Course Description

This course will begin with an examination of the history, theory, and practice of teaching writing in education for literacy in the West, beginning with the ancient Greeks and moving through the advent of Christianity and the rise of the nation-state into the modern era. As we come to focus on the contemporary scene, we will give special attention to emerging electronic technologies, which arguably call for a new kind of literacy (called "electracy" by one teacher/commentator, "digeracy" by another, "digital articulacy" by another) and which undoubtedly present challenges and opportunities for teachers of writing. Along the way, we will join the conversation of those who are inquiring into the possible relationships between education for literacy/electracy and democratic practice. Here we will focus on issues of hierarchy, access, and collaboration, not just in the culture at large but in our own work, in Breadnet, and in this class. Members of the class will write and share writing weekly, will write a "technology autobiography," will develop a Breadnet exchange idea and a teacher-research proposal for 2000-2001, and will develop an extended definition of literacy that includes a vision of literate practice in the future.

Readings

Readings in Common (in order in which they will be considered):

Robert Pattison, On Literacy: The Politics of the Word from Homer to the Age of Rock (Oxford U P, out of print - photocopies will be available at NAPS)

Cynthia L. Selfe, Technology and Literacy in the Twenty-First Century: The Importance of Paying Attention (Southern Ill U P, 1999)

Electronic Networks: Crossing Boundaries/Creating Communities, Tharon Howard, Chris Benson, and Rocky Gooch, eds. (Greenwood/Heinemann, 1999)

Supplemental Readings (not required)

Richard Lanham, The Electronic Word: Democracy, Technology, and the Arts (U Chicago P, 1993)

Brian V. Street, Social Literacies: Critical Approaches to Literacy in Development, Ethnography and Education (Longman, 1995)

Passions, Pedagogies and 21st Century Technologies, Gail Hawisher and Cynthia Selfe, eds. (Utah State U P, 1998

Michael Blitz and C. Mark Hurlbert, Letters for the Living: Teaching Writing in a Violent Age (National Council of Teachers of English, 1998)

Richard Sclove, Democracy and Technology

Scott Christian, Exchanging Lives: Middle School Writers Online (NCTE, 1997)

The Nearness of You: Students and Teachers Writing Online, Christopher Edgar, Susan Nelson Wood, eds. (Teachers & Writers, 1996)

Transcripts from Breadnet exchanges, articles from the BLRTN Magazine.

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Links

Clinton-Gore Technology Literacy Challenge (a recent federal initiative)

Nonprofit groups concerned with issues of literacy, technology, and democracy:

Electronic Frontier Foundation

The Loka Institute: Making Research, Science & Technology Responsive to Democratically Decided Social & Environmental Concerns

Center for Democracy and Technology

The Berkman Center for Internet and Society

Resources from educational institutions:

The OnlineWriting Laboratory at Purdue University (links to other OWLs)

Penn State University: Resources for K-12 Teachers and Students (page of a College of Education)

"Literacy applications of computer technology": Roberta Hammett's pages (a teacher's page)

Currents in Electronic Literacy: Spring 2000 (No. 3) Special Topic: Technology and the Teaching of Writing in Primary and Secondary Schools (an online journal)

Breadnet

Research resources:

Voice of the Shuttle: Technology of Writing Page (VOS is a huge electronic database for the humanities)

Carnegie-Mellon's Rhetoric Page

Some commercial websites that offer products and services to teachers:

WebCT.com (web course tools) Home Page

Blackboard.com

Electronic-School.com

Recommend a link

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Writing and Due Dates

Technology Autobiography, 3 pages, due Wednesday, July 5

Webpage analyses, 2 pages, due Wednesday, July 19

Discussion and Advice on Webpage Design

Designing School Websites to Deliver

Ken McAllister's Recommendations for Teaching Critical Thinking about Webpages

Internet Detective (one-hour tutorial)

Thinking Critically about World Wide Web Resources (UCLA library)

Resource Selection and Information Evaluation

Evaluation Rubrics for Websites, K-12

Portfolio, due Wednesday, August 2

• Proposal for Breadnet Exchange, 2 pages
• Proposal for Teacher Research with Bibliography, 3 pages

Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research

Education Research: Action Research/Teacher as Researcher

• A Pattisonian Definition of Contemporary Literacy in America and Vision of the Future, 5 pages

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Monday 17

Workshop: Proposals for BreadNet Exchanges