CYBERSPACE TUTORS GIVE STUDENTS HELP IN WRITING PROJECTS.Byline: Edith Paal Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. Having trouble with a writing project? Cyberspace Coined by William Gibson in his 1984 novel "Neuromancer," it is a futuristic computer network that people use by plugging their minds into it! The term now refers to the Internet or to the online or digital world in general. See Internet and virtual reality. Contrast with meatspace. can help. Schools around the country are creating on-line writing centers where people can get help on projects. The University of Arkansas at Little Rock Established as Little Rock Junior College by the Little Rock School District in 1927, it became a private four-year institution, called Little Rock University, in 1957. It returned to public status in 1969 when it was merged into the University of Arkansas System under its present name. has teamed up with the Oak Ridge Oak Ridge, city (1990 pop. 27,310), Anderson and Roane counties, E Tenn., on Black Oak Ridge and the Clinch River; founded by the U.S. government 1942, inc. as an independent city 1959. branch of Roane State Community College Roane State Community College is a two-year college located in eastern Tennessee. It was authorized by the Tennessee General Assembly in 1969, along with two other community colleges, and operates under the authority of the Tennessee Board of Regents. in Tennessee to create a cyberspace writing project. The on-line lab pairs Roane State composition students with graduate writing tutors at UALR UALR University of Arkansas at Little Rock . Barry Maid, an associate professor at UALR, had graduate students who needed teaching and consulting experience. Jennifer Jordan-Henley directs the writing center at Roane State and some of her undergraduate students needed writing consultants. ``Her students send drafts of papers to me via e-mail,'' Maid said. ``Students read and comment on drafts and set up an (on-line) meeting.'' Maid said he hopes to start something similar by next spring with three Arkansas community colleges - Westark Community College in Fort Smith, Pulaski County Pulaski County is the name of several counties in the United States:
In the UALR-Roane State collaboration, students on both sides get training in the fundamentals of on-line work. Some students have had virtually no on-line experience. Others had trouble adjusting to communicating in real time without using body language or making eye contact. ``You're always dealing with other human beings,'' Maid said. ``The same rules apply, because technology doesn't change humans.'' The rooms where students meet to discuss their papers are described on line, and the descriptions include such details as the view outside the window. Students and tutors can pour themselves `cybercoffee,' and one tutor started his session by hosting an on-line, imaginary picnic. Dianne Cofer, director of the Learning Acceleration Center at Garland County Community College, said she's not sure what form a computer collaboration with UALR would take at her school. On-line writing critiques are an option, she said. ``It does take extra work on the instructors' part,'' she said. ``I feel like it's a possibility.'' Faculty and administrators at the school have supported increasing students' access to technology, she said. The composition students in the UALR-Roane State program have been doing more extensive revisions of their work, instructors said. ``(Ms. Jordan-Henley) is convinced that the greater revision helped the quality of her students' work,'' Jordan-Henley and Maid wrote in a paper on the project, published in the Writing Lab Newsletter. UALR also plans to open an on-line writing center to respond to writing-related inquiries. The site is being designed by graduate student Paula Puffer puffer, common name for some tropical marine fish of the family Tetraodontidae. The puffers and their allies, the boxfish, the porcupinefish, and the ocean sunfish or headfish, form an odd group (order Tetraodontiformes). . The site, expected to go on line by the middle of October, will feature grammar and writing tips. Other items are to be added later, Puffer said. The site also will take inquiries from users, to be answered by grad students. Faculty, staff and students from UALR will have first priority, but queries from the public also will be fielded. The site indicates a response will take about 24 hours. CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: Graduate students Catherine Spann, right, and PaulaPuffer, give on-line tutorials at writing center. Associated Press |
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