CYBERGRAPHIA:
a user's manual
HOW
TO BEGIN (as a faculty member) . . .
First
create a workshop.
Click on the workshop tab.
Click on "manage workshops"
Then on "Create New Workshop"
Then enter a title and click on the box that says "Create New
Workshop"
Do this in advance of using CYBERGRAPHIA with a class.
Now
that your workshop has been created, you can create various tools
and associate them with this workshop (this will make finding things
easier).
A
FEW SUGGESTIONS . . .
A
few times when I have used this, I have created student accounts
in advance (having the password sent to my account) then I have
gone to the computer center and gone through the log in before the
students arrive. This allowed me to skip the 15 minutes or so that
the log in would have required. This seems to make things a little
easier if you are just going to be using the program once and students
don't need to learn how to log in.
And
each time I have used this I have made a hand out with explicit
directions on how to use the program. I have gone over the handout
with them watching. Then I have had the students do the assignment
in their own time. This seems to work. The instructor can help those
that need help and those who understand can get to work.
There
are some limitations to the program that it might be worth stressing
to students in advance:
There
is NO spell check.
Some
text can be edited; some cannot. Students, for instance, can edit
the text that they enter into their notebooks; but they can't edit
text that they enter into someone else's notebook. Text entered
into as annotation cannot be edited. Etc. (I hope to eventually
get this changed so one can always edit one's text.)
Anytime
anyone enters text, they need to click on the submit button. Otherwise,
text will get lost. Encourage students to open a new browser window
if they want to look something up on the web while they are entering
their text.
This
is a little confusing but it is crucial . . . there are two tabs
that really matter when using CYBERGRAPHIA and they aren't that
intuitive.
The
"tools" tab is where you create most of the tools. This
usually means when you want to enter text into a new form. You go
to the "tools" tab when you (faculty or student) want
to create a new notebook or when you (faculty only) want to enter
a text into annotator or when you (faculty or student) want to publish
your work as a webpage in publisher.
Once
one of these tools has been created, you can add information into
them through the "workshops" tab. If someone has already
created a notebook and you want to add text to the second column
of the notebook, then you go to workshops to do this. If someone
has already entered a work into annotator and you want to add an
annotation, then you go to workshops to do this. Etc.
What follows is a brief run down of how to use each tool and then
some suggestions for classroom use.
NOTEBOOK
(how
to use)
NOTEBOOK:
an online version of what composition theorists often call the "dialectical
notebook" or "double entry notebook." This version
has three columns. The user who creates the notebook can post comments
in any column; any registered user can post in any of the last two
columns and in the discussion forum at the bottom.
To Create a Notebook
Click
on the TOOLS tab; click on "notebook."
When
the notebook screen appears, click on [create].
Enter
title. (hint: under title, participants might use their name as
title for easy recognition)
If desired, associate your notebook with your workshop by using
the pull down menu.
Enter
the appropriate text and then click on the "Submit" box
at the bottom of the page.
You
should then get a page that tells you "Your notebook has been
added." You can edit [E] and/or delete [D] your notebook from
this page. You can return to this page and edit your original notebook
text at a later date by clicking on [edit].
To
add text to columns two or three of an already completed notebook:
Click
on the WORKSHOP tab; click on "notebook."
When
the notebook screen appears, Click on [show all notebooks] or [search
all notebooks] and find appropriate notebook.
Click
on [view].
If
you want to add text to column two, click on the "Add Comment"
box at the bottom of the first column. If you want to add text to
column three, click on the "Add Response" box at the bottom
of the second column. A new box will appear. Enter your text and
click on "submit" to enter text into the notebook.
NOTEBOOK
(pedagogy)
The double-entry notebook, by offering the chance to practice
interpreting in such a way that whatever is learned about reading
is something learned about writing, can teach that how we construe
is how we construct.
--Ann Berthoff, The Making of Meaning
The
dialectical notebook demonstrates: (1) the recursiveness of writing/thinking:
retrospective and projective structuring; (2) active, collaborative
learning within a community of inquiry/discourse; (3) the social
character of knowledge; (4) the complementary importance of direct
observation and meaning-making in "the social justification
of belief"; (5) that "how we construe is how we construct."
