Here’s Carrie’s review of Jeffrey Grabill’s Writing Community Change: Designing Technologies for Citizen Action:
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Great job Carrie. You really did a good job with usual visuals to make your point. I enjoyed your graphic for the concept: writing + action = change. On a similar note, I found Grabbil’s use of the dog walking paths in East Lansing to be very cute.
I think this is really important becuse students need to see how to interact within their community and teaching it through the use of technology is a great way to go about doing that. I like how this book shows that people can interact with others in their community with just a click of a mouse and do so as well. I mean the argument that people dont care is just proven wrong here right now in many ways. Im not saying this is the case for everyone but for those he talks about. Very cool.
Wow, Carrie! I have to follow that next week? Ugghh!!! On a technical note, was I the only one that had trouble with the volume? I had to plug my laptop into my reciever and turn it waaay up to hear it. But, it was fine once I did that. Anyway, I thought it sounded like a really interesting book. I’m glad you comment on the end about the “tacked on” nature of the pragamatic writing portion. While I found the review interesting, I kept thinking throughout it, “Cool… but where’s the WRITING Community Change part?” I’m glad to see his does touch on it though, and I think that something like this can be really useful for combating the ubiquitous “inauthenticity” that permeates a lot of school writing assignments. Nice work.
Sorry about the volume! I used two different programs to record the audio, so it was really loud and then really quiet. I tried to balance them out some. Glad you were able to make it work, though!
And yes! Grabill touches on about inauthenticity. He considers the writing classroom to be real and public, as “always already part of [a] network of civic institutions (121). It’s an interesting argument, I think, especially since I’ve always had a hard time with the lack of genuineness in college writing, both the assignments and papers.
It’s neat that the Internet allows for more of the opportunity to publish directly to a given community. Something we should definitely take advantage of in the classroom! It’s always better for students if they feel like they have a “real” audience out there when they write.
For example, when students put stuff on the web in the form of wikis or in blogs. I wonder where I got that idea….
Carrie, a great job. The only criticism I have of the video is, believe it or not, the dude’s name. Grabill is pronounced “Gray-bill.” You wouldn’t know that unless you knew, sort of like how I pronounce my name “Krau-z” instead of the one syllable “Kraus,” but there it is.
I love the diversity of the presentations! It’s fun to see how different people work with this assignment…super cool.
Me too, Dave, I agree wih you. I was thinking all along, how does this fit into this particular class? It does seem like an interesting book and some really solid concepts–but how to fit them into a curriculum that is already too full?
I agree with you that it would be nice if he had added further information for us teachers. Sounds like it would be a great way to incorporate a service- learning project into a curriculum using some of these ideas.
Your graphics and pictures were super! I had a little trouble with the volume, too, but after I turned it up, it was ok. Congrats on a wonderful job!
This is FABULOUS! Great job bringing all the elements together. I think it’s really interesting that they mentioned how most people only look up negative aspects of their communities rather than the enriching, positive aspects. And the farmers market was cool and how they developed their own ways to become an agent of change. Really neat book!
This book sounds interesting or, at least, informative. I like any source that promotes the power of the written word. That is why literacy and being able to express yourself on paper is so important. I just wish that more people understood that. Like you say in the video, taking writing seriously, understanding citizens and the social problems that exist, and spending more time informing yourself about the community and its groups at large really make you an active citizen who is prepared to make a change in the first place. Writing definitely, then, helps to promote and inform you in this process.
I loved all the pictures and the examples of graphs, etc. Thanks for presenting this!
Great job, Carrie. I felt like I was watching NPR or PBS.
Do you organize a database according to the needs and characteristics of the community and students?
“Grabill’s Book Writing Community Change wins Outstanding Book Award for Civic Scholarship.” March 11, 2010: http://www.rhetoric.msu.edu/news/view.php?NewsID=155
Carrie, This was wonderful. I really like the visual pictures you had along with what you were talking about. It really made it easier to understand the points you were talking about.
I like the thought of exploring the community and making it a better place and writing being a part of that process. At the community college level we have to promote community projects so this would be an interesting read for me. Great job Carrie and thank you for doing a helpful book review.