First, Woo-Hoo, today is my 30th post.... only, ummmmm, well, 230 to go? At least I am sticking with it. Second, if at any time someone reads a post and goes, oh, she should really read......, then post a comment and tell me what I should really read. All this deciding what to read on my own is too much decision making for me. Now, on to the "official" post for tonight.
This is once again about Web 2.0 technologies and the teaching of writing: two things that I am the most interested in, but yes, I am getting tired of reading words like pedagogy and Web 2.0. In tonight's reading, "The Digital Imperative: Making the Case for a 21st-Century Pedagogy" J. Elizabeth Clark discusses the need to move writing into the 21st-Century by teaching our students a digital rhetoric that "emphasizes the civic importance of education, the cultural and social imperative of 'the now,' and the 'cultural software' that engages students in the interactivity, collaboration, ownership, authority, and malleability of texts" (28). Quite frankly, I couldn't agree with her more. She also discusses several ways in which she does this in her own classes, including ePortfolios, digital storytelling, interactive gaming (Second Life), and blogs. Many of these, I have either tried, or use.
But she says something else that really peaked my interest, as I was thinking about this today as I was riding home from DMAC. She aruges that "the future of writing . . . informs our classrooms and forms a new, "digital" imperative, one that asks how we can reshape our pedagogy with new uses of the technologies that are changing our personal and professional lives" (28). Focus here, if you will, on "reshape our pedagogy with new uses of the technologies." Are we, myself included, not always saying that the pedagogy always comes first, and then we adapt technologies to fit our needs pedagogically? I had epiphany riding home today. That idea of pedagogy first, technology second, can't always work. How do I know what technologies will fit a digital pedagogy unless I just start experimenting with using the technologies first?
I think, perhaps, that these two things have to grow together. Sometimes the pedagogy will lead the way, at other times the technology will, and at times, they will progress hand-in-hand. When we thought (back in the 80s and 90s) of computers and composition, we were mainly thinking in terms of word processors and networking our students together. Then, perhaps, the pedagogy could always come first. But now, with the explosion of Web 2.0 applications, I believe we have to rethink our approaches to designing our classes around digital literacies. Yes, if you use a piece of software in your class, and you find it does not fit a pedagogical need, then throw the damn thing out!! Don't tie yourself to using something that does not serve a purpose. But don't discount using technology because you cannot conceive of how it might fit into your current pedagogy. Give it a test drive and see if you don't perhaps find that your pedagogy needs a bit of tweaking, and this is the very thing to do it. All I'm asking is that we try to expand our pedagogies by expanding our playful side. We may find that we really do need a makeover.
This is once again about Web 2.0 technologies and the teaching of writing: two things that I am the most interested in, but yes, I am getting tired of reading words like pedagogy and Web 2.0. In tonight's reading, "The Digital Imperative: Making the Case for a 21st-Century Pedagogy" J. Elizabeth Clark discusses the need to move writing into the 21st-Century by teaching our students a digital rhetoric that "emphasizes the civic importance of education, the cultural and social imperative of 'the now,' and the 'cultural software' that engages students in the interactivity, collaboration, ownership, authority, and malleability of texts" (28). Quite frankly, I couldn't agree with her more. She also discusses several ways in which she does this in her own classes, including ePortfolios, digital storytelling, interactive gaming (Second Life), and blogs. Many of these, I have either tried, or use.
But she says something else that really peaked my interest, as I was thinking about this today as I was riding home from DMAC. She aruges that "the future of writing . . . informs our classrooms and forms a new, "digital" imperative, one that asks how we can reshape our pedagogy with new uses of the technologies that are changing our personal and professional lives" (28). Focus here, if you will, on "reshape our pedagogy with new uses of the technologies." Are we, myself included, not always saying that the pedagogy always comes first, and then we adapt technologies to fit our needs pedagogically? I had epiphany riding home today. That idea of pedagogy first, technology second, can't always work. How do I know what technologies will fit a digital pedagogy unless I just start experimenting with using the technologies first?
I think, perhaps, that these two things have to grow together. Sometimes the pedagogy will lead the way, at other times the technology will, and at times, they will progress hand-in-hand. When we thought (back in the 80s and 90s) of computers and composition, we were mainly thinking in terms of word processors and networking our students together. Then, perhaps, the pedagogy could always come first. But now, with the explosion of Web 2.0 applications, I believe we have to rethink our approaches to designing our classes around digital literacies. Yes, if you use a piece of software in your class, and you find it does not fit a pedagogical need, then throw the damn thing out!! Don't tie yourself to using something that does not serve a purpose. But don't discount using technology because you cannot conceive of how it might fit into your current pedagogy. Give it a test drive and see if you don't perhaps find that your pedagogy needs a bit of tweaking, and this is the very thing to do it. All I'm asking is that we try to expand our pedagogies by expanding our playful side. We may find that we really do need a makeover.
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