--Paul Connolly
The
notebook allows students to interact with a work and each other.
It is an ideal tool for a first encounter with a challenging work
as it encourages active, collaborative learning. Often a good example
of the productive benefits of reading with others in the classroom.
One possible way to use:
Assign
work the night before asking students to underline and/or annotate
what they find interesting and puzzling, as well as any aspects
of the material they wish to stress. Encourage them to look up any
words, names, places they don't recognize in the dictionary or on
the web. Alternative: first encounter with the work could happen
in class at the end of the period the day before with a quick reading
out loud of the work.
In
class have students choose two or three brief passages in the work
on which to comment. Each student then creates their own notebook.
In this notebook, students comment on the original work in the first
column of notebook. Encourage students to number the paragraphs
in the work and to refer to the work by paragraph number.
Some
possible forms of comment that might work:
questions
suggestions
exceptions
hypotheses
speculations
first thoughts
reactions
related stories and anecdotes
analogies to mathematical equations
analogies to political statements
poems
associative thinking ("reminds me of . . . )
what more can be said?
how could it be said differently?
open, reflective questioning
things to look up and/or things looked up with links to the web
When
done with creating the first column of their notebooks, students
should then enter another student's notebook. Student #2 should
then respond to student #1's comments.
Students then return to their original notebooks and reply to the
comments by student #2 in the third column.
Then,
students can use the discussion area at the bottom of the notebook
to type up notes for first draft of essay or to summarize what has
been learned so far. They could also include further observation,
notes on things to look up, questions.
Another:
In
the first column, students summarize the work using paraphrase and
direct quotation.
In
the second column, comments on column one by same student.
In
the third column, student exchanges notebook with a second reader
who confirms, questions, and/or challenges what is written in columns
one and two.
This
can be done for as long as time allows (more than one student can
respond to each notebook). It may also be done as an ongoing process
between designated partners outside of class.
Again,
one might use the discussion forum to summarize, take notes for
first draft, answer specific questions, list continuing questions.
Another:
Instead
of having the notebook focus on a particular text, focus it on a
particular large topic. As students proceed through the semester
they will add quotes and summaries to all the columns. The discussion
forum at the bottom of the notebook can be used for them to summarize
changes in their thesis, take notes for a first draft, etc.
Another:
Have
students complete columns one and two at home. Then bring a print
out of the notebook to class. Have students read and discuss their
notebooks in small groups to test how closely other students agree
with it. After class, have students enter notes in column three
on the group's response.
View
a sample use of Notebook from a previous workshop in the February
Test Workshop.
ANNOTATOR
(how to use)
ANNOTATOR: a tool that allows users to create a hypertext of a primary
work. Registered faculty can enter the primary work and then commentary
can be added by any registered user line by line.
To enter a work to be annotated:
First,
create an annotation space.
Click
on TOOLS tab; click on "annotator."
When
the annotator page comes up, click on [create].
Enter
the appropriate text and then click on the "submit" box
at the bottom of the page. (Note that users can annotate the work
line by line; if your primary work is prose, be sure to enter line
breaks.)
You
should then get a page that tells you that "Your annotation
has been added." You can edit [E] and/or delete [D] your annotation
from this page.
You
can return to this page and edit your original annotation text at
a later date by clicking on [edit].
If
you wish to enter a work to be annotated, go first to the Tools
tab and follow instructions there.
To add annotation to a primary work:
Click
on the WORKSHOPS tab; click on "annotator."
When
the annotator page appears, click on [show all works] (or [search
all works] to find appropriate work to annotate.
Click
on [view].
Once
the work to be annotated appears, click on the line you wish to
annotate. An "add your note" box should appear on the
right. Add your note. When done, click on "submit" box
at the bottom of the frame.
ANNOTATOR
(pedagogy)
The
critical and interpretative question is not "what does the
poem mean?" but "how do we release or expose the poem's
possibilities of meaning?" Poems, after all, are not transmitters
of information and if we usually read them in a linear mode, we
know that they also (and simultaneously) move in complex and recursive
ways.
--Lisa Samuels and Jerome McGann, "Deformance and Interpretation"
Fundamentally,
the process of understanding a work implies a re-creation of it,
an attempt to grasp completely the structured sensations and concepts
through which the author seeks to convey the quality of his sense
of life. Each must make a new synthesis of these elements with his
own nature, but it is essential that he evoke those components of
experience to which the text actually refers."
