An Overview

Teaching and nurturing both the inward and outward transactions writers have with texts would seem crucial in composition pedagogy, and the transactional theory of Louise Rosenblatt and others provides a valuable touchstone for our more complete understanding of how reading and writing, and learning about reading and writing, happens. The thesis of this hypertext is that transactional pedagogy may be applied--and will be effective--in on-line environments as well as in traditional classrooms. Of primary importance is that the focus of such instruction be organized around communications and exchange activities that are directly applied to witing tasks.

Evidence from real-time logs shows that learning about composing can and does happen in on-line courses where synchronous conferencing is a central feature. Students can be witnessed checking their understanding of an idea, verifying their grasp of a task, trying out ideas on each other, offering drafts for comment, expressing their re-thinking of those drafts, and so on. But it is also my thesis that teachers in on-line exchanges with students have to activate their pedagogy in dynamic conversation for education to happen. Our course used strategies with synchronous conferencing as the primary instrument of transaction in order to best affect the pace and direction of learning. Although synchronous conferences display a good deal of fluidity and unpredictability--not to mention idle chatter--they can be a significant tool in managing writing instruction at a distance.