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KENDRA L. ANDREWS  |  CRDM  |  NC STATE UNIVERSITY

Why Wix? How using a website builder can bring a writing class into Composition 2.0

ABOUT THIS SITE

How are new media and technologies shaping (and being shaped by) the composition classroom?

This seemingly simple question is at the heart of my research and (lucky for me) it was also a central component of my Communications, Technologies, and Pedagogy class.  Although this site was created as a project for the class, it also furthers my research interest in digital composition in the 21st century college classroom and I would be appreciative of any feedback on my work. Since the primary focus of my project is the use of Wix as a composition tool in the first-year writing classroom, I thought it only appropriate to use Wix as the location of my project itself. By using Wix, I am able to provide links to additional resources, student work, and previous projects; something which would be lacking in a traditional written paper. 

Within this Why Wix? Website, you will find:

  • Composition 2.0 - a cursory review of this pedagogical lens in rhetoric and composition to provide a context and an exigence for using Wix in the classroom

  • Wix as a Platform - a brief background on the history of Wix, how it functions as a composing platform, and its affordances and limitations

  • Wix Website Examples - a small collection of linked student work (inquiry blogs, digital essays, writer websites, e-portfolios) and a few of my own Wix websites

  • Why Use Wix - a growing collection of blog posts that address the question Why Use Wix? Blog posts are written in a personal style but embedded in the academic conversation

  • Assessing Wix - a modest research proposal that describes how instructors can assess how Wix is working within their pedagogy and praxis

Why Wix? Presentation

About the event

Composition 2.0

"a movement defined by its iterative, collaborative, and participatory approach to composing and working with information"
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Michael Day, Randall McClure, and Mike Palmquist, Guest Editors, Computers and Composition, 2010
"We have to embrace technology issues not as part of what we do, but as central to what we do. Technology is what we do, or what we need to do, not just because literacy is always technologized, not just because of computers AND composition, but because of the big picture technological issues that are always brought to bear on all facets of our lives and work."
(Adam Banks, 2015)

Interactive

Intertextuality

Choric

Remixed

Participatory

Heuretic

Collaborative

Multimodal

Connectivity

The Digital Imperative

Composition classrooms should "immerse students in analyzing digital media, in exploring the world beyond the classroom, in crafting digital personae, and in creating new and emerging definitions of civic literacy”
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J. Elizabeth Clark, 2010, Computers and Composition

Remediation

Critical

Multiliteracies

Networked

Rhetorical 

21st C. Citizens

Self-sponsored

Composition 2.0

Digital Personae

WHY WIX?

Description & Getting Started

WIX is an online website-building platform that allows users (with little or no experience) to  create professional-looking websites in a relatively short amount of time. Wix relies on a drag-and-drop feature for users to customize their websites and add apps, so no coding is required (although html can be embedded). 

 

All that is needed to get started with Wix is an email address, a computer, and a good Internet signal. After logging in, users choose from among hundreds of pre-fabricated templates that are ready to customize. Although Wix is fairly intuitive and quickly adopted, there are also tutorial videos as well as a robust Help Center if help is needed.

 

My students learn about Wix on the third day of class and have a drafted site with home page on the fourth day.

A Brief Platform Study

Kendra's Website

Affordances & Limitations

AFFORDANCES​

no coding needed | supports blog spaces | minimal learning curve | promotes rhetorical considerations | attracts a public audience | robust template library | strong support center | easy customization | allows for remediation | promotes participatory learning | allows hyperlinking and hypertexts | develops digital personae | increases digital composition skills | supports self-sponsored literacies | creates an artifact of student writing and thinking

 

LIMITATIONS

no SEO or statistics without subscription | videos must be vimeo or youtube | no collabortive building on one site | wix ads without subscription | domain names must have wixsite without subscription | expensive domain options

Wix Platform

Writer Websites & Digital Essays

Wix Examples

Why use Wix?

Why Use Wix

Pedagogical Assessment

Purpose of Research:

To assess the value of using digital composition practices in the First-Year Writing Course.

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Research Questions:

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RQ1: How do students perceive their development as a writer in a course that uses digital composition?

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RQ2: What does Wix allow students to do that traditional composing practices do not?

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RQ3: Does the remediation of composing practices enhance transfer of rhetorical concepts?

Proposed Research Methods

​

In order to assess how digital composition methods affect the outcomes of a First-Year Writing Course, I propose a qualitative study that analyzes the reflections, interviews, and digital compositions of the student writers.

​

The study will function primarily as an ethnography since I will be observing students' habits and behavior while composing with Wix and following up with retrospective interviews and written self-reflections. Specifically, I will be focusing on how students perceive digital composition affecting their overall writing ability. Do digital composing skills enhance, detract, or not affect their ability to write in new contexts? 

​

The interviews will be a blended approach of a Think-Aloud-Protocol where students can retrospectively walk me through their composing process and I will follow-up with pertinent questions. The observation of digital composing practices will take a more SOTL-driven approach where I record and make commentary on students' work in the classroom. The written reflections will be self-directed by the students with only a loose set of questions that they can think and write about. See examples to the right ---->

Preliminary Research:

​

Although not IRB-approved or formally analyzed, I have found the following trends in student reflections on using Wix.

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  • Moving beyond the linear page

  • Overcoming challenges

  • Gaining Authority

  • Having Confidence as a Writer

  • Finding a Voice

  • Having a choice

  • Recognizing and Using Rhetoric

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Assessment

Theory in Practice

Since I assign digital composition as a practice and Wix as a specific platform in my classes, I am very determined to use Wix in as many ways that I can for classroom activities and personal use. 
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Please view the included slideshow with links to my various websites and see the list on the right for ways to incorporate Wix into class.

Classroom Uses

  • Digital Essays
  • E-Portfolios
  • Digital Syllabus
  • Professional CV
  • Presentations
  • Writer Websites
  • Research Blogs
  • Inquiry Projects
  • Discussion Boards
  • Interactive Talks
  • Personal Blogs
  • Rhetorical Analysis
  • Visual Arguments
  • Web Design
  • Discourse Mapping
  • E-Literacy Narratives
Wix Portfolio
Contact Me
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