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In 1984, Apple
Computer introduced the Macintosh and announced the Apple University
Consortium (ACU). The Consortium was ostensibly a development engine,
but also served as the distribution arm of Apple, bringing tens
of thousands of computers into the writing programs of selected
universities. Since (at least) that time, the computer has been
seen as a vehicle for enhanced literacy learning at all levels
of schooling, and, I would argue, is now seen as indispensable
to schooling now some 25 years after the personal computer. While
computers may indeed be “indispensable” in
our classrooms and in our world, we are still debating the effects
of this change in writing technology and technology-enhanced pedagogical
practice. We will aim to inform ourselves as to the nature of the
debate through acquaintance with the philosophy of technology and
technological change, through an examination of writing technologies
both present and historical, through evaluations of various socio-cultural
reactions to changes in writing technologies, and through critique
of various contemporary claims about the impact of changing writing
technologies in university writing programs as well as “writing
in the wild.” Students will be encouraged to conduct basic
research that tests contemporary claims about writing technologies
and literate practice.
- Haas, C. (1996). Writing technologies: Studies
on the materiality of literacy. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
- Bijker,
Wiebe E. (1997, 1995). Of bicycles, bakelites, and bulbs: Toward
a theory of sociotechnical change. Cambridge: MIT Press.
- Takayoshi, Pamela & Patricia Sullivan, eds. (2006). Labor,
writing technologies, and the shaping of composition in the academy.
Hampton Press.
- (Recommended) APA Publication Manual
- Extensive additional materials, either in PDF or through a
url, will be provided through the Vista site for this course.
reflections, position papers, critiques, and seminar presentations will
account for 40% of final seminar grade. a final project, including proposal,
draft, final paper and a presentation based on that final project, 60%.
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