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Social Media, Open Source, and the Five Paragraph Essay? Technologies in the Composition Classroom
full name / name of organization:
SOCIAL MEDIA, OPEN SOURCE, AND THE FIVE PARAGRAPH ESSAY? TECHNOLOGIES IN THE COMPOSITION CLASSROOM
Recent trends in composition pedagogy are focused on not whether digital technologies should have a role in the composition classroom, but rather what that role should be. Do we have students consider the rhetoric of social media? Do we require them to engage in multi-modal composition? Or do we simply have students write the same tried-and-true types of essays, but require digital submissions? These questions are asked on the heels of increased revelations about the security of our data and its ethical management by corporations and governments. At the same time, we are inundated with studies, both popular and academic, about the deleterious affects of digital technologies on attention, learning, and social interactions, as well as constant refrains from corporations and governments about how these technologies are creating an “educational revolution.”This panel invites presentations that consider the complexities of the issues behind using digital media in composition classrooms. Topics of especial interest include:
The use of open source and free/libre software in the composition course
The ethical and rhetorical consequences of utilizing “the cloud” in the composition course
How digital technologies complement traditional humanistic pedagogy
How digital technologies limit/prevent/undermine traditional humanistic pedagogy
The relationship between technology-complemented/focused pedagogies and administrative expectations (do we teach with technology because it’s useful for us, or because bureaucrats say we must?)
Is “coding” a type of “writing”?
The place, utility, and need for the traditional essay in the composition course (and how digital technologies affect how we use and think of it)
Should we consider “technology” more broadly in the classroom?
By July 1, 2014, please submit a 300-400 word abstract and A/V requirements to W. Matthew J. Simmons, University of South Carolina, at: