TABLETS AS WRITING CANVASES AND CONSTRUCTION SITES

Dr. Andreas Karatsolis, Albany College of Pharmacy
Gary Mills, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

The development of an effective writing pedagogy within the context of Albany College of Pharmacy’s tablet mandate has been a rigorous process since tablets were required for student and instructor use three years ago.  In an effort to better understand tablet affordances and consequences of its use, the school’s Principles of Communication course, a requirement for all first-year students, has been completely redesigned.  The course’s curriculum, including structure, texts, and projects, has been revisited to open opportunities for individualized interaction with tablets—and with writing itself—through, among others, the report poster project.  As revealed in survey and interview data samples, students are using the stylus and canvas to not only gain a better understanding of the rhetorical context associated with their writing, but also to inject and layer their own styles into their writing processes.  As a result, the tablet canvas potentially serves as a construction site for transitional writing forms as students assemble, organize, and project verbal and visual elements across different writing genres.