I watched my composition class today migrate more of itself into cyberspace. After two fairly creative but also academic essays about their lives in cyberspace, student have been electric with their web pages, blogs, and file sharing. I had them read some Zinsser and some of Johndan Johnson-Elola web weaving instruction together and then we had web page frames up and growing in one class. More important, the connections with audience became much more clear and aplicable for students. Nonetheless, I’ve done this for years and when the tech gets simple and easy, the learning increases. No aphorisms or poetry now so much as a smile and wave from a good day in the field.

Will

PS: Your critical attention honors our work. Thanks for such fine writing care as well.

Thanks for attending our panel and for taking such detailed and thorough notes. It might be helpful to add to the notes the URL for the digital writing collaborative
http://unixgen.muohio.edu/~dwc . And I’m glad you mentioned that I’d be glad to share anything–that includes detailed budgets and specs, a movie from an interview project we did (irb & individual permission) where students talk about their experiences with laptops and how it’s impacted their writing and their understandings of writing, and also all the publicity docs we’ve used when meeting with provost, president, vp for technology, etc.

Also, it might be good to mention what I mentioned in the q&a that with students having their own laptops (versus using school machines), we’re doing a lot with free software, such as audacity and the gimp.

As for the fears I mentioned–which were among departmental colleagues that digital might “take over” (my reductive and grossly oversimplified way of putting it) and devalue what they do in non-computerized teaching spaces, –I find I do a lot of communication and emphasize that what we’re seeking is a diversity of options in the classroom. People can always at times shut the laptops and hold a “traditional” (for lack of a better word) class. But I also had two HUGELY supportive administrators. Cynthia Lewiecki-Wilson as composition director and Keith Tuma as chair. They really helped open some doors to make things possible. And, even more important than their administrative support, was the incredible excitement and commitment and hard work of the graduate assistant instructors, who’ve just been amazing. Next year we’ll have 800 students a semeseter in laptop classrooms (30 percent of all sections) and over 20 instructors involved

Be glad to talk with you further about this if there’s any way I can be of help, and thanks again for your comprehensive reporting and feedback!

Heidi