Beyond `Further': Collaboration, Community and Compassion in the Digital Age

Abstract

In this paper, I outline specific approaches that may be taken to bring the Composition classroom into the digital, collaborative present, and close by questioning what further practices might be explored to more deeply mine the rich soil of this mandatory Humanities course. The first approach takes its cue from Jeff Rice's fine article The 1963 Hip-Hop Machine, and explores ways in which students might begin the process of critical data synthesis (sampling), to ultimately create a deeply intertextual final product. The skills introduced through the utilization of Rice's sampling techniques are compounded by the construction of a collaborative product; another layer is added to this matrix as assessment tactics become an additional site to further develop collaboration in an effort to transform the classroom into a Freirian community of learners. The dual approach suggested will ideally result in a student who is not only better equipped to navigate an increasingly digitized reality, but also more able to work in collaboration with his or her peers. The thesis thus concludes with an exploration of notions of collaboration, community, and compassion. While the intertext assignment illuminates the connections inherent to dialogic discourse, and the collaborative online project strengthens peer-to-peer relationships, is it also tenable to imagine a digital pedagogical practice that fosters connectivity and collaboration with the student's literal community: with the `real' world around them. The thesis ultimately argues that the Composition classroom might be revised as a site where students learn the critical skill-sets relevant to the digital era and their professional futures, as well as a deeper understanding of social inter-dependence and connectivity (what Mo Tse deemed in the fifth century BCE jian ai: concern for all).