Re/collections: From Books to Blogs

Abstract

This study considers the contemporary post-literacy moment and its kinship to the historical change from Anglo-Saxon orality to English literacy, by suggesting a parallel between the scholarship of Walter Ong and the new media scholar Lev Manovich.  Their perspectives on communication and textuality inform the conversation about how contemporary first-year writers make meaning.  Student writers exhibit remix as a kind of new orality, some sequel to literacy. This notion speaks to the students’ orientation as digital composers, for whom the written word has been displaced as the primary way to present knowledge.  Primary data is drawn from student invention blogs.