Summing Up Eng 625: Theory and Practice

Honestly, this has been a great class. I've learned a lot about an area in which my knowledge was weak. Plus, the learning process/experience has been collaborative, interactive, and fun or "serious play" as Dr. James Baumlin would say. Perhaps most importantly, I feel that I will retain my knowledge and abilities indefinitely.

I have learned the most from the course's combination of theory and practice. We've covered a lot of theoretical material that I had never even heard of: multiple digital literacies, "paying attention" to technology, online identity issues, and using technology to enhance pedagogy rather than as a mere tool. Reading Stuart Selber's book, Multiple Literacies for a Digital Age, opened up a new way of looking at literacy in general and technological literacy in particular. Cynthia Selfe's ideas provided an excellent starting point for my critical reflection on the socio-political dynamics of technology, nicely setting up Cheryl Hoy, Kristine Blair, and the many other course readings that took critical views on seemingly innocuous technological and pedagogical subjects. Through the course readings, I learned a great deal about incorporating technology into my teaching in ways that enhanced my purposes instead of serving as a mere tool or unnecessary adornment. In my future classes, I plan to utilize blogs, Google sites, a multimodal assignment, and other technology to more effectively teach audience awareness, purpose, thesis statements, supporting arguments, and other important aspects of rhetoric, not to mention reading and composing in digital environments.

Of course, I would not have learned nearly as much, or as well, without all of the practice that complemented our learning of the theory. By actually creating and completing a blog, a google site, and a multimodal composition, I put the theoretical concepts into practice. When I read about Selber's concept of rhetorical digital literacy, I thought it would be almost impossible for non-programmers to effectively achieve it. However, I demonstrated rhetorical literacy when I constructed my E-portfolio on my Google site and completed my multimodal composition. For instance, I set up my E-portfolio with a link to my technology narrative but once users began viewing the narrative they had to finish it before they encountered a link taking them back to the E-portfolio's introductory page. For another example, the hypermedia in my multimodal composition were carefully chosen to support my rhetoric. While I wasn't creating new software programs, these little touches show that I at least have the intellectual abilities of a rhetorically literate technology user. Without the practice to complement the theory, I would not have realized how these abilities could be developed in an English class, let alone actually developed them.

Thanks to the course's artful blend of theory and practice, I feel fully capable of helping my future students improve their functional, critical, and rhetorical digital literacies through practicing multi-modal composing, reflectively navigating digital spaces, and paying more attention to technology and its social, political, economic, and personal implications. Thanks Dr. Cadle and English 625!