Today several of the presenters discussed the need for more research that is replicable, aggregable, and data-driven. This means that compositionists are adopting more quantitative measures to analyze, for example, the effects of testing on student writers. One panel presented data that showed that ESL students perform less well on on timed writing exams than students whose native language is English. (This isn't really new. We've known for a while that minorities and students from economically disadvantaged households struggle with standardized tests.)
Other observations about technology at this conference. There is discussion about having students create multi-modal texts. One instructor had his students create a Facebook page for Saddam Hussein. I don’t why I think that that is really funny. One presenter discussed a student who resisted the assignments and could not understand the assignment’s relevance to his education. The presenter discussed ways of making these assignments relevant by discussing concepts such as audience. Clearly more and more junior faculty are talking about multimodal literacies and ways that we can teach students to examine the potential these technologies have for communication.
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