USING CHAT AS A FRAMEWORK FOR USING FACEBOOK GROUPS: A CASE STUDY OF WSU WRITING CENTRE Khanyisile Ngodwana Walter Sisulu University Writing Centre

Outline  Contextual Background  Adopting Cultural Historical Activity Theory  The Writing Centre Pilot – Mwanza’s Eight Step Model  Conclusion

Contextual Background

Role of Writing Centre  Develop student’s academic writing skills  Run workshops  One-on-one consultations  Promote writing across curriculum  Collaborate with academic staff  Advance writing centre scholarship  Research our own practices  Adopting innovative ways to respond to local challenges ( emphasis on integrating new technologies )

Our response: The pilot Moving from place to space  Literature review of spaces:   LMS Both are institutionally supported BUT they had overwhelming limitations. Facebook  Abundant support for its adoption, especially its affordances  Alignment with writing centre pedagogy – socio- constructivism  Our emphasis on ‘’talking about writing’’

Adopting CHAT as framework “the best kept secret in academia” (Engestrom, 1993 in Roth, 2007)  Not a theory, but a theoretically-based conceptual framework;  Founded on the Vygotsky’s and Leont’ev ideas e.g. that human consciousness (mind) is firmly embedded in the social matrix people and artefacts;  Emphasises that activity cannot be analysed outside the context in which it occurs - society produces the activity of the individuals it forms

CHAT Tools SubjectObject Rules Community Labour

Mwanza’s Eight Step Model (2001) “the need to systematically explain and demonstrate in a replicable manner the means by which AT can be used to guide the design process in different contexts.”  Model entails asking open ended questions which are based on the various entities of the activity system

The Eight Questions

Writing Centre Pilot ActivityPilot of using Facebook group as a consulting platform for the Writing Centre. ObjectFor the writing centre to adopt Facebook as a complementary collaborative consulting space Subject (s)Writing consultants, lecturers, students ToolFacebook group, face-to- face consultations Rules voluntary participation in the pilot Active participation – logging, posting, answering posts conducting ourselves in ethical manner agreeable with university rules, etc. Division of labour Actions subjects would take to achieve the object of the activity CommunityConsideration for the class from which the students came; the department that the lecturer and students are a part; the writing centre community and its scholarship; the university The outcomeA collaborative platform in which lecturers, students and lecturers interacted.

Benefits of using CHAT  To account for all aspects of a system to better understand the activity  Analysing how parts of the system work together to better anticipate participants’ needs and goals  Isolating problems to develop solutions (Kain and Wardle, 2004: 6)

Concluding remarks on the remaining principles of CHAT  Multi-voicedness  Contradictions  Historicity  Expansive Learning