Numerous studies have shown that students feel more motivated to write and more confident writing using a computer (Seymour, Sullivan, Story, and Mosley, 1987; Johnson, 1988; Marcus, 1989). Assignments written on computer allow students to correct errors easily and to revise and organize their texts frequently. Further, a recent survey of education- and instruction-based newsgroups by Starr and Milheim showed that 90 percent of internet users frequently utilize eMail and the World Wide Web (WWW), and 97 percent believe that the internet will have a positive or very positive impact on education. Despite their familiarity with internet capabilities and their positive assessment concerning the future use of the internet in the classroom, only 40% of those surveyed found a viable means of employing the internet in the classroom (Starr and Milheim, 1996). The internet should not be the main focus of a non- computer-based course, but studies show that it can and should be used to augment learning (Sturm, 1995; Rakes, 1996). The cyberjournal can be integrated into nearly any college- level course to help students develop and improve writing skills and maintain a classwide discourse through the internet.
| Handwritten Journal | Cyberjournal |
|---|---|
| student-centered | class-centered |
| private, output-directed | input from class and instructor into text |
| freestyle writing | task-focused writing |
| reflective, no research | interdisciplinary, = collaborative research |
Instructors have advocated journal writing for a variety of reasons: to help students remember what they have studied and review what they have learned (Tierney, 1981); to give students a more relaxed writing environment (Reece, 1981); and to encourage students to write about their own thoughts and concerns related to the class or their course of study in general (Fulwiler, 1982). Typically, these journals are free-form (that is, the content of the journal is more important than the grammar) and private. This type of journal can be designed as a reflective diary under the assumption that all writing, any writing is in itself helpful to the development of writing skills, as a reading journal, in which students record ideas pertaining to class literature, or as a pre-writing notebook, which is more goal- oriented and focused by the instructor to accomplish specific tasks. The latter can be particularly helpful in the foreign- language classroom, in which specified topics can elicit certain grammatical responses. Primarily, instructors have used the writing journal to foster a comfortable writing environment outside of class in which students write reflectively for themselves; usually, they receive limited input from the instructor and perhaps no input from their classmates with regard to what they have written.
Where college-level essays and term papers are almost exclusively word-processed, the typical journal remains a handwritten collection of thoughts. While it can be used to foster a relaxed writing environment, the writing journal usually does not encourage the written communication of ideas between the writer and a broad reading audience. Dysthe notes: =FEA classroom always consists of many students, and thus the potential for multivoicedness is always there, but it takes an active effort on the part of the teacher to realize this potential to augment understanding and learning=FE (Dysthe, 1996). Vanett and Jurich (1990) argue that the main problem of the typical journal arises from its =FEpersonal nature=FE which produces more =FEegocentric writers=FE who are less aware of a specific audience, while Dorsey (1985) found no change in the =FEsyntactic maturity=FE of students who regularly kept journals versus those who did not. To resolve these primary issues, a link must be made between journal writing and academic writing. The cyberjournal bridges the realms of the handwritten journal and the word-processed essay. Further, it can be used to create a new arena for class discourse and multivoicedness, while allowing students a similarly comfortable (albeit more polished) writing sphere as that established in the non-cyberjournal.
To create a general cyberjournal, a separate eMail account for the class can be opened through the campus computer center. An alternative to opening a new account for the entire class is to setup a class-wide mailing list so that students can simply use their individual accounts. Journal entries would automatically be sent to the individual addresses of everyone on the list. The separate class account is easier to keep organized, however (all entries are class-related), and the joint account creates a more cohesive sharing environment. If a new account is opened, an easy password (journal1, for example) should be chosen, or the class can vote on a password for the account. Once the address has been established, this special class account will serve as the base for the journal entries of the students and the instructor. The class account will create a textual space serving a dialogical function, an advantage over the univocalness of the typical handwritten journal (Lotman 1988, 1990). It is also possible, (although likely more difficult to organize) to create an account for all sections of a particular course, encouraging even greater dialogicality. Integrating the cyberjournal into the classroom depends on the goals of the course and the purpose of the journal within the course. Regardless of the course subject, however, writing about it and sharing that commentary and information with the instructor and class will enhance student understanding of the subject matter (Britton, 1991; Newel and Winograd, 1989; Langer and Applebee, 1987).
