Introduction to <emma>

Transcription

1 1 Educause Southeast Regional Conference June 20, 2006 Christy Desmet, Director of First-year Composition Ron Balthazor, Developer University of Georgia Introduction to <emma> <emma>, or an Electronic Markup and Management Application, is a suite of open-source software applications designed especially for writers. <emma> is not an automated editing or grading program. For that reason, we like to say that <emma> is less a piece of software than a unified electronic writing environment. Since 2003, the <emma> application has been developed by a group of professors, instructors, teaching assistants, and software designers from the University of Georgia Department of English. The project very much depends on collaboration and on the ongoing participation and intelligence of classroom teachers. At present, <emma> is being used and developed primarily in the University of Georgia First-year Composition Program, but we are steadily acquiring partners in other departments and at other university and college campuses. <emma>, as the acronym suggests, has two parts. The markup function of <emma> is simply a word processor that runs XML (Extensible Markup Language) in the background. XML, like the more familiar Web language HTML, marks certain features of text. HTML tells a web browser how to display text (e.g, in italics, bold, or as a block quotation). XML, by contrast, tells the browser the identity of a piece of text (e.g;, as a noun or verb, thesis or topic sentence, claim or warrant). The power of XML to let users define the meaning of tags makes it especially useful to writers and teachers of writing. For one thing, XML tags, whether defined by teachers or students, make explicit the qualities of writing under consideration. Second, XML allows writers, teachers, and researchers to extract different qualities of a piece of writing and to see it both literally and metaphorically in different ways. Finally, XML's flexibility allows writing to be re-purposed, to be submitted as a stand-alone essay for peer review, analyzed for certain rhetorical features, then revised for inclusion in a course portfolio. The management portion of <emma> is a database that not only contains all of the documents produced in <emma>, but also allows them to be displayed, reviewed, and revised in different ways.

2 2 The Writing Cycle with <emma> To get a sense of how <emma> works, imagine the following cycle. 1. Writing: First, the author creates a document in Open Office, using either the standard template or a special template designed by the program or even the individual instructor. The author writes in the uncluttered WYSIWYG environment, while the XML tags work quietly in the background. 2. When finished, the author uploads the document to the <emma> website using a familiar type of upload button:

3 3 3. The author controls who sees the document, indicating either the student and instructor only or opening the document to peers. In the <emma> display shown below, we see the icon of two people, which means that the author has set the permissions for peers. The notation 1 F indicates that this isassignment 1, final stage. The author's name and a time stamp also appear. The author can use the Edit button to make any necessary changes to this information, to add the document to the author's portfolio, or to delete the file. 4. Commenting: At this point in the cycle, the document becomes available for commenting by other students in the class and by the instructor. Readers have two options available to them. They can open a dialogue box at the bottom of the document to add a quick comment; or they can download the entire document into OpenOffice for more extensive commenting and editing. Like MsWord, OpenOffice has a track changes function that is supported by <emma>'s display. More substantive comments can be added as a note in OpenOffice that records the message and author's name. The comment is visible as a mouse-over in OpenOffice and is displayed in <emma> as a marginal comment: 5. Reviewing: <emma>'s use of XML and web displays allows teachers, individual writers, and writing groups to use specific OpenOffice templates to literally see their writing in new ways. Below is an example of a reviewing template that highlights specific rhetorical areas for consideration (in this case, examples, support, and transitions). In an argumentative essay, the

