Blog Juice for Educational Technology

Apropos of my recent reading of Donald Lazere's recent article in JAC, I was thinking about what a great movie Bulworth was. Have any of you used it in a composition course before, or considered using it?

The University of Texas Computer Writing and Research Lab (CWRL) has recently launched a new blog called Blogging Pedagogy.  We describe the mission of our blog as follows:

This is a blog about pedagogy and English studies. It is a space to share stories, successes, and failures. The hope is that a blog format will connect assignments with specific teaching styles and philosophies.

While our focus is on English studies, we also welcome more broad discussions about pedagogy in other fields.  In the future, we hope to add a weekly installment "Podcasting Pedagogy" in which we’ll talk to those throughout the field(s) of English studies about pedagogy. 

The newest issue of Composition Forum is now available at http://www.fau.edu/compositionforum

This special topics issue focuses upon “Composition and Location” and offers articles on that subject assembled by Guest Editor Christopher Keller. The issue also debuts our newest feature–the Program Profile—written by our Program Profile Editor Michelle Ballif. Composition Forum continues to feature reviews of important new books in rhetoric and composition, collected and edited by Derek Owens.

Please visit the journal—we welcome your feedback and responses to this issue. Contact me or Christian Weisser at weisser@fau.edu

Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy is pleased to announce that it will again recognize outstanding webtexts with awards to be presented at Computers and Writing 2006 in Lubbock, Texas.

Please see the full text of this announcement for criteria.

For the past several years, many scholars have been making a significant contribution to the knowledge in rhetoric and composition via their weblogs. Academic bloggers are conversing about topics such as professional issues in the discipline, best teaching practices, electronic discourse, and cultural criticism of digital space. Weblogs
are also making a significant contribution to the public intellectual commons. Because weblogs do not have the same gatekeeping checks as traditional scholarly publications, they have heretofore not been considered scholarly work and thus are not often recognized for the contribution they make to our discipline(s).

NB: Mike Edwards contributed heavily to these notes. In fact, most of what’s here is his work, so I want him to get credit for it.

The CCCC Blogging SIG had a large and productive meeting Thursday night in
Chicago. We began by discussing some of the initiatives the SIG had proposed
the previous year, including the one-page paper handout guide for teachers new
to blogging (which, we might hope, will continue to be revised collaboratively and kept up to date as necessary), as well as thoughts about assessment of weblog writing,
outcomes of weblog use in writing courses and professional endeavors, and a possible large multi-institution study investigating the
classroom uses of weblogs.

Following the initial discussion, we split up into five small groups focusing on
action in specific areas. The groups discussed their areas and reported back when
we reconvened. Here are the results of our discussion:

• The History of the Future of Writing
• Changing Literacies/Changing Mindsets: Communicating Across Digital Difference
• Imagining a Transformed Reality: On the Web, Over the Airwaves, Around the Globe
• Calling All Bloggers

Here are links to the blogs I wrote on the second day of the confernce. I’m posting them past midnight — all this took place on March 23.

• Opening General Session
  
  

• Jay Wootten’s CCCC 2006 Address: ‘’Riding a One-Eyed House’’
  
  

• Publish, Plagiarize, and/or Perish?
  
  

• How Writing Centers Respond to Writers’ Needs

The Director of Developmental Studies at my college called in all of the developmental writing instructors for a meeting. Among other things, we listened to a sales pitch for a new textbook. This textbook is apparently in wide use, and has been well received.

The promotional materials say that “textbooks should be visually appealing with bright colors, plenty of white space, and lots of diagrams and visual aids.” This quotation is from someone with an Ed.D. who teaches at a large community college.

Well, I don’t want to argue with anyone who has a doctorate in education. And certainly, this book has many bright colors. I especially like the orange, red, and yellow. Plus it has white space, which is white. And it has fascinating visual aids. For example, when the authors wish to link two concepts, they put a picture in the margin of two linked paper clips. Clever, huh?

This fall, I took a job as an assistant professor at a university that is very serious about welcoming diversity. To that end, I’ve attended seminars addressing topics on racism, sexism, and so on, but this information (while useful) is, unfortunately, too general to be of much use in the particular problems I’m having in the classroom. However, thankfully I know I can count on all my wonderful friends and distinguished colleagues here at Knews to help me through these troubling times–please, take a moment to help me address my dilemma.

This is a forwarded message that I though some of you might be interested in. I have used ComPile a number of times, and find it to be a great resourse. It sounds like it is getting better.
Lennie
****************************************
Colleagues,

We invite you to visit CompFAQs , a Wiki extension of CompPile , and a new resource for compositionists.

CompFAQs features topics in college composition that repeatedly attract questions despite the fact that a substantial body of answers are available.CompFAQs does not aim to give all the answers, just to provide an ongoing base of reliable information and a fund of resources.

1. Write a craptacular draft full of factual errors, incredible sources, and grammatical/mechanical mistakes.
2. Post it to Wikipedia.
3. Wait a few days and let the community clean it up for you.
4. Turn it in!

The open source development model at work, so the article says. Maybe something we can address in the Caucus come March.

Via Lifehacker.

The SWCA Awards Committee is pleased to announce the 2006 Tutor Award. This award is presented annually on a competitive basis to a student (undergraduate or graduate) or staff member who works in any capacity in a writing center at an educational institution in the Southeastern region. The SWCA Tutor Award recognizes the outstanding contributions of a student or staff member to her/his writing center, the SWCA, and/or the writing center community more generally. Significant contributions may include one or more of the following: peer tutoring, center administration, tutor training, campus workshops, writing center innovations, or other relevant work. The Awards Committee seeks to recognize the leadership, commitment, and overall excellence of a student or staff member in writing center work. The winner will be recognized with a plaque and a check for $250 at the SWCA conference in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, February 16-18, 2006.