Computers and Writing: Notes from Journals

Update: This post was confusing for some readers, based on a lack of focus. I want to explain what use I was getting out of the notes and why they are here.

I am working on a paper for Computers and Writing about sustainable learning. As such, it behooves me to know how learning works. I have been trying to find good websites and journal articles on the topic that contribute to what I already know/knew.

These are quotes that I thought were particularly relevant to what I hope to do in my Computers and Writing paper in/for June.

Understanding Learning

“[T]he opportunity to learn embodies two basic dimensions: the amount and quality of exposure to new knowledge (Hallihan 1987). The amount of exposure has three components-enrollment, length, and rate…. The quality of exposure, which refers to the effectiveness of pedagogy, has two components: intensity and accessibility” (Kilgore and Pendelton 64).

“High intensity … increases the probability that students will become engaged with the material” (Kilgore and Pendelton 66).

“Accessibility, which refers to the degree to which a learner is able to make sense of new information, …includes the pedagogical processes and technologies that affect the clarity and tangibles of the new materials from the learner’s perspective” (Kilgore and Pendelton 66).

“Learning, then, involves the active construction of knowledge by which ‘the learner actively interprets and imposes meaning through the lenses of his or her existing knowledge structures, working to make sense of the world’ (Putnam, et al. 87)… (Kilgore and Pendelton 67).

Student resources + opportunity to learn & effort = knowledge acquisition (Kilgore and Pendelton 68).

“Cultural inducements … likely constitute an important factor in students’ efforts” (Kilgore and Pendelton 71).

“The density of social networks, their intergenerational linkages, and the quality of information embedded in them also influence effort and the opportunity to learn” (Kilgore and Pendelton 72).

Kilgore, Sally B. and William W. Pendleton. “The Organizational Context of Learning: Framework for Understanding the Acquisition of Knowledge.” Sociology of Education 66.1 (January 1993): 63-87.

Class discussions (a part of active learning) and social integration impact student retention (Braxtem, Milen, and Sullivan 581).

Group work does not influence student retention (Braxtem, Milen, and Sullivan 582).

Braxton, John M., Jeffrey F. Milem, and Anna Shaw Sullivan. “The Influence of Active Learning on the College Student Departure Process: Toward a Revision of Tinto’s Theory.” The Journal of Higher Education 71.5 (Sep. – Oct., 2000): 569-590.