Keywords
Asynchronous, access, criticisms of asynchronous, arguments in favor of asynchronous, ethics, technology
Introduction
Writing centers have the freedom, flexibility—perhaps even the responsibility—to fly a bit freer into the future and to test the waters of new ways to interact with writers. One of those ways, which some of us are now exploring, is electronic tutoring, that is, connecting to stu-dents in other locations via computers. There will be various forms for how these services will work, and the names will differ, but some of us (for now, anyway) are calling them OWLs (On-line Writing Labs). It’s clear that the future of writing centers will include online worlds, and as our OWLs take wing, we need to think carefully about the implications of all this. Two people particularly well suited to considering where we’re headed and what it all means are Michael Spooner and Eric Crump, the authors of the dialog offered here. Michael Spooner, until recently the Senior Editor at NCTE, has moved his talents and skis to the Utah State University Press. Eric Crump is the asst. director of his writing center at the University of Missouri while finishing his graduate work, planning the forthcoming Computers and Writing conference, editing the “Voices from the Net” newsletter column, and managing several electronic discussion groups.
Citation Information
Type of Source: Newsletter Article
Authors: Michael Spooner, Eric Crump
Year of Publication: 1994
Title: “A Dialogue on OWLing in the Writing Lab”
Publication: Writing Lab Newsletter, Volume 18, Issue 6
Page Range: 6-8