2/28
Metawriting, Paired copy editing and student grading, Enrolling in the Writing Studio (http://writing.colostate.edu/)
HW: Try to explore the learning space in the writing studio by “clicking around” so that you feel comfortable with the cyberspace. Read “Johnny Mneumonic” by William Gibson (link)
3/5
Discussion of “Johnny Mneumonic” and essay assignment (including suggested changes). Discussion of how we may use our writing studio.
HW Read James Gee (handout) excerpts from What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy and think about how learning and play may or may not be enhanced by moving our class into the Writing Studio
3/7
Discuss Gee. Paired Freewriting about the relationships between play, learning and technology.
HW: Read student models, scan our class page for interesting ideas to write about, and carefully view some of the LonleyGirl15 videos and the review of the videos.
Week 8
3/12 & 3/14
Class meetings are cancelled for individual conferences. You are required to have a finished idea structure for the conference in hard copy and in the file folder in the Writing Studio. You should prepare for the conference by thinking about your work on Essay #1, coming in with your own midterm grade approximation, and by being able to offer suggestions and criticism of class and teacher, as well as discuss any other relevant learning concerns.
HW: Read the following links: “Teaching with Computers by Matt Mroz,” and Why Heather Can Write”
Week 9 SPRING BREAK
Week 10
3/26
Discussion with computers and learning with class visitor Dr. Jonathan Alexander
HW: Read Part One of On Writing Well by William Zinnser.
3/28
Complete drafts of Essay #2 due for Peer Review Discuss Zinnser
Topic: How Cyberspace Is and Isn’t Learning Space
Find a computer issue in your student life that you care deeply about and want to learn more about by researching, writing, and analyzing the issue from a variety of points of view. Try to follow James Gee’s lead and think about the learning opportunities in your issue. Instead of simply trying to write pro-con arguments, you are challenged to see issues from a variety of concerns. We will write our essays using the standard format described in our syllabus. Your computer issue essay should be at least 5 pages in length (not including the Works Cited page).
You are encouraged to develop your own individual approach to solving the challenge of this researched essay writing assignment. Almost anything in cyberspace can be an interesting learning issue for students today. How you situate yourself with your own story of learning about your selected computer issue, and how you select important insights and points for research and argumentation is up to you. The key is being able to blend good story telling with good academic writing that lets your voice talk with sources as a student in cyberspace. In other words, use the authority of your own experience and your own research story to discuss a specific computer issue so that your readers become interested in you essay because they learn about it with you and learn that you are fair and open to a variety of ways to think about the issue. Please avoid writing about computers in general—making obvious statements about computers tends to bore readers. You are challenged to select an issue, narrow your focus, and become knowledgeable about a specific issue as you gather interesting information and write about the issue.
Here are some of the general issues—use them as a beginning point to narrow your focus and to select a specific issue to write about. This is just a list of examples and you are encouraged to go beyond this list with your own interests.
Computers in the Third World—Is There a Global Digital Divide?
Computers in the Third World—How Outsourcing is Thriving
Are there gender issues in Cyberspace? Minority issues? Religious issues?
Internet Business—What Does a Consumer Need to Know?
Internet Business—What Does It Take to Succeed?
Music Downloading—What is the Law and Is It Fair?
Music Downloading—How Did It Become Big Business?
Internet Advertising—How does it work?
Internet Advertising—How Spam is Killing the Internet
Internet Dating
Computers and Learning—How computers affect the ways we learn ________ .
Identity Theft
Video games and violence
How computers affect war
How Computers Change Language
How faculty and students are becoming divided by technoliteracy
How Computers affect Democracy and voting
How Computers affect learning at SCSU
How information literacy is an increasing part of student life
How students cheat with computers
How computers help student adapt to school
Paper vs. Screens
Copyrights and Copywrongs
How computers are destroying and advancing human life
You are encouraged to use the list above to start your selection process, but you are not limited to the list’s issues. Please find an issue with cyberspace that you really care deeply about and want to learn more about through writing and research.
4 Goals for Writers of Essay #2
Write an essay about an issue (linked in any way to learning with computers and cyberspace) that you really care about. Try to focus on an issue that you think is important personally so that your writing and research will enhance your life online and in general.
Try to write about your selected issue so the reader believes your insights about cyberspace are intelligent, researched, creative, and true, and so that readers “learn with you” about your issue. Avoid using a simple pro-con approach and attempt to develop more complex critical thinking by understanding your issue from a variety of points of view. In other words, generate writing from your perspective and the perspectives of others so that key insights and points are supported and developed with and beyond your own, individual experience.
Practice and customize individual composing, research and revision processes that includes help from others (professor, students, librarians, writing tutors, family members, etc.).
Practice using mechanical elements of academic discourses such as vocabulary, spelling, grammar, punctuation, MLA style of documentation, and neat presentation of writing, and also practice using visual and other creative forms of expression within your essay.
We all have individual concerns about how cyberspace is forming and increasingly becoming part of our lives. Think about your own experiences and the best ideas you know about computer use to develop a narrowed and interesting thesis about a specific computer issue. How you tell your learning story, how you research the details and insights, and how you present your work as both story and researched essay are creative opportunities that require imagination, planning, research, and academic as well as creative writing.
We will use idea structuring to establish our plans for our next essay.
and begin to think about a possible thesis, conclusion, outline, and sources for your second essay.
Any and all attempts at composing a working thesis and detailed outline will help you make good thinking progress toward your writing. Also, while sharpening and organizing your writing ideas, you should be doing some quick research in the assigned readings, in the library, in your own worlds, and online. The purpose of this step is to understand how writers learn to encounter and change thinking through planning, research and writing to improve their ideas. If you are stuck on this step, please don’t hesitate to stop into Will’s office for extra help.
Step 3: Drafting, More Researching, Revising, Finishing
We will use peer response, writing center and professorial resources, online research, library research, and our class discussions to understand and enhance our writing experiences.
Required Sources: At least 10 sources are required in the Works Cited List. At least 3 of those sources must include sources from our class readings to add as much support for your points as possible. You don’t need to simply match their ideas to yours—you can analyze their points and make them work for you even if you are using them to set up your disagreement! Outside sources may be useful to find factual support for your points.
Special Provisions: If you are feeling blocked or confused and you are not certain about how to begin or how to proceed through any of the assignment steps, you are strongly urged to stop into my office during office hours (or by appointment) for help. You are also strongly encouraged to try working with a librarian. I also recommend working with a Writing Center tutor. Feel free to raise questions and express concerns to me via email or by phone during office hours.
You may have written about a computer issue previously. If you want to continue your previous work, attach a copy of the writing you want to advance to your idea structure and explain why the essay needs to go beyond what you have already done.
Time Management:
Idea Structuring due of 3/12
Complete Draft of #2 due 3/28
Final Draft of #2 due 4/2