Part 3: FOCUS ON ADMINISTRATIONThe third section, "Administration," takes a hard look at the difficulties involved in establishing a computer assisted instruction facility for the first time or modifying existing programs. Avoiding the "evangelical rhetoric" of many early adopters, contributors to this section ask tough questions about the administrative work and departmental support needed to facilitate teacher training workshops, effective writing pedagogy, and software development.
The collaborative effort of Coffield, Essid, Lasarenko, Record, Selfe, and Stilley, "Surveying the Electronic Landscape: A Guide to Forming a Supportive Teaching Community," is a must-read for beginning administrators of CAI. This thorough guide addresses the "how to's" of writing up a "dream" computer lab, financing a facility (including grant writing), recruiting colleagues, and gaining support throughout the university. The authors include invaluable appendices that list various supports.
Fred Kemp provides a sobering history of "how most computer-based writing programs come to be," outlining problems posed by traditionalists in English departments distrustful of technology (268). Kemp suggests ingenious strategies for defusing the power of this resistance.
Ruth Mirtz and Carrie Shively Leverenz argue a "Case for Integrating Traditional and Online Classroom Training for New and Experienced College Teachers." They assert that university writing programs adopt a "philosophy of mediated coexistence" by routinely including grad student teacher training in CAI as well as face-to-face pedagogy.
Finally, Robert Yagelski describes a project that uses asynchronous networks in the preparation of secondary writing teachers. His goal is for future educators to "conceptualize literacy as a social practice and potentially transformative act" (341). Although this essay focuses on a teacher training program, Yagelski's careful account of his students' reflective practice in the analysis of each other's electronic writing could easily place it in either the "Pedagogy" or the "Community" section.
| Back to Main Page | Pedagogy | Community |