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Abstract:What is the relationship between medium and genre in learning and development? North American genre theory suggests following Miller (1984Miller ( , 1994 that genre is social action. Genres evoke expectations, direct attention, guide action and suggest 'what motives we may have.' Yet the relationship between media and genres, as Miller suggested at SIGET IV (1997), is complex. The blog, for example, quickly evolved from being one genre to many genres and, today, might be said to be a medium more than a genre. Bazerman at SIGET IV (2007) argued, following Vygotsky (1997), that genres −particularly written genres− 'provide highly differentiated, scaffolded communicative spaces in which we learn the cognitive practices of specialized domains.' This paper provides some evidence for Bazerman's theory from a case study of students in engineering. It shows how genres may scaffold development by directing attention and focusing motivation to ensembles of genres in a range of media, and repay greater study.Key Words: Genre, media, engineering education, writing-to-learn, writing across the curriculum. Palavras-Chave: Gênero, mídia, ensino de engenharia, escrever-para-aprender, escrita através do currículo. Revista Signos Géneros, medios, y comunicación para aprender en las disciplinas: La teoría del desarrollo de Vygotsky y la teoría del género norteamericanaResumen: ¿Cuál es la relación entre el medio y el género en el aprendizaje y en el desarrollo? La teoría del género norteamericana sugiere, siguiendo a Miller (1984, 1994), que el género es acción social. Los géneros evocan expectativas, dirigen la atención, guían la acción y sugieren qué motivos podemos tener. Sin embargo, la relación entre los medios y los géneros, como lo propuso Miller en la SIGET IV (1997), es compleja. El blog, por ejemplo, se transformó rápidamente de ser un género a muchos géneros y, en la actualidad, se podría decir que es un medio antes que un género. Bazerman, en la SIGET IV (2007) sostenía, siguiendo a Vygotsky (1997), que los géneros −en especial lo géneros escritos− proporcionan espacios comunicativos de andamiaje muy diferenciados en los cuales aprendemos las prácticas cognitivas de dominios especializados. Este trabajo entrega evidencias de la teoría de Bazerman a partir de un estudio de caso en el cual participaron estudiantes de ingeniería. Demuestra cómo los géneros pueden proporcionar andamiaje para el desarrollo al dirigir la atención y centrar la motivación en conjuntos de géneros en un espectro de medios y cómo los géneros pueden prestarse para análisis más profundos.Palabras Clave: Género, medios de comunicación, educación en las ingenierías, producción escrita para aprender, la producción escrita a través del currículo.229

The Iowa State University Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering (ABE) has created a successful learning community for incoming ABE students. In this paper, we provide an overview of our learning community structure and describe the collaboration between the departments of ABE and English that has fostered a cross-disciplinary initiative that includes students writing papers relating to agriculture and engineering in composition and using newly learned technical writing skills for report writing in engineering graphics and design and engineering problem solving. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed to assess the ABE Learning Community. Results are reported, including survey data which reveals that on average, students agreed or strongly agreed that they developed or enhanced their team skills through collaborative assignments in their learning community classes, and on average, students agreed or strongly agreed that they are excited to be a part of the field of engineering and technology. Focus group data are also reported. a Research conducted by Vincent Tinto (1993) 7 suggested that students' departure from college was influenced by students' lack of academic and social integration into the university. Learning communities have been designed to foster this integration.

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A current trend on many college campuses is the implementation of student learning communities. At Iowa State University, we have found that our first-year learning community has provided an opportunity for agricultural engineering students to become involved in the Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering (ABE) department from the moment they arrive on campus. Not only has the learning community helped us increase our retention from 47.6 percent for the 1997/1998 academic year to 86.2% for the 1999/2000 academic year, it has helped us to address many of our program objectives including: an ability to function on multi-disciplinary teams, an ability to communicate effectively, and knowledge of important contemporary issues. Our formal assessment of the initiative reveals that students are overwhelmingly satisfied with the program.

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