Describing
The Role of the Spectator-Participant
As
I mention in my section putting student-to-student
communication in context, I am talking about one type of computer use. In particular, I am describing when students
share and read text in a networked computer environment. Last Spring in a graduate course, I read
James Britton’s article “Spectator Role and the Beginnings of Writing,"
and while much of the article did not apply directly to the computer setting,
some of his ideas had large resonances.
This quotation in particular struck me: "as participants we APPLY
our value systems, but as spectators we GENERATE AND REFINE the system
itself" (Britton 135).
Wasn’t
a computer environment filled with spectators and participants? Weren’t our students inhabiting a dual role
of spectator and participant at the same time?
My mind began to think of analogies to describe this dual role and place
it in contrast to the student’s role in a traditional classroom. Although not the best analogy, I kept
returning to the theatre as the most descriptive comparison.