Rakes suggests that the instructor be viewed as a "facilitator/guide" when using resource-based lesson plans. She suggests the instructor follow certain steps when employing the internet as a teaching tool: (1) Select a problem; (2) Define the instructional objectives; (3) Select internet sites; (4) Present the problem; and (5) Organize and collect the data (Rakes, 1996). These steps should also be followed initially by the instructor when developing a cyberjournal. Gradually, however, after the students understand the process, they will play a greater role in implementing the remaining steps. The discourse they establish with each other and the instructor in the cyberjournal will prove especially helpful in their carrying out steps 1-3.
The primary advantage of the cyberjournal is that it encourages writing which is collaborative and research that is interdisciplinary. Issues raised in the journal entries can also be addressed in class to foster more in-depth discussions. The journal can thus be both student-centered and task-focused to develop specific writing skills within a class-wide discourse. The cyberjournal is an especially effective tool which can help students write more efficiently. Writing good essays and research papers for any course typically involves a combination of these steps:
And for writing critical papers:
Each of these steps, in turn, can be performed by the entire class within the cyberjournal as they work on their essays. Essay topics can actually be gleaned from the journal entries themselves in conjunction with the steps discussed by Rakes.
The storm of ideas will be much stronger with more brainpower. Students can read each other's ideas for essays and make comments. Likewise, the instructor should join in the process, encouraging certain topics and making suggestions from the outset. Brainstorming can also lead to the students reflecting upon possible problems/themes for discussion in their essays while it helps them more clearly define what they consider the instructional objectives.
Research certainly should not be confined solely to the internet, but it can be greatly supplemented by information available on a number of search engines, internet services which can search the WWW for specific subjects in various newsgroups and Web sites, including Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com), Alta Vista (www.altavista.digital.com), Lycos (www.hotbot.com), and Hotbot (www.hotbot.com). Most search engines are organized thematically by subject (see Maddux for a thorough discussion of the nine most commonly used search engines). Yahoo!, the most popular search engine, lists fourteen subject fields, such as Arts and Humanities, Education, Government, and Science. A search can be performed through all of the subject fields, allowing for a truly interdisciplinary approach to research. The Library of Congress also has its own Web site (www.loc.gov), giving students access to one of the most comprehen sive libraries in the world. Students can easily share their research with the class in the cyberjournal, making research a more efficient and collaborative method. Also of note, students can maintain a list of books checked out from the library by members of the course, encouraging the sharing of information.
This early writing stage should be included in the cyberjournal primarily for consistency. Instructors do not always require an outline, particularly in higher level courses, since outlines are subject to great change. Nevertheless, an instructor can more carefully monitor problem areas -- especially regarding organization -- if an outline is present in the cyberjournal. The instructor and students can then discuss essays from their inception.
A copy of each student=FEs rough draft should be saved to the cyberjournal for peer-editing. A peer-review/editing sheet should be given to the class and kept in the journal by the instructor to help students develop their editing skills. This sheet should detail the expectations of the instructor and define those qualities which comprise a substantial essay for the course (organization, content, grammar, research). Being able to edit for content as well as for grammar is a fundamental skill required of good writers, and the cyberjournal allows students to give and receive feedback on their writing directly into the assignments. Peer-editing should be as useful an activity for the editor as for the student being edited. Again, the instructor is an active participant in the journal and should therefore read through the rough drafts and editorial suggestions of the class.
The cyberjournal gives students access to the annotations made individually by everyone in the class to an article or text. By sharing their annotations, students and can better understand the assigned text, and the instructor can more become more aware of interpretive problem areas for individual students and the class as a whole. Further, the cyberjournal encourages vocabulary-building, a necessary tool for writing well. The class can maintain its own vocabulary lists for texts and build a glossary within the journal. A class-wide vocabulary list can prove particularly useful in the foreign language classroom, serving as a topics guide for the instructor.
Each student brings a unique background knowledge to his or her reading of a text. The cyberjournal affords students the opportunity to ask questions of each other and the instructor which may not have been fully answered in class discussions of a text. The students and the instructor can both benefit from their shared background knowledge as they interpret and critically evaluate literary texts and articles.
The cyberjournal is a technological twist on a pedagogical staple. It encourages students to conduct substantial research on the WEB, while it affords them the benefits of receiving immediate feedback directly into their written texts from the instructor and other students. Further, in conjunction with hypermedia, the cyberjournal creates a learning environment that is both collaborative and interdisciplinary (Yang, 1996). The cyberjournal is easy to develop and implement in any course with a focus on writing and critical thinking in writing.