Palmquist, M. (2003). A brief history of computer support for writing centers

and writing-across-the-curriculum programs. Computers and Composition, 20, 395–413.

As a writing center coordinator, I was interested to read an article that specifically addressed writing centers. I knew about writing centers’ long history with technology and computer aided instruction, and also the desire to distance themselves from this as grammar drill or fix-it shop model. I was really struck by the quote though about interest in teaching English with computers as far back as the 1960s. I’m sure I’m showing my ignorance of computer history, but I had no idea computers were around then, at least not in capacity that could be used to support instruction. I had never heard of TOPOI, the prewriting tool before. It seemed like it asked some really interesting questions to get students to think about their relationship to a topic, though I have to admit that there is something a little creepy about the way it directly addresses you with your name. This particular program stood out to me, one, because I had never heard of a program like this, and two because I can imagine why a program like this may have fallen out of fashion. Writing centers (including my own) emphasize the one-to-one human interaction as they key feature of support for writers that the center can provide. Conversation and agency are highly prized in writing center work. Technologies like TOPOI mimic conversation, however, cannot interact with the spontaneity of human interaction. Maybe this is why they never gained much ground or went out of favor with writing center folks?

I can definitely speak to the use of computers to manage writing centers. Prior to me becoming coordinator, very little of the work of the writing center was tracked digitally. Students signed up for appointments in a binder and then signed in when they arrived. A spreadsheet was created to track usage each week of what students from which classes came, however, that was really all the reporting and tracking that was being done. I have implemented the use of WCONLINE this year, allowing us to track more demographic features and store notes from sessions. I will admit though that the transition to computer management has been a little messy as everyone gets used to it. I think management systems have come along way since the ones Palmquist mentions in his article, but it is amazing how many small things have come up with the switch over that I hadn’t really thought of or anticipated.

Since this article came out in 2003, I couldn’t help but think about the advances in technology and how that has impacted writing centers that have happened since this article was published. Palmquist claimed, “New technologies have created new possibilities, including new teaching and learning goals. Writing for the Web, designing documents in ways the typewriter cannot support, understanding the discourses of online communities, and recognizing the rhetorical contexts students encounter as they engage in those discourses are only some of the new possibilities created by information technology” (p. 408). It’s amazing how right he was. Many writing centers have embraced this commitment to integrating and using technology--some even taking the plunge and re-branding themselves as Multiliteracy Centers.

What I am grappling with now is how technology could be better utilized in my center in ways that supports students’ writing processes and learning, but also doesn’t undermine the one-on-one conversations at the center of our work.