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last.updated 10.25.09

Teaching with Technology

Purpose

Technology in general, and digital technologies related to the web specifically, are becoming increasingly central to our lives and the lives of our students. As this happens, it is imperative for us to cultivate epistemologies that ask students to question, think critically and analyze the role of these technologies in their day-to-day lives and their existing composing practices. Then, we must seek ways to expand their existing literacies using and applying this knowledge. Integrating technology into the composition class can assume a range of different frames within this context. In today’s class, we will analyze one approach for accomplishing this and discuss other viable ways to incorporate technology in support of the overall learning goals for the course.

Before Class

• Read DeWitt, "Out There on the Web" [Computers and Composition, 14.2]
• Read Blackmon, "'But I'm Just White'" [BB]
• Read Romano "The Egalitarian Narrative" [Computers & Composition, 10.3–online version]
• Read Selfe "The Movement of Air, the Breath of Meaning" [BB]
• Submit Sample Assignment with rationale to the instructor as a hard copy at the beginning of class

FreeWrite

Answer the following questions in "Week 9" (if Blackboard will let the instructor log on) thread of the Blackboard Discussion Board. You have the first ten minutes of class.

Do you plan to teach with technology in your composition class? If not, why not? If so, what will you be doing and why? How do you justify your use of the technology?

Activity – Using Technology in the Writing Classroom

In groups of four...

• comb through each other's assignment sheets thinking about the in-class activities that the students will have to accomplish to (learn how to) fulfill the assignment.
• choose one activity for the group and develop a lesson plan for that activity. The activity should...
  • be one in which the technology can facilitate achieving the goals of the lesson
  • not be one that is already oriented toward technology; one of the purposes of this activity is to challenge you to think about how you can digitalize lessons to teach students both about writing through the technology (when it is appropriate)
• The lesson plan should include...
  • a brief explanation of the activity's goals and what the students have learned previous to this class that will prepare them for this activity
  • an outline of what the students will do during this 75-minute class
  • a 250-word justification of the lesson based upon what you have have read for this class, including for your Wiki revisions

After 45 minutes, your group will exchange your lessons with another group. Each group will examine the lesson plan thinking whether they would be able to teach this lesson, as well as how they might respond as a student asked to do this. Note what the writers of this lesson plan did well and what you think they should revise. You have 15 minutes to accomplish this.

As a class, we will discuss each group's lessons and their respective critiques. Then each group will submit their lesson to the instructor.

Discussion: Teaching with Technology

As a class, we will discuss the following questions:

• What questions or comments do you have about these articles?
• Go back to the goals you had articulated at the beginning of the class, which writing technologies do you think can facilitate achieving these goals? How?
• Based upon these readings, what tips or warnings would you provide to an instructor who decided to use writing technologies in her/his curricula?