Teachers Abroad: Integrating Technology, Writing, and Culture
1. Integrating Technology, Writing,
and Culture
Kevin Oliver, Assoc. Professor, Digital Learning & Teaching
NC State, Dept. of Teacher Education & Learning Sciences
2. Background
• two Borchardt grants received in support of
teacher international experiences + technology
• developed a new course “integrating writing and
technology” taught via study abroad at the
University of Surrey in England
• introduce teachers to a framework for
developing writing abstraction (Moffett), as well
as tools and strategies to support development
• portfolios: http://surreyteachers.weebly.com
http://surreyteachers2014.weebly.com/
3. Speaker, Narrator, Informer, Transmitter
Audience, Listener, Informed,
Receiver
Subject , Information, Story,
Message
many foundational theories of communication,
rhetoric, and discourse, from Aristotle to 20th
Century theorists, propose models with common
components now called the “the communication
triangle”
4. Speaker, Narrator, Informer, Transmitter
Audience, Listener, Informed,
Receiver
Subject , Information, Story,
Message
The English educator James Moffett imposed on this
communication triangle a theory of verbal and cognitive
development based on the rhetorical relationships
among the I, the You, and the It.
5. Speaker, Narrator, Informer, Transmitter
Audience, Listener, Informed,
Receiver
Subject , Information, Story,
Message
By varying the distance between the writer (I) and the subject
(It) , and between the writer (I) and his or her audience (You),
Moffett equates stages of verbal development to levels of
abstraction required in thinking.
6. Moffett’s Abstractive Progressions
• Moffett outlined two abstractive progressions
successful writers must learn to negotiate
• the first progression is related to audience with the
student progressing across:
1. inner verbalizations to the self
2. outer vocalizations among peers, conversational
3. informal writing for peers using standard
conventions of peer group
4. writing formally for an anonymous audience
7. Moffett’s Abstractive Progressions
the second progression is related to topic with the
student progressing through four stages:
1. writing about “what is happening” in real time
using very concrete terms
2. writing about “what happened” in the near past
with some selection and narrative summary of the
account
3. writing about “what happens” where experiences
are generalized and compared to other instances
4. writing about “what will, may, or could happen”
where students make inferences based on
information farther removed from the concrete
and the immediate
9. Audience, Level 1: Inner Verbalizations
to the Self
• students create a journal in Google Docs to reflect
on assigned readings
• students write post-dated letters to self using
futureme.org to prompt reflection
10. Audience, Level 2: Conversational
vocalization to peers
• initially considered a “conversational” or
“speaking” level more than writing
• students write scripted duologues to represent
international conversations they had using
GoAnimate
11. Audience, Level 3: Writing informally for
peers using standard conventions
• post card convention--students use the acrostic
poem convention with their own photos and Pixlr
to prepare post cards home
• map convention--students
pin reflections and places
visited on a Google Map to
share with friends/family
back home
12. Audience, Level 4: Writing for Distant or
Unknown Audience
• write and publish short digital stories,
represented visually with legos and captured
using the iPad StoryVisualizer app
• conduct research on an English site or figure and
publish formal multimedia MyHistro timelines
14. Topic,Level 1, What is Happening,
Sensory
• mobile apps very helpful to capture in-the-
moment sights, sounds, and sensory notes
(cameras, recorders, voice memos, note takers)
• students use sensory details from places visited
to write about a “day in the life” or to write a
“poem of detail” with text and images merged
with Pixlr
15.
16.
17. Topic,Level 2, What Happenedin Past,
Narrative
• students take turns writing scribe notes to
summarize our activities for the public and funder
• students prepare Where I’m
From poems in Prezi to get to
know one another before
departing for study abroad
• students conduct research on
historical figures in the host
country and prepare historical bio poems using
multimedia flyer tools like Glogster or Smore
18. Topic,Level 3, What Happenswith
GeneralizationAcross Instances
• whereas the prior category is somewhat of a
chronological retelling, this category is more
analogical with comparing/contrasting
experiences toward generalization
• students capture and share cultural
generalizations with peers on group Padlet walls
using both memes and personal photographs
19. Topic,Level 4, What Will, May, or Could Happen
UsingArgumentation
• students research famous English authors, write a
script to represent what “could happen” if they were
involved in a conversation with that person, and
represent their script as a ToonDoo comical
conversation
• students conduct research on sites we will visit and
present that back to peers as a presentation on “what
will, may, or could” happen when we visit
• students write formal writing and technology lesson
plans as an example of what “will happen” in their
own classrooms, archived on our Web site,
http://ncsuwritinglessonplans.weebly.com
20. Future ResearchDirections:
Implicationsof Multimodal“Texts”
• many multimodal forms can include voices and gestures
alongside text, such that it may not be as important for
students to provide textual interpretations of what can
simply be shown in a picture or video clip
• imagery has value to help writers explain their more
abstract generalizations and inferences in more concrete,
accessible, and interpretable forms
• but students could over-rely on and over-sample from
pre-existing media with cognitive implications on
abstraction (e.g., “we had fun on our field trip--see the
posted video for more details,” “view the Web site for all
the details”)
• important for the task to prompt thinking and
interpreting (e.g., “this photo from our field trip
illustrates the theory of dissonance because…”)
21. Future ResearchDirections:
Implicationsof a Less DistantAudience
• “with digital writing, audiences are potentially much
broader and can be contributors to the writing,
especially when teachers provide students with
opportunities to engage in online communities…”
(DeVoss et al., 2010)
• the positive--scaffold student access to increasingly
remote audiences, providing students with a
platform for writing across audience abstraction
• the negative--does the “anonymous” nature of
audience at the highest level of abstraction become
“familiar,” and does a reduction in perceived
distance between writer and audience impact on
what students are willing to publish and cognition
22. Our Next Program
• summers of 2016 and 2017, traveling to Finland and
Estonia, applications taken this fall (kmoliver@ncsu.edu)
• grant supports travel for teachers from Wake, Durham,
Orange, and Chatham counties, most expenses
• will be using similar tools described in this presentation,
particularly those that support reflections on culture
(e.g., reflections on memes/photos in Padlet, Google
Maps of places visited, historical timelines and
presentations, comical/animated conversations)
• adding a component for teachers to have a classroom
exchange with a Scandinavian teacher in spring (e.g.,
mystery Skype), with the possibility of meeting their
collaborator(s) the following summer
23. Resources and Questions
• see NLI wiki for project examples, teacher portfolios
• DeVoss, D. N., Eidman-Aadahl, E., & Hicks, T. (2010).
Because digital writing matters: Improving student
writing in online and multimedia environments.
Indianapolis, IN: Jossey-Bass.
• Moffett, J. (1992). Active voice: A writing program across
the curriculum (2nd ed.). Montclair, NJ: Boynton/Cook
Publishers.
• Oliver, K. M., & Pritchard, R. (2014). Supporting the
development of writing abstraction with technology. In R.
S. Anderson & C. Mims (Eds.), Handbook of Research on
Digital Tools for Writing Instruction in K-12 Settings (pp.
363-385). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