--Louise Rosenblatt, Literature as Exploration
Annotation
can be used as an alternative to traditional models of analyzing
or describing literature. Group annotation on the same primary work
points to how writing and reading can be forms of expansive engagement
that lead to community building. Work that at first glance feels
difficult or obtuse when read singularly often comes into focus
with communal reading practices.
Teachers
often complain that they do not know how to teach the more experimental
forms of contemporary writing because students often claim an interpretative
right and say that any reading is legitimate. Reading as annotation
side steps that problem. It acknowledges various possible readings
while at the same time encouraging students to interact closely
with a primary work and thus to justifying their readings. Reading
is acknowledged as a process that has a range of limited possibilities.
In composition studies, this procedure is variously called "writing
from images" or "patchwork reading" or "explosive
reading" or "hypertext reading."
As
Joan Retallack pointed out at a workshop before Poetry and Pedagogy
conference, choosing a primary work that is generative of connections
is crucial. She recommended not using a narrative-based poem, pointing
out that a narrative poem often does not lead to the speculative
thinking that is the purpose of this exercise. She tends to use
poems that are more experimental and at first glance evade easy
interpretation such as chance generated poetry by Jackson Mac Low
or the language-influenced poetry of Melanie Nielson (from Civil
Noir).
One possible way to use:
Assign
work the night before asking students to underline and/or annotate
what they find interesting and puzzling, as well as any aspects
of the material they wish to stress. Encourage them to look up any
words, names, places they don't recognize in the dictionary or on
the web. Alternative: first encounter with the work could happen
in class at the end of the period the day before with a quick reading
out loud of the work.
Students then pick one of these underlined phrases or lines or words
and annotate this phrase. The writing can be in any mode: generative,
word play, analytical, narrative, poetry, etc. Students can be encouraged
to link out to information on the web or to copy information from
the web back into their own annotations.
In
class and away from computer (provide participants in the class
with a print out of the annotations): a strong reader should be
appointed to read the entire poem out loud. This reader should be
instructed to read the poem with determination yet be open to constant
interruption. As the reader reads the poem, when someone hears the
phrase from which they wrote read out loud, they should interrupt
the reader by calling out the phrase and then reading their passage
(the reader should do this for his or herself when he or she comes
to the appropriate passage). When more than one person has written
to the same phrase, they should determine the order in which they
will read via silent signals.
Stress
that this is a group performance that incorporates all the writing
everyone has done and urge participants to avoid explaining what
they have written or prefacing their reading by saying "Oh,
I wrote to that!"
After
hearing the work and its annotations, have students sum up with
some writing in the discussion forum at the bottom of the page.
One possible question: how much of your interpretation of the poem
is guided by the exercise we just did?
Another:
Do
two or more group annotations of the same work. In one annotation,
students annotation to explicate. In a second annotation of the
same work, students annotate by responding creatively-in poem, story,
anecdote, etc.
Follow
up question for discussion forum: How did the different sorts of
writing change your understanding of the work?
Another:
Use
annotation as the first draft of a paper, not just as a way of reading
a difficult work. One way to do this is to encourage students to
annotate around three phrases, images, ideas, etc., in the work.
When done students review the entire classes' annotations.
Then
follow up with some writing that leads to essay. Some possible questions:
Write on what the three phrases, images, or ideas you chose have
in common.
What theme (s) runs through what you have written?
What do you like about the work, and why?
What do you dislike, and why?
What ideas by others were meaningful and why?
Quote from someone else's writing on this same piece and use to
expand your own ideas or react against it.
What can you say about the work, based on the three phrases, images,
or ideas?
Using
this writing as notes, write the first draft of a paper.
View
a sample use of Annotator from a previous workshop in the February
Test Workshop.
SORTER
(how to use)
SORTER: registered users enter text by paragraph which is then randomly
sorted.
To enter text into sorter,
Click
on the TOOLS tab, then click on "sorter."
When
the sorter page appears, click on [create].
Enter
title. If desired, associate your final essay with your workshop
by using the pull down menu.
