Digital Sense-Making: Narrating the Transition to College

Philip Kreniske

The Graduate Center & Hunter CollegeCity University of New York (CUNY)

Kreniske, P. (2014, May). Digital Sense-Making: How SEEK Students Narrate their Transition to College. In C. Daiute (Chair), Multi-expressive Genres for Development conducted at the Annual meeting of the Jean Piaget Society, San Francisco, CA.

Writing as a Social and Cognitive Tool

Writing as an explicitly social process (Bazerman, 2004; Ede, 1989; McLane, 1992; Ong, 1975; and

many others)

and the importance of audience (Black, 1989; Flower, 1979; Ong, 1975; Sperling, 1996 and others)

Writing as a Social and Cognitive Tool and the

DigitalThe shift in recent years to massive use of digital and explicitly social writing has increased the importance of audience  

(Baker & Moore, 2008; Fishman, Lunsford, McGregor, & Otuteye, 2005; Magnifico, 2011; Manago, Tamara, & Greenfield, 2012) 

What is a blog?Often, but not exclusively, blogs are written from one author’s or group of authors’ perspective.

Distinct from platforms like Facebook and Twitter in two main ways.

1. Opportunities for interaction are more limited and structured on a blog.

2. Blogs generally place more emphasis on longer written texts, around 500 words, as opposed to Twitter where writers are limited to 140 characters, and though Facebook does not have the same limitations – the average post is around 122 words.

(Cvijikj & Michahelles, 2011).

Affordances of the Blog Magnify the Importance of Audience

Hypertext

Blogger can explicitly select their audience; public, private with limited access to chosen others, or completely private

Allow writers and commenters to communicate across geographical space.

posts and subsequent comments can be appear synchronous - or asynchronous

(Bolander, 2012; Graves, 2007 ; Heft, 2007)

Affordances of the Blog Magnify the Importance of Audience

Formation of connections leading to increased implicit and explicit support as compared to most other writing mediums

•Social interactions and supports why blogging contributes to positive emotional development

(Baker & Moore, 2008; Bane, Cornish, Erspamer, & Kampan, 2010; Boniel-Nissim & Barak, 2011; Ko & Kuo, 2009; Schmitt, Davanim, & Matthias, 2008; Sosnowy, 2013)

• and perhaps cognitive development too (Davidson, 2011; Ducate & Lomicka, 2008; Fishman et al., 2005)

• little systematic and empirical work has examined these claims (Wuyts, Broome and McGuire, 2011)

Writing Supports Sense-Making During Challenging

Transitions

Writing can be a tool to support sense-making.

Sense-making involves figuring out how one fits into a context (Daiute & Nelson, 1997; Lucic, 2013).

Increasing college enrollment and importance of a degree

Writing as a Gatekeeper

Increasing college

enrollment and importance of a degree

College Transition is Challenging for All

Especially for students from low income

backgrounds many of whom are the first in their family to attend college.

(Bailey & Dynarski, 2011; Clark, 2005; Terenzini et al., 1994; Hurtado, Carter, & Spuler, 1996; Hurtado & Carter, 1997; Zhang & Smith, 2011 )

Percy Ellis Sutton Search for Education Elevation and

Knowledge (SEEK) at CUNY

SEEK provides funding and support for students

• for families with annual income below $20,655

• slightly lower SAT and high school GPA as compared to other students at the college

• 22 transfer students (with over 120 freshman admitted in the fall)

Research Questions

How do SEEK transfer students use blogging to support their transition to a new college?

How might their writing change over the course of the semester.

What are the implications of the change?

Design

Beginning set up blog and respond to prompt and comment

Middle Respond to prompt and comment

End Respond to prompt, comment and brief survey

Students write at the beginning, middle and near the end of the semester.

Design

Beginning Set up blog and respond to prompt and comment

Middle Respond to prompt and comment

End Respond to prompt, comment and brief survey

Design, Prompt 1

Emma’s First Post

Emma’s Last Post

Coding Narratives: A Significance AnalysisEmma’s 1st Post Cognitive Words (Daiute,

2014)

Coding Narratives: A Significance AnalysisEmma’s 1st Post Cognitive and Affect Words

Coding Narratives: A Significance AnalysisEmma’s 3rd Post Cognitive Words

Coding Narratives: A Significance AnalysisEmma’s 3rd Post Cognitive and Affect Words

Comparing 1st and 3rd Narratives: A Significance Analysis

Emma’s Cognitive and Affect Words

1st Post 3rd Post

Use of Affect Increased Over the Semester

Note: Mean ratios of affect words to total words per narrative.

Use of Cognitive Words Increased Over the Semester

Note: Mean ratios of cognitive words to total words per narrative.

Implications of the change in writing over the semester

Bloggers increased use of affect and cognitive words over time suggesting that this explicitly social writing was an enactment of emotional and cognitive development development.

Bloggers used the writing activity to make sense of – and think through their challenging college transition.

Next Steps

Explore the comments and the interaction of comments and how bloggers’ writings changed.

Next cohort of participants

Comparison of explicitly social writing (bloggers) and implicitly social writing (word processed).

Other outcomes – i.e. college graduation rates?

Thank You.

Questions?

pkreniske@gc.cuny.edu