Back to Business

For those of you who haven't checked out the Fall '05 edition of Kairos, I strongly recommend that you read the webtext entitled "Why Teach Digital Writing?" The authors very usefully and persuasively consolidate many of the important rationales for why we should all pay attention to what's going on in the field of Computers & Writing; they also respond to some of the standard objections that those of us who work in this field often encounter (e.g., "we already have too much to do in first-year composition classes -- we can't add more!"; "computer specialists should teach technology; we should teach writing" etc. etc.). In other words, whether you're teaching in the digital writing classroom or in a traditional classroom, this should be essential reading. In the same edition of Kairos there's also an engaging webtext on the pedagogical value of blogging called "Blogging Places: Locating Pedagogy in the Whereness of Weblogs." The author looks at blogs from the perspective of "place-based pedagogies." It's a fabulous piece for those of our LA 102 instructors who are doing inquiries on place (which for some connects with the personal essay project, even), on nature & the environment, on individual and collective identity in the digital age, etc.

Many of you will chuckle as you read this advice (and I'm well aware of how frenzied and overstuffed your academic selves are during your 2+-yr sojourns here), but especially for those of you who are contemplating Ph.D. programs, teaching jobs, etc., it would be an invaluable investment of your time if you were to dip in to some Composition scholarship from time-to-time. I know you're getting some of that via the required readings in ENEX 540, but there's no substitute for going out there and finding titles and topics that interest you (via books and journals in the field) and getting a sense for where the conversations are at in the field (it's actually a very exciting and vital time as Comp & Rhet continues to professionalize and to produce some fantastic and diverse scholarship). Even if you only assimilate the sparest bits of what you encounter, it will pay dividends if and when you find yourself at a job interview, writing a statement of teaching philosophy, doing additional composition teaching, etc. There's a modest but growing bibliography on the Composition website to which you can refer, and you can also ask me for a copy of my two-page bibliography of especially good sources in the field of Computers and Writing & digital literacy.

Greetings '06!

Since our poor, neglected blog has yet to be welcomed into 2006, I figured I would do the honors. I hope the word "break" at least partially describes what you experienced post-final portfolios and pre-Jan 23 (I imagine some stray seminar papers intruded for some of you!). I also hope your classes are off to a good start this semester; I'm sure you're feeling much differently now that we're talking about a second iteration instead of going on stage without a dress rehearsal. Comments or testimony??

My own break was busy (and I'm not even thinking of the survival techniques we needed to adopt to make it through the Christmas season with a 2- and 4-year old!), but it had some great moments, including the penultimate U2 show in the U.S. (I'm not sure there's another band for whom I'd drive to Salt Lake City during the winter!). I also actually engaged in that activity I used to know (pre-kids, pre-teaching career) as "pleasure reading" (is everything I do "pleasure reading," or does the concept no longer exist?!): I finished Zadie Smith's White Teeth, read Richard Powers's 600+ page novel The Time of Our Singing (which is impressive and magisterial as a novel of ideas and notable as a novel by a white author about race in America; most significantly for me, it features some of the most incredible writing about music and music appreciation that I've ever encountered), and I'm now in the middle of David Mitchell's six-stranded, time-sliding, innovative novel Cloud Atlas (which was one of the most talked-about novels around this time last year ... but wish me luck finishing it now that the semester has started!).

I also finally saw those two great documentaries: the stirring March of the Penguins and the haunting Grizzly Man. And you all? Did anyone read anything that's worth recommending? And, oh, before I stoop to poaching from my students, does anyone by any chance have a copy of Iron & Wine's cd "Our Endless Numbered Days" and/or Devendra Banhart's "Cripple Crow" that you wouldn't mind letting me borrow for a night or two??