Enter
some portion of text in each box and then click on the "submit"
box at the bottom of the page. (hint: under title, participants
might use their name for easy recognition)
You
should then get a page that tells you that "Your text has been
added." You can edit [E] and/or delete [D] your text from this
page.
You
can return to this page and edit your original text at a later date
by clicking on [edit]. Basic HTML commands can be used in sorter.
To
view your sorted essay, go to the workshops tab and follow instructions
there.
To view your or others sorted essays:
Click
on the WORKSHOPS tab, then click on "sorter."
When
the sorter page appears, click on [show all texts] or [search all
texts] and find appropriate work.
Click
on the word [view] beside the essay you wish to view.
The
essay should appear.
SORTER
(pedagogy)
But
how do we bind time with patterns of anticipation and resolution
in essays or expository writing? Here the tension or itch that binds
the words is almost always the experience of some problem or uncertainty,
that is somehow conveyed to the reader. Unless there is a felt question--a
tension, a palpable itch--the time remains unbound. The most common
reason why weak essays don't hang together is that writing is all
statement, all consonance, all answer: the reader is not made to
experience any cognitive dissonance.
--Peter Elbow, "Shifting Relationships"
In shaping a reactive essay, students need help both with decentering--attending
seriously to someone else's thought and language, however alien,
and with recentering--restoring personal equilibrium, attaching
themselves to language, building language of their own within someone's
language, building meaning within meaning.
--Teresa Vilardi
The
genre of essay suffers under the pressure of our culture's anxieties
about college and writing. Sorter's aim is to loosen some of that
anxiety. By suggesting that essays can be sorted (rather than introduced
in a thesis paragraph and then developed into three or four tight
points and then concluded), it points to how essays might instead
be ideas loosely gathered around a topic. This kind of essay might
best be thought of as having a center with spokes radiating out
of this center (rather than as a stream or a line). Sorter can also
be used to generate material for a more linear essay, to develop
first drafts as well as model alternative structures for essay writing.
One
possible use:
Ask
students to build an essay that can be sorted. Suggest that they
choose a topic for their essay. Then ask them to write ten paragraphs
on that topic.
Some
possible guidelines to provide:
essay should have around ten paragraphs with each paragraph around
six or more sentences
essay should quote from a primary work at least twice
it should analyze a primary work at least once
it should discuss language issues on this topic or the language
used by a primary work
it should include some sort of creative responses (a poem; some
language play; a story)
it should include a personal anecdote or anecdotal evidence.
After
students write the paragraphs and sort them, have them take the
essay to small groups where they receive feedback on the structure
of the essay. At this point they could either receive advice about
how this material might be structured into a linear essay or they
could further explain disjunctions. As a possible follow up question:
what sort of ideas would have to be cut out to make this a more
conventionally ordered essay? How committed are you to this information?
What do you think it adds to your essay?
Another:
Use
sorter to have the workshop write a collaborative essay. Workshop
chooses a topic. Students then enter paragraphs on the topic.
Another:
Use
as an exercise in transition. Have students take a more conventionally
structured essay and sort it. Then have them go back and rewrite
connections between paragraphs. This exercise encourages students
to resee their essay and to examine its structure.
Another:
Use
to generate poetry. Sort some sentences on various topics. Ask students
to then write a poem that connects the arbitrarily ordered ideas.
Provide some works by John Ashbery or James Schuyler to model connection.
Possible follow up question: what sort of thinking was generated
by this exercise?
PUBLISHER
(how to use)
PUBLISHER: registered users can post writing which then gets "published"
as a web page.
To create web page:
Click
on the TOOLS tab, then click on "publisher."
Click on [create].
Enter
title.
If desired, associate your web page with your workshop by using
the pull down menu. (hint: under title, participants might use their
name for easy recognition)
Enter
desired text.
When
done, click on the "submit" box at the bottom of the page.
You
should then get a page that says, "Your web page has been added."
You can edit [E] and/or delete [D] your text from this page.
You
can also add images if you desire here. Click on [add image]. Then
browse on your computer to find the desired image. (Please respect
copyright of images and post only images in the common domain or
for which you own the copyright.) Then click on the "upload
image" box.
You
can return to this page and edit your original text at a later date
by clicking on [edit].
