Page in Progress--

Creativity, Visual engagement, Refreshed research writing, Collaboration,  Digital Literacy
These terms characterize our working group's proposal for a year-long cooperative project to experiment with using digital tools in our writing and research classes in SAGES and Cognitive Science.   While in our original proposal we planned to use Scalar, an open-source web publishing platform developed by USC, we added other tools like MediaWiki, Comic Life, and Twine as platforms where students could experiment with and experience writing in different digital forms.
 

We also considered how collaboration is a skill that students need more experience with. Scalar, in particular, fosters active, collaborative learning inside and outside the classroom.  For their projects, small groups of students will brainstorm and decide their projects’ focus and the media and materials to include. Even if a group of collaborating students divided the pages among themselves, they would still need to build connections between their individual pages to make a successful project.  Thus, using Scalar as a collaboration tool requires that we teach them how to engage in dialogue in real time and, more importantly, to see their writing as a kind of conversation among themselves, other academics, artists, and everyday thinkers.

Digital writing can be integrated into courses in a number of ways and on any timeline, ranging from full-semester projects to small-scale individual or group projects.  For example, Scalar can serve as a repository for student-generated research about a class topic as well as a space to begin to analyze and contextualize research. Here, relevant primary and secondary materials can be used to supplement and enrich assigned course materials, ultimately creating autonomy in student researchers as they develop continued connections between course materials and what they see as larger contexts. 

 

Scalar can be integrated into courses in a number of ways and on any timeline, ranging from full-semester projects to small-scale individual or group projects. As an ongoing course tool, Scalar can serve as a repository for student-generated research about a class topic as well as a space to begin to analyze and contextualize research. Here, relevant primary and secondary materials can be used to supplement and enrich assigned course materials, ultimately creating autonomy in student researchers as they develop continued connections between course materials and what they see as larger contexts.

We are especially eager to work as a collaborative group in order to develop best practices around using Scalar for course projects. Our intention is to share these practices with others in the campus instructional community who might be interested in how Scalar can add a significant active learning aspect to their courses. Our collaborations will include working together to establish model(s) for doing these projects.