I thought those of you who aren’t on our PWR Digital Composition group on Facebook might like to browse through some of the articles members have recently shared on the group, so I’m posting them below. I’m leaving the URLs visible, rather than using them to turn words or phrases into hyperlinks, because that’s the way they’re typically shared on Facebook.
I try to remember to also save links to the articles shared by the group to the PWR link library on Diigo, but some may not have made it there. I do, however, save lots of other relevant links to that library, which you can explore here: Diigo Group for PWR at CU Boulder.
Many of these articles will give you a taste of the ongoing conversation among educators at all levels about the changing nature of literacy and what that means for writing instruction.
Recent Contributions
Interesting observations (by a rhetoric and writing prof) about how we use email to communicate with students. Also provides a good example of a simple way to incorporate digital literacy into a writing class: by talking about the rhetorical considerations of email.
http://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2012/02/06/essay-obligations-professors-e-mail
More in the vein of “it’s not the tools that matter, but what you do with them”: Three Trends That Will Shape the Future of Curriculum
http://mindshift.kqed.org/2011/02/three-trends-that-will-shape-the-future-of-curriculum/
“It’s not information overload. It’s filter failure.” I love the way they talk about curating content from a rhetorical perspective and it strikes me once again that we’re all working toward the same goals from slightly different angles.
http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2012/02/opinion/backtalk/digital-content-curation-is-a-perfect-career-fit-for-librarians-backtalk/
Helpful responses to a few common objections to using technology for teaching (though “technophobic” is perhaps a poor rhetorical choice!)
http://edudemic.com/2012/02/technophobic-teachers/
I definitely agree that just b/c students might be “digital natives,” that doesn’t necessarily make them “digitally literate.” (We may have grown up as a “print natives,” but we still had to go through an awful lot of schooling to become “print literate”!)
http://www.mndaily.com/2012/01/30/students-and-digital-literacy
From the article: “I would make a case for digital literacy to be much more than the mechanical operation of tools and technology. It should enable us to use the social digital landscape for reflection and conversations.” Well said! This is the essence of my position on digital literacy integration as well.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/higher-education-network/higher-education-network-blog/2011/oct/10/digital-literacy-collaboration
This presentation (apparently by a grad student) outlines the principles of fair use in digital media composition in a pretty student-friendly way. It also serves as a nice example of the standalone presentation genre.
http://www.slideshare.net/filizefe/fair-use-digital-media-extended-version
Another entry into the conversation on the future of writing (responding to the NYT piece on Davidson’s take on blogs vs. term papers).
http://spotlight.macfound.org/blog/entry/argument-over-arguments-trying-to-see-and-teach-the-future-of-writing/
Another article worth revisiting:
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2011/07/25/essay_on_using_technology_to_teach_writing
I came across this article last year, but it’s worth revisiting because the author makes some compelling points about the role of new media composition in writing instruction.
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~writ8/index.php/perspectives/digital-discourse
Muscling in on the Term-Paper Tradition (blogs vs. term papers?)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/education/edlife/muscling-in-on-the-term-paper-tradition.html
Cathy Davidson’s response to the NY Times article:
http://hastac.org/blogs/cathy-davidson/2012/01/21/should-we-really-abolish-term-paper-response-ny-times
I know several of are thinking of trying an infographic assignment this semester. I keep finding loads of them relevant to my Tech Comm class, which I’ve posted on their blog, but I just came across this page of educational infographics, which might be of interest.
http://educationaltech-med.blogspot.com/2012/01/list-of-great-educational-infographics.html
Also see FastCompany’s Infographic of the Day:
http://www.fastcodesign.com/section/infographic-of-the-day
The authors, en masse, makes a simple, compelling case for using more digital tools in our teaching. Definitely worth browsing…
http://pedagogy.dwrl.utexas.edu
“Distributed peer review” as an advantage of teaching writing with blogs:
http://pedagogy.dwrl.utexas.edu/content/distributed-peer-review
A cute xtranormal vid about pencils as a problematic new technology in the classroom.
http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/12783558/ode-to-pencilchat-technology-intergration-in-the-classroom
Many of you may have read this article already, but if you haven’t, I definitely recommend it for both faculty and students. My 3035 students will be discussing it tonight, as part of our larger conversation on the role of design in communication. But it also touches on the issue of why some writers resist making their text more “reader friendly,” which has always perplexed me. That is, after all, what “rhetorical awareness” is all about.
http://www.jnd.org/TurnSignals/TS-WritingAsDesign.html
Howard Rheingold reflects on how he uses technology to implement student-centered pedagogy.
http://dmlcentral.net/blog/howard-rheingold/toward-peeragogy?CMP
Anybody doing a service learning/civic engagement course with a literacy angle? This might be a cool project–especially for freshman.
http://www.us.worldbooknight.org/
Helpful primer for those who want to be better grounded in computers & writing pedagogy. (I just wish it came in Kindle format!)
http://www.amazon.com/Computers-Composition-Classroom-Sourcebook-Professional/dp/0312458444
Social Reading the Foundations of Digital Literacy
http://dmlcentral.net/blog/john-jones/social-reading-and-foundations-digital-literacy
A few insights into the changing (and more fragmentary) nature of reading and writing.
http://www.themillions.com/2012/01/fragmentary-writing-in-a-digital-age.html
A reminder to use new digital genres strategically.
http://jgregmcverry.blogspot.com/2011/12/using-multimodal-poetry-to-engage-in.html
This post ends with some really interesting videos of “the layers” of a blog post.
http://iamdananderson.net/layers
Re-inventing the Possibilities: Academic Literacy and New Media
http://ten.fibreculturejournal.org/wp-content/dynmed/ball_moeller/index.html
Andrea Lunsford discusses how Stanford redefined writing to include multimodal and multimediated practices. I particularly like her point about rhetoric’s call to use all available means of persuasion, including means that extend beyond alphabetic text.
http://webpages.csus.edu/~sac43949/PDFs/writingfifthcanon.pdf
Does Digital Media Make Us Bad Writers?
http://spotlight.macfound.org/featured-stories/entry/does-digital-media-make-us-bad-writers
The Future of Reading and Writing is Collaborative
http://spotlight.macfound.org/featured-stories/entry/the-future-of-reading-and-writing-is-collaborative/
The changing technology of storytelling by an “IPad Storyteller”!
http://www.ted.com/talks/joe_sabia_the_technology_of_storytelling.html
Check out what our future students will (or should) be learning with regard to digital literacy in grade school.
http://digitalis.nwp.org/resource/3201
An oldie but goodie: how to write better presentations (Some of our students should share this with their professors in other departments!)
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/01/really_bad_powe.html