To view your web page:
Click
on the WORKSHOP tab; then click on "publisher."
Click
on [show all pages] or [search all pages] and find appropriate web
page.
Click
on the word [view] beside the page you wish to view.
The
web page should appear.
If
desired, users can create an associated web page in response. While
viewing the web page, click on [create a page in response].
Enter
title.
If desired, associate your web page with your workshop by using
the pull down menu. (hint: under title, participants might use their
name for easy recognition)
Enter
text.
When
done, click on the "submit" box at the bottom of the page.
You
should then get a page that says, "Your web page has been added."
You can edit [E] and/or delete [D] your text from this page.
You
can also add images if you desire here. Click on [add image]. Then
browse on your computer to find the desired image. (Please respect
copyright of images and post only images in the common domain or
for which you own the copyright.) Then click on the "upload
image" box.
You
can return to this page and edit your original text at a later date
by clicking on [edit].
To
see your web page, you must return to the workshop tab.
PUBLISHER
(pedagogy)
One
reason the technology of writing is so crucial is that it allows
ideas to be shared. Cultivating in writers an awareness of audience
is an essential part of any writing pedagogy. Web page publisher
is basically a tool that lets students easily "publish"
and share their writing and then lets other students easily respond.
Having students do written feedback rather than oral often encourages
a more serious and detailed response. One other benefit to using
web page publisher is that students can link out to other sources
on the web and include images.
One
possible way to use:
Student
#1 posts their essay using web publisher. Student #2, or more, posts
a page in feedback.
Possible
suggestions for feedback page:
Rewrite from another subject position or argument position.
What do you notice about this writing?
Say back to the author what the writing is saying.
What is almost said in this writing?
What is lurking underneath this writing? What is unsaid?
What is the center of gravity?
What moves the writing along?
What line can the writing not live without and why?
What line would you remove if you had to remove one line?
What word is central?
What word would you remove if you could?
What is missing?
For
more suggestions see the classic "Sharing and Responding"
from Belanoff and Elbow's Community of Writers.
After
reading responses to the essay, student #1 then responds to the
feedback. One possible prompt for writing in another linked web
page: What do you see in your essay now that you couldn't see alone?
If you were to work more on this, what would you do next? Students
might then rewrite their essay and post again in the web publisher.
Another
possibility:
Student
posts essay using web publisher. Then uses a second linked web page
to write metacognitively on his or her essay.
Some
possible questions to use:
What name would you give your relationship to the story?
Are you a judge, a voyeur, a collaborator, a witness, etc.? Point
to places in your essay and explain your response.
Who do you know who needs to read this essay? What would it help
them see?
If it can be suggested that every text answers a question, what
question does your essay answer? What is the answer, and where do
you see it in the text?
Another
possibility:
Use
in a creative writing classroom. Have student #1 post his or her
writing. Then student #2, or more, responds. Students #2 could use
the above forms of feedback or do a more process-based response
where they rewrite the poem.
Some
possibilities:
Translate "English to English" by substituting word for
word, phrase for phrase, line for line.
Reverse
the poem. Change a phrase like "turn of day" to "straight
of night."
Take
the writing and put blanks in place of three or four words in each
line, noting the part of speech under each blank. Then have someone
else replace the blanks with random words.
Write
an entirely new piece by imitating the poem.
Reverse
or scramble or otherwise alter the word order of the writing.
Change
all statements to questions. Or vice versa.
Change
the location of the writing.
Change
of tense of the writing.
Eliminate
parts of the writing.
When
doing process based response, students who are responding should
explain why they did what they did and what it might illuminate
about the original writing.
FILE
ARCHIVE (how to use)
ARCHIVE: faculty can upload files here. All files are freely downloadable
by registered users.
How to upload a file:
Click
on the TOOLS tab; click on "file archive."
Click
on [add new file].
Enter
title.
If desired, associate your web page with your workshop by using
the pull down menu.
Enter
description.
Click
on browse to browse your computer. When you find the file you wish
to add, click on it and then on the "open" box.
Click
on "submit" box.
You
should then get a page that says, "Your file has been added."
You can edit [E] your description of the file and/or delete [D]
your file from this page. (You can return to this page and edit
your description or delete the file at a later date by clicking
on [edit files]).
