Technology Goals

It's hard to imagine teaching in the composition classroom today and not incorporating technology into your pedagogy and research. The students enrolled in my first-year writing courses are mostly from the "wired generation" and I think it's important to understand how technology influences their various literacy practices. Technology is definitely a tool that can be used to reach students in new and different ways. I think I am a perfect candidate to look at new directions for teaching with technology because my WRT 150 course meets once a week for two hours in a computer lab and once a week in a traditional classroom. Both facilities are wired with high-tech computing equipment so access is not a problem for me or my students.

When I look at how I currently use technology in my teaching I know that I am just scraping the surface. Like most teachers, I have a class Blackboard site where I post course materials, can e-mail students and have them post threads to a discussion board. In looking at the technology-oriented educational applications available on Blackboard I was surprised to see blogs, podcasts, a virtual classroom and an option for creating class wikis. There are endless opportunities to use these tools to increase communication, collaboration and engagement in my first-year writing courses. This class has actually convinced me to not be afraid to use new technologies/teaching applications in my classroom. I guess the fear of not wanting to look inept in front of my students has stunted my teaching practices. As co-collaborators, students and teachers can work together to figure out how to best use technology in the composition classroom. Besides exploring the Blackboard technology tools previously, I am interested in looking at assignments that incorporate some of the communication vehicles students use with one another--my space, facebook, etc. For example, I could have students work on primary research by having them post surveys on facebook or peer response in Second Life.