L.04 New Media, New Curricula

This was a great panel, although if I had to suffer through the entire conference before presenting on Saturday, I think I would have been miserable.

Four people from Ohio State talked about their experience going from a grad seminar taught by DeWitt on digital pedagogies to a first-year writing course where they put into play what they had planned in the seminar. They’re doing such exciting work. Plus, they say they have lots of shiny new toys! :)

After listening to previous presentations that discussed how to integrate the digital by beginning with print and moving or transforming it into a digital work, this panel really talked about integrating the digital on a much deeper level. Further, the way they structured their panel — talk, video preso, and questions from the audience, repeat — really reinforced their point that the digital media environment really is about conversation, collaboration, and layered meanings.

Gail Hawisher questioned them about their rhetoric of technology. I can’t remember who responded, but I think the response went along the lines of it being important to be (overly) excited about the project in order to get it off the ground, but then as time goes by, they can do more critical reflection.

One of the points that Jason made was that the way they integrated digital media made a strong argument for writing to learn. He also said that in critical analysis of digital media, ambiguity and irony are two of the key terms in new media studies. I didn’t get his citation here??

One of the things they discovered is that creative writing instructors are most interested in teaching with digital media. I wonder if we could use that concept to support development here at Mizzou?? Although, one of the the audience members did ask, why not integrate digital media with rhetoric? While I agree that this would be idea with a program that has plenty of rhetoric faculty, I think bringing in creative writing faculty and grad students might help programs get similar efforts off the ground where there aren’t as many rhetoric people.

One of the outcomes of the classes is that students understand better that nothing is accidental when it comes to creating texts.

When Scott DeWitt talked about not standardizing the project and rolling it out slowly, it reminded me of how Marty Townsend had talked about developing WAC programs. By not rushing to define the program, they can gain some manuvering room in how the course will evolve.

I think there are some real connections here with writing to learn, especially in companion essays that ask students to discuss why they made the choices they did.

This panel really got me thinking about pairing Lakoff’s text(s) Don’t Think of an Elephant and/or Metaphors We Live By with a digital media project in my own classes.