Blog post 7 - Kathleen

This week's Writing Lab article was fascinating. I haven't done any online tutoring yet but was concerned about how it would go.

My first concern regarding online tutoring is that the role of the student is so diminished. The student has much less work to do than if they were to participate in face-to-face tutoring. It's so easy (I imagine) for a student to log on, upload an essay, throw in a couple of comments about grammar, and hit send; to go into the Writing Center and participate in a session takes time, if nothing else.

So I worry that students are less invested in what their online tutor has to say. I suppose this shouldn't necessarily alter the way in which we tutor, though--it isn't like I should take my effort down a notch to correspond with this reduction in student effort that I could be completely imagining.

But reading this article has actually gotten me somewhat excited for online tutoring. It is in some ways easier--I worry constantly about the energy involved in a face-to-face meeting, how I cannot just leave the room or drift out of the conversation. Online tutoring will take place at my leisure (to a certain extent) and is in that way less frightening. I also would have a chance to examine my own comments before sending them--something I'm not always able to do in a face-to-face interaction in which I feel pressured to speak quickly.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog Post #8 (Ian)

Interesting take on that timeless grudge match been academic and creative nonfiction, but cringed at Goedde's frequent use of what I'll call The Other B-Word, which raised its own separate set of questions for me about how we (as tutors) shape the way our students write about racism... Though the use of this word felt central to Loraine's story - and was further complicated by Loraine's own Mexican-American heritage - it was also impossible for me to imagine Goedde parroting it with the same zeal if, say, this had been a story about Loraine using the N-word, or any number of other xenophobic slurs. Not sure if others reacted similarly, but felt noteworthy given the particular necessity (and thorniness) of having students write about race at a place as overwhelmingly white as the University of Iowa. As for comparing this nonfiction case study to the more academic studies we've previously consulted, I feel like the pros and cons basically mirror those raised by Goed
Read more

Blog Post #1

Reading: The University of Iowa Writing Center Tutor’s Guide Question: The University of Iowa Writing Center Tutor’s Guide starts stating the most important goal the Writing Center, “to develop strong writers with positive attitudes toward writing.” I clearly see how through the Writing Center’s writing practices students can grow in confidence to write. Are there any specific practices addressing that vital part of the WC goal of developing positive attitudes toward writing? Reading: The Bedford Guide for Writing Tutors, Chapter 1 & 2 Given that a student’s version of what transpires in a classroom “may be incomplete or even inaccurate (Ryan & Zimmerelli, 2016, 3), how professional and even ethical is to facilitate and somehow promote procedures for registering a complaint (4)?
Read more

JJ 7

I have yet to begin online/asynchronous tutoring but my initial impression (prior to the readings this week) was that the non face-to-face methods is an ersatz tutoring style. I was partially convinced by the readings that there are advantages in a more distanced approach to tutoring that are lacking with in-person sessions. Specifically, there is an element of anonymity associated with online tutoring that I can see appealing to students that may not be confident or are embarrassed about their writing, especially students that are more introverted and non-confrontational. As a tutor, asynchronous tutoring would give me the time to really digest the writing and carefully formulate a response. Sometimes after an in-person session I think back about better ways I could have phrased a certain point but by then, too late. A major take-away from the readings is that I will formulate my responses through the comment feature and rarely using track changes, if at all. I believe that carefully
Read more