Achieving the “Inter” in “Interdependence”: Reframing a Theory of Expertise for Online Writing Center Relationships
This presentation rethinks the framework of distributed knowledge networks and its potential for understanding the participants in a writing center community.
Keywords:
innovation, practice, theory
Abstract
This presentation rethinks the framework of distributed knowledge networks and its potential for understanding the participants in a writing center community. The professional communication discipline typically has used this framework to focus on the expertise of a community’s participants. There is an opportunity, however, to imagine distributed knowledge networks as a theory not just of expertise but also of negotiation. Concurrent and post-pandemic studies of writing centers already are addressing how expertise now is being defined and enacted by administrators, staff and students. Borrowing and rethinking distributed knowledge networks from the professional communication field can reveal how participants’ respective expertise is brokered during online writing center relationships. The take-away is that prioritizing conciliation of expert knowledge bodies can flatten relational hierarchies and thus facilitate the “listening, wellness, and emotion in an online context” that are key to successful writing center work.
Presentation Materials
Recording
Citation Information
Type of Source: Conference Presentation
Presenters: Adrienne Lamberti
Year of Presentation: 2021
Title of Presentation: Achieving the “Inter” in “Interdependence”: Reframing a Theory of Expertise for Online Writing Center Relationships
Conference: Online Writing Centers Association (OWCA)
Location of Conference: Virtual