Rodrigo, "OWI on the Go"

Rodrigo, Rochelle. “OWI on the Go.” Foundational Practices of Online Writing Instruction,
edited by Beth L. Hewett and Kevin Eric DePew, WAC Clearinghouse, 2015, pp. 493-516.

With rising numbers of students using smartphones and tablets, Rodrigo calls for OWI administrators and instructors to more explicitly account for students who might access and complete online writing courses using mobile devices. Drawing from OWI Principle 1 (access and inclusivity) and Principle 2 (focus on teaching writing and not the technology), Rodrigo explains that we need to remain committed to writing instruction while also “adapting to and adopting strategies for the growing number of students using mobile devices” (494). In this chapter, she offers suggestions for how mobile learning might be better incorporated into OWIs, specifically as it relates to both accessing course content and actively participating in the course activities. One aspect of Rodrigo’s chapter that I found especially interesting is usability. For instance, she draws our attention to the learning management system (LMS) and mobile apps, explaining that LMS mobile apps are often designed to access content, but not for participation. She also urges us to consider the requirements for the LMS in terms of hardware, software, bandwidth, Internet connectivity, etc. We should inform students in advance of these requirements and set up a space to test their individual devices prior to the start of the course. In so doing, Rodrigo claims that we are teaching faculty and students that “testing technologies in advance is a techno-literacy skill” (504). Finally, she encourages us to take advantage of the affordances of mobile devices, including multimodality, social media, , and space-/location-aware assignments. This chapter moves toward the future of online pedagogy by more explicitly accounting for the devices that students use to access and engage with course content.