Cyber English

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Cyber English A Web-based Approach To Teaching
and Learning Nashville November 17, 2006
Definition Make it Public Peer Review Pass it
On Student Sites Cyber English Resources
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What is Cyber English

• Cyber English is a web-based approach to the
  study of composition. It blends web-based courses
  within the traditional classroom where students
  develop their own web sites to house all of their
  work for various audiences while using email to
  communicate with mentors, students, parents, the
  teacher, and other specific types of audiences to
  increase learning.

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Theory Behind Computers and Writing

• Computers support the recursive nature of the
  writing process.
• Writers can fluidly shift between generating
  ideas, composing, editing, and reconceptualizing
  text.
• Computers give inexperienced writers access to
  alternatives which might otherwise remain
  invisible (Costanzo 17)
• When compared to a group who wrote in pen and
  paper, word processing seemed to help students
  generate better, more complex text (Snyder 157)

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Cyber English Tenet OneMaking it Public

• Web publishing changes the writing process itself
  as students write for the Web.
• The traditional, linear writing process is
  supplanted by something more organic. Drafting,
  editing, and revising happen simultaneously.
• Reading literature often becomes a community
  affair.

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Making it PublicFocus on Audience

• Cyber students show a more serious regard for how
  their writing will be viewed by others.
• It surprises my students when they realize that
  the websites they built are actually read by
  people "out there."

• Comments from my students on audience

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Making It PublicFocus on Audience 2

• My cyberstudents also seek their own audiences
  for their writing. They share their Web sites
  with friends, older students as mentors, college
  students as reading and writing buddies, and
  family
• Parent response has been tremendous, often asking
  for copies of books their students are reading so
  they can engage in discussion through email
  discussion lists
• Buddy readers have come from as far away as a
  university in Chicago.

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Making It PublicMoving the Teacher

• Making it public doesnt just refer to the
  students. Cyber teachers maintain websites for
  their students.
• When I enter the classroom, my students are
  already logged onto my website to see what the
  assignment for the day is and to access support
  material.

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Making It PublicDecentralizing the Classroom
My cyberstudents are self-starters. They are
also directors of their own learning. On any
given day some may be meeting in small groups in
a chat room to discuss a piece of literature,
emailing me about their independent reading,
chatting about a group project, revising, or
visiting an OWL for help with a writing problem
or information for a writing assignment.
Cyberstudents also tend to work more
collaboratively, emailing each other drafts of
their writings or questions on a work of
literature or URLs of Web sites they have found
or invitations for collaboration on
projects. They make extensive use of my
Cybercomp website.
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Cyber EnglishTenet TwoPeer Review

• Our Cyber students become scholars when their
  work is submitted for Peer Review.
• Once it is public, other students, parents, and
  cyber-mentors may engage in reviewing it.

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Peer ReviewWriting Circles

• I use a type of peer review that I call "writing
  circles." The students work in groups of three to
  five, depending on class size, in every step of
  the writing process. They brainstorm together
  after individual webbing or listing, they
  rehearse their papers with each other.  When
  rough drafts are finished and on their websites,
  they email them to their group members who use
  the Reviewing toolbar in Word to make comments on
  each other's papers.  And finally, before they
  notify me that their final is ready for grading,
  they have their writing group members check it
  out on their website and give them any feedback
  needed to make the paper even better.

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Peer ReviewStudent Comments

• "The thing that I liked the best... was that we
  all could work together so we all made it better.
  I thought that having 4 people in our group
  worked well everyone did his part." (Jason '03 -
  '04)
•  
• The thing that I liked most was that we were able
  to work with other people... The part that worked
  well was how we work in groups and got everything
  done easily and quickly." (Liz '03 - '04)
•  

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Peer ReviewCyber Mentoring

• Anyone can be a cyber mentor.
• Pre-service teachers wanting the chance to work
  with cyber students.
• Retired teachers who have much to offer students.
• Business people in the community.

• Student and mentor communicate by email.
• For safety, have students share all communication
  with mentors with you.
• Book Buddies are not the same as mentors
  students and buddies read and learn together.

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Cyber English Tenet 3Pass It On-Students

• Cyber Students pass it on to classes that come
  after them
• Students often need models of assignments to help
  them get a grasp on what they are to do.
• By establishing websites which are kept up for
  several years, students can show other students
  in their school how they attacked the assignment.

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Pass It OnTeachers

• In 2004 Ted Nellen, Dawn Hogue, Nancy Patterson
  and I presented a session on Cyber English at
  NCTE in Indianapolis.
• In 2005 the four of us presented a follow up
  session at NCTE in Pittsburgh.
• I facilitated at an ACE workshop at NCTE in
  2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006.
• I presented on aspects of cyber teaching at SDCTE
  in 2003, 2004,2005, and 2006.
• I presented on cyberenglish at the South Dakota
  T.I.E conference in 2006.

Nancy, Ted, Dawn, and Pat at NCTE 2004 -
Indianapolis
Assembly of Computers In English
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Pass It OnTeachers

• I frequently get email from other teachers who
  have stumbled across my Web site. Sometimes they
  just want to use a lesson, but other times they
  have questions on how to start a cyber English
  site.
• I encourage my colleagues to create web pages
  that they can use as a source of instruction for
  their students.
• I am available to cyber-mentor any teacher who
  wants to go cyber. This spring I went to
  Morningside College in Sioux City to work with
  pre-service teachers on integrating computers
  into their English classrooms.

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Links to Student WorkAnd Other Cyber Teachers

• My Students
• http//www.pschulze.info/cybersophs.htm
• http//schulzecybercomp.org
• My Cyber Comp
• http//ps044.k12.sd.us/subweb/cybercomp_10/Default
  .htm
• Ted Nellen
• http//www.tnellen.com/ted/
• Dawn Hogue
• http//www.sheboyganfalls.k12.wi.us/cyberenglish9/
  index.htm
• Carla Beard
• http//www.webenglishteacher.com/index.html
• Cindy Adams
• http//www.studyguide.org/

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Works Cited

• Contanzo, William. Reading, writing, and
  thinking in an age of electronic literacy.
  Literacy and computers. Ed. C. Selfe and S.
  Hillgloss. MLA, 1994. 11-21.
• Snyder, Illana. HypertextThe Electronic
  Labyrnth. University of Melbourne Press
  Melbourne. 1996.