Envision: A technology-enhanced means of teaching writing in a visual world

When Alyssa O'Brien and Christine Alfano began teaching their writing classes in Wallenberg Hall just over two years ago, little did they know that their experiences would transform their approach to teaching and result in the publication of an interactive book on understanding visual culture.

"Wallenberg Hall was key in the development of the book," says Dr. O'Brien, a lecturer in the Program in Writing and Rhetoric (PWR). "The technology-enhanced rooms made learning immediate, expedient, collaborative and interactive."

O'Brien explains that when they came to Wallenberg Hall, they found their curriculum and their teaching significantly enhanced by the efficacy of the learning spaces. From providing the ability to collaboratively analyze websites to allowing for the projection of the sites on two large Webster screens, to displaying multimedia images on five plasma screens and wireless laptops, the classrooms offered a wealth of options for interactive and immediate engagement with the material in a course focused on writing about visual culture.

During one class O'Brien asked her students to analyze a set of advertisements that she pulled from the web and displayed on the large Webster screens. Equipped with laptops, the students wrote their analysis of the ads, and then located similar ads using the five color-coded plasma screens around the room.   In small groups, they then discussed what they had written as they projected their notes and images for the class to see. O'Brien could use the computerized Webster "pen" to annotate the web sites and save her notes and the pages to the class web site for later review.   The process gave students an immediate experience with interactive, collaborative learning, self-determined subject searching, and group writing and presentation strategies.

"The old way was to bring in magazines," O'Brien explains. "Now if I show a photo or another image and someone in class says, 'Did you see the photos of Iraq that make a similar point?' Boom, we can find the photos that student is referring to and share them with the whole class. This happened, for example, when Lee-Ming Zen told us about the Brian Waski photographs taken during the Iraq war.   He mentioned them, another student found them on the Web, and in a flash we had projected them for analysis and discussion."

Full of visual examples of the way graphics impact the meaning and power of the written word, "Envision" offers an entire course in visual rhetoric, presenting color ads, cartoons, posters, editorials and photographs with analysis and review. The book builds on analysis by leading students through research and even production of dynamic visual pieces.   Students can buy the $36 book for their classes, but they can also learn interactively through an extensive website that hosts exercises, student papers, resources, and options for students with disabilities for every chapter online at:   http://www.ablongman.com/envision . The web site also provides detailed guidance and instructional resources for teachers of writing, visual culture, and multimedia.

As the authors write in their preface, "This book emerged from our practical need as writing instructors for a resource we could use in the classroom to teach students how to understand, analyze, and write about visual rhetoric. As writing teachers we found ourselves struggling to find materials that might provide solid rhetorical instruction in visual culture while leading students in concrete steps from analysis of visual culture, to crafting and argument about visual texts, to using the visual as an argumentative text in itself."

Designed to teach students strategies for understanding and utilizing the power of visual persuasion, the skills students learn from "Envision" are applicable to other classes, as well as to real life situations such as launching a business, creating a website or developing a marketing plan.

Writing the book was a collaborative venture with the students in Alfano and O'Brien's Wallenberg classes.   As they worked on each section of the book, which included many long nights punctuated by coffee and pizza deliveries, O'Brien and Alfano would also share drafts of chapters with their students, revise the writing and the examples based on student feedback, and incorporate class-generated exercises into individual chapters in the making.

"It showed the students that all writers - even teachers - have to work through writing as a process," O'Brien says.   "We all struggled together, and that is a great way to teach writing."

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