4 4 reviewer highlights instances of weak support, which are displayed in gray on the browser, then adds further comments as needed. When the author considers these comments or when an entire class discusses the essay, the highlighting can be turned on or off in order to focus the readers' attention differently. The reviewing templates takes advantage of XML's ability to make the features of writing explicit. When a writer marks particular features of her text (e.g., the thesis of an essay), peer reviewers, teachers, and tutors can see exactly what the author considers to be the essay's main idea. When reviewers, teachers, and tutors do the same, the author can see if his opinion matches up with those of his readers. The templates also help instructors direct writers' attention to specific areas of analysis. Any textual feature marked with XML can be extracted from the document and displayed as well in a new context. <emma> can Combine documents to view selected elements, such as the essay's thesis, citations, or grammatical errors. In class, the group can compare every instance of a marked thesis, for instance, so that students can readily see how their thesis compares with those composed by their peers. The combined display makes a focused review of an entire class's work quite efficient and instructive. 6. Revising: At this point, the writer has plenty of useful feedback to consult when revising her essay. She can return to template displays and comments at any time and even print out commented texts. Writers can begin anew or work with existing text; they can concentrate on the entire essay or just one part. The simplicity of uploading documents makes the revision process easy and satisfying. <emma> also has a Compare frames display that allows writers to reflect on their revision process by looking at different versions of the same essay side-byside.

5 5 7. Publishing, eportfolios, and Assessment: One of <emma>'s most attractive features for writers is the fact that the application publishes writing automatically to the web. <emma> documents are available to writers, their instructors and if desired, their peers, but they are also protected behind a password. Publishing on the Web, even informally, gives writers pride in their work and, once again, helps them to see their work with new eyes. OpenOffice and <emma> also allow writers to incorporate images, charts, sound clips, and (soon) video clips into their work, increasing the multi-media possibilities for authors and expanding our sense of what constitutes writing. <emma> also has a clean, efficient protocol for creating eportfolios. When revision is complete, the author simply has to click one button in the Edit dialogue box to insert that document into the portfolio and determine its order among the exhibits. eportfolios are wonderful assessment tools because they make all feedback formative, because they encourage imagination, and because they ask writers to reflect upon their own writing process and so participate actively in the assessment process. This poster session includes a separate handout on creating an eportfolio with <emma>. Below is one example of a writing portfolio that the UGA First-year Composition Program uses for final assessment. As stated in the FYC Handbook, The Portfolio will include: a biography of the portfolio author and, if desired, a picture of the writer or other relevant image; an Introductory Reflective Essay that presents a significant thesis to be supported by

6 6 the individual writing exhibits; two of the four essays written for the class--revised, edited, and polished as final products for the portfolio; one example of writing that demonstrates and discusses the student s revision process; one example that demonstrates and discusses the student s contribution to peer review; one wild card submission chosen by the student as representative of her or his own work. Assessment, in this system, is a logical extension of peer commenting and reviewing. Instructors use the same commenting and track-changes functions as do peer reviewers, making grading a familiar and logical part of the writing process. In the UGA FYC Program, instructors can also append the Program Grading Rubric to the graded essays and release comments and grading rubric at different times. Because <emma> files away all uploaded documents there is no chance of overwriting or problems of version control every stage of feedback and assessment remains available to students throughout the semester. In FYC, Final Portfolios are graded by two instructors; for this process, <emma> provides a simple, efficient mechanism for recording grades and comments and automatically tallies final portfolio grades. Summary: With <emma>, writing becomes a productive cycle that helps writers through the process of composing, reviewing, and revising their work and, finally, allows then to publish and display their writing with pride. Other Possibilities Across the Curriculum Although much of <emma>'s development has taken place within the University of Georgia First-year Composition Program, as an electronic environment <emma> is infinitely adaptable to a variety of writing tasks and situations. Just to give one example, in a class on the Human Genome students wrote their lab reports in <emma>, and part of the exercise involved annotating a string of the human genome. Below one student's annotation of characters: try doing that with a word processor!

7 7 Technical Specs For those who care about these matters, the application we call <emma> uses OpenOffice as its XMLbased word processor. The project then uses Cocoon (part of the Apache XML open-source development project), an XML publishing framework running on the Jakarta-Tomcat servlet engine. Cocoon is used to produce server-side XSL transformations of the XML documents. Cocoon is a complete document production and management environment that includes PDF production, a rich search capability, and multiple document concatenation. Currently we are using Postgres as our database for authentication and document tracking. (Thanks to Ron Balthazor for this description.) Copyright Christy Desmet This work is the intellectual property of the author. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the author. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the author.