Abstract
THE RECENT SHIFT IN COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY—the move from personal computers with limited capabilities to powerful, communications-rich workstations—has significant implications for writing instruction. Workstations provide an environment that positions students and faculty members as nodes on a network of vast size, enables the performance of many tasks at once, and offers an array of development tools that allow professors to design customized lessons and applications for individual use. At Allegheny College, a first-year writing course is supported entirely by a campus-wide network of NeXT workstations. This support enables the accomplishment of a series of general goals that include giving students the ability to find and access sources of information, teaching students to manipulate and control that information, increasing communication among faculty members and students, enabling students to maintain a portfolio of college work, and helping students use and help create tools for assistance in the composing and revising of writing in all courses. This exploratory essay suggests that using workstation technology in support of a comprehensive writing program provides new directions for the teaching of writing.
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Smith, S.B. Workstation technology: New directions for the teaching of writing. J. Comput. High. Educ. 3, 21–52 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02942355
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02942355