should be, and can become.

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References
Beatham, Mark D. (2008-2009) Tools of Inquiry: Separating the Tool and Task to Promote True Learning (pp. 61-70) Sunny College at Plattsburgh.

Burbules, N. C., & Callister, T. r. (1996). Knowledge at the Crossroads: Some Alternative Futures of Hypertext Learning Environments. Educational Theory, 46(1), 23-50. Burbules, N. C., & Callister, T. A. (2000). Watch IT: The Risks and Promises of Information Technologies for Education (1-17). Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Creative Writing Forums - Writing Workshops, Writing Help, Creative Writing Contests. (n.d.). Writing Forums. Retrieved November 17, 2012, from http://www.writingforums.org/ Dewey, J. (1903). Democracy in education. The Elementary School Teacher, 4(4), (193-204) Dewey, J. (2009). My pedagogic creed. Flinders, D. J., & Thornton, S. J (Eds.). The curriculum studies reader (3rd ed., 22-44). New York: Routledge. Giroux, H. A. (2004). Critical pedagogy and the postmodern divide: towards a pedagogy of democratization. Teacher Education Quarterly, Winter, (31-46). Giroux, H. A. (2012). Education and the crisis of public values: challenging the assault on teachers, students, & public education. New York: Peter Lang. Jenkins, H. (2009). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: media education for the 21st century. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Keen, A. (2007). The cult of the amateur: how today's internet is killing our culture. New York: Doubleday/Currency. Kellner, D. (n.d.). Cultural Studies, Multiculturalism, and Media Culture. Graduate School of Education & Information Studies Faculty and Staff Pages. Retrieved September 1, 2012, from http://pages.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/kellner/papers/SAGEcs.htm Kress, G. R. (2003). The futures of literacy. Literacy in the New Media Age (1-8). London: Routledge. Lemke, J. (2005). Towards critical multimedia literacy: technology, research, and politics. Handbook of Literacy and Technology 2. Retrieved from http://wwwpersonal.umich.edu/~jaylemke/papers/reinking2.htm