Re: e-mail tutoring

[bobbie silk <bsilk@keller.clarke.edu>]

I've sniped this from David's full message (copied below):

> Sara --  And I think that the lack of demand, itself, is instructive. It
> tells a great deal about the things our universities value "in" writing:
> namely, single authored, coherent, modernist selves capable of knowing, or
> imitiating, expert knowledge. By contrast, an email tutorial opens up the
> discursive space, encourages students and tutors to collaborate and create
> multiple persepctives on a subject.

David's observation that lack of demand can be instructive raises a number
of questions in my mind.  Thank you, David.  However, while I'm willing to
concede that universities may value the modernist self David describes,
I'm inclined to think that even that issue has a pragmatic value and a
positive as well as negative side in the larger world that we inhabit. 

What I find most productively thought-provoking are the questions about
the psychology of the online tutorial.  I agree that it can be a
discursive, collaborative space when those values are upheld by the tutor
(and, indirectly, the director).  But I'm not sure that the collaborative,
possibly multi-vocal quality of online tutoring necessarily contradicts
single-author assumptions about the final product.  Nor am I sure that
single-author-driven students have considered and rejected online tutoring
because it is collaborative.  In fact, I wonder if online writing isn't
more (instead of less) demanding of a unified, assertive self. 

We often talk about our own experience of email and online writing in
terms of creating an identity, asserting a persona.  We assume that "real
world" social constraints drop away when our words flicker through optical
cables.  We assume that this liberates us.  And perhaps it does indeed
liberate those of us who are here, those of us having this conversation. 

But what if this very absence of social constructs is intimidating to some
people? What if, for some of us, going online is like walking out onto a
brightly lit stage in a darkened auditorium? We know the audience is out
there--five hundred pairs of lungs drawing breath, five hundred pairs of
eyes watching us.  And then we have to tap dance our selves into being. 

Even online writing that asks questions requires articulation, a bringing
into being through language.  And because it is writing that asks
questions about writing, it is inevitably self-reflexive, inevitably
drawing attention to itself.  

When we go online, even one-to-one, we reveal ourselves to someone else. 
In an online chat-room or MOO, I might be able to mask or choose my
identity; but in the tutorial I (the writer seeking help) not only cannot
hide, I expose myself to criticism of flaws I do not know are there. 
Unlike the face-to-face tutorial, I cannot protect my ego with nonchalance
or seeming disinterest.  In a sense, my ignorance is out of the closet in
front of an audience or individual I cannot see. 

In the "discusive space" of the online tutorial, I have to ask questions,
seek help openly.  I cannot shift responsibility for exposing my
weaknesses to the tutor, who is "supposed" to find what is wrong.  Perhaps
in the f2f tutorial we are subtly playing a game of hide and seek in which
I--the flawed writer--hide in the text and the tutor must seek me.  Being
the one who hides seems much sager than being the one who seeks. 

In the online tutorial the dynamic shifts.  While the tutor and I may seem
more equal and unknown to each other, thus opening possiblities of genuine
collaboration and dialogue, perhaps in reality we are *less* equal.  I no
longer have my golfer's handicap, my extra points for effort and humility. 
I no longer have the socially-granted controls of engaging the tutor's
empathy or expressing (through tone and body language) that I'm still one
tough/smart/worthwhile son-of-a-gun even though I'm letting the tutor help
me. 

Maybe where the online help requests come from is less a factor of
inside/outside and more a factor of comfort/discomfort--that is,
familiarity with the medium and tolerance for lack of control. 

Just speculatin'.              --Bobbie (bsilk@keller.clarke.edu)

On Wed, 26 Feb 1997, David J. Coogan wrote:

> 
> 
> Now obviously, we can't blame students or tutors for being practical. The
> whole point of writing papers IS to come to closure. What I'm trying to do
> is imagine a time when the activity of searching, along with others, will
> be more valuable than the end-result of a (re)search.
> 
> Dave Coogan
> 
> On Wed, 26 Feb 1997, Sara Kimball wrote:
> 
> > I guess my question to y'all out there is how many of you are doing email
> > or other electronic tutoring as a *significant* part of your regular
> > services?  We've done a couple of email exchanges with high schools, but
> > on an experiemental basis.  Although we have plans to do more online work
> > with students enrolled in computer-assisted writing classes as our
> > Divsion of Rhet-Comp. becomes increasingly computerized, I don't see any
> > huge demand for this option from the general student population.
> > 
> > Sara Kimball
> > UT Austin
> > 
> > 
> > On Tue, 25 Feb 1997, Deanna Spurlin wrote:
> > 
> > > 
> > > Hi,
> > > 
> > > I'm DeAnna Spurlin, a graduate student at the State University of West 
> > > Georgia.  As part of my Grad Research Asst. in the Writing Center here at 
> > > West Georgia, I'm reserching the effectiveness of e-mail tutoring.  I 
> > > have a few questions for those of you who offer tutoring by e-mai in your 
> > > writing centers.  I'd really appreciate your responses.
> > > 
> > > 1.	Did offering e-mai tutoring affect the number of students coming 
> > > to the writing center by either decreasing that number or increasing it?  
> > > In other words, did this service take the place of visiting the writing 
> > > center for students who were accustomed to seeking help from writing 
> > > center tutors?
> > > 
> > > 2.	Has anyone conducted a survey to determine if e-mail tutoring or 
> > > OWLS help attract those students who are hesitant to visit a writing 
> > > center?  Have you ever had students say that this service helped them get 
> > > past any stigma they may have attached to visiting the center?  Do 
> > > graduate students tend to utilize e-mail tutoring oand OWLs?
> > > 
> > > 3.	As far as ESL students go, did you find any significant benefits 
> > > or drawbacks to working with these students and addressing their needs 
> > > over e-mail?  How about learning disabled students, benefits or drawbacks 
> > > there?
> > > 
> > > 4.	How have OWLS and e-mail tutoring worked with writing across the 
> > > curriculum?
> > > 
> > 
> 
>