Volume 1, Number 1<2> The first point concerns the judgment leveled at student play by Halio. Much of this distracting play, according to Halio, involved the manipulation of graphics taking place on the Macintosh: "the students quickly became fascinated by the ease with which they could do graphics using Macpaint or Macdraw"(17,18). Halio sees this play as a kind of distraction, which takes the student's attention away from the text which he should be focusing on. To some extent this is probably true, but, by looking merely at the impact the play with graphics has on the typographic text produced by students, Halio fails to look at the motivation behind the play and misses an opportunity to interrogate more fully what is going on in her classroom.
<3> Sherry Turkle, who wrote about computer culture while working at MIT, has her own observations which complicate Halio's conclusions. For Turkle, a student who delights in the kind of play described by Halio is often motivated by an effort to master a situation or to develop the ability to control one's world. The sense of mastery that can accompany success at play can be quite valuable: "With them [successes] can come an enhanced sense of autonomy, self-esteem, a sense of being and 'actor' in one's life"(89). There can be negatives to this kind of mastery as well, but one point is that play in and of itself is not always a bad thing.
<4> The second point, more pressing for this discussion, comes from understanding that the desire for control of a situation, indicates an underlying problem which also must be addressed. Often the participants in Turkle's study were troubled children, overwhelmed attorneys, people with disabilities, or others with analagous problems. They all sought the sense of mastery available through computer play because they were confronted with difficult life situations. Obviously the stakes are much different, but freshmen composition students, confronted with the prospect of producing college text for the first time, may find themselves in an similarly difficult situation. It would make perfect sense for a student who is struggling with words to turn toward pictures as a way of regaining control of her situation. What is going on in the classroom is often just this kind of a struggle. Perhaps forcing the issue and pushing the focus away from the graphics is the best way to help a student who is struggling with the words, perhaps not. My feeling is that the increased sense of confidence that mastery of graphics provides might translate into a comfort with text. Whatever conclusions and goals instructors develop, the point is that condemning the symptomatic behavior without addressing the underlying motivation makes little sense.
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