The Pleasures of Digital Discussions by Yancey/Final Thoughts for Rhetoric and Technology Class

In the article "The Pleasures of Digital Discussions: Lessons, Challenges, Recommendations, and Reflections" by Kathleen Blake Yancey, the author takes a look at the several types of technology an instructor has available to him or her to enhance, assist, or even completely teach a class. I thought it was interesting, because it considered even the use of e-mail, which I take for granted for contacting my students and having them contact me, yet I realize some professors are uncomfortable with even that medium.

This was a good reflective article for me to read as this class came to a close because it showed that it might not matter which, if any, technologies we choose to use in our classroom. It showed the advantages and disadvantages of each, and I agreed with much of them. E-mail, for example, proves a valuable asset for students who might have trouble with face-to-face communication, or even when last-minute communication must take place and several people must be contacted at once (such as when a class must be cancelled because of an emergency).

I thought I'd look at some of the technologies both mentioned in the article and also during our class, citing my thoughts on these mediums, for my final blog for my Rhetoric and Technology Class:

E-mail: I'm so comfortable with using e-mail to enhance the communication between my students and me that I was surprised to see this listed as a "possible" communication tool. Perhaps it is just my profession, and because I am often away from one of the two campuses where I teach, that I am so dependent upon it. I do think it helps some students contact me about ideas or concerns they have about class that they might be uncomfortable talking to me about face-to-face, especially if they are a more reserved student or at the beginning of a semester, when a student is trying to decide if I'm approachable.

Listserv: I like listservs to enhance an in-classroom conversation. Listservs prove valuable to provide students a chance to think about what has been said in class and then to thoughtfully give feedback on the ideas in a trackable format. It, again, also helps students who might not like to speak up in class. I often use Blackboard's ediscussion capabilities to help my workshop groups find each other and "chat" outside of the classrrom outside of the traditional meeting time, which helps students with busy schedules.

Also, as a graduate student I've extensively used the Blackboard listservs set up to encourage communication between students, and this has been wonderful for me. I can read through the list of posts, consider my own position, and then write my response. It somewhat alleviates the "aggressive" nature of responding in the classroom, where students who think quickly on their feet get heard the most. I feel I'm a little more reflective, and so are others.

Web pages: I've created my own Web page, using FrontPage, for personal use but have also adapted it somewhat to reflect my work and student life. I debated on whether I should keep the personal and career aspects of my life separate on different Web pages, but so far have decided that, as a communicator, all of these things reflect one me and so I'd like to keep it together.

I think Web pages can prove valuable for students who miss a class if the instructor is willing to post a synopsis of what happened at her site, perhaps on a blog. Also this can be a place to store documents that students can download.

Blogs: I like blogs for classes where journals are used, or perhaps it is a place where students can post their work and allow other students to offer feedback. The blog doesn't work for students who write personally and are uncomfortable posting that work on the Internet for all to see.

Wikis: I've obviously not been a fan of the wiki, just as I'm not a fan of SharePoint. I think it takes more work just to keep up with the changes that happens on these mediums than to actually do the work. Because there is no "control" by one person as to the content of what is being posted, the mediums are too volatile for me. SharePoint frustrated me in this class because I had to constantly check for changes in class readings and what was expected to be done, as well for postings that didn't seem to be organized. Wikis, such as the wiki we used for this class, proved frustrating because anyone could change what I wrote without providing a good reason for it -- this would never fly in a writer/editor relationship, and it's bad practice. (I also thought the layout messy, and that it was too easy to revert to earlier editions -- just too hard to keep track of it.)

In closing, I believe that technology is:
1. a valuable tool to assist traditional classroom teaching, but should not take the place of face-to-face interaction. I think technology has increasingly fragmented our society, and that most of us are so busy playing/working on the Internet that we don't know our own neighbors. Technology definitely has its place -- it just shouldn't take over living away from our computers.
2. That said, I love the idea of technology for teaching for students who can't get to the traditional classroom because of work/home obligations. I believe education should be available to anyone, and technology allows people to learn from anywhere, at any time. This is most valuable.

Research in the future should on technology in the writing classroom should be empirical, measuring the students' reactions to learning online and whether or not they found it assisted their writing or hindered it. Did they miss having face-to-face discussions? Were they more comfortable sharing their opinions as a post? Did their writing improve in an online format, or did it fare better in a traditional classroom? How was community built -- was it? Research is currently being done in these areas, but technology is still relatively new to education and so more reflection should be done before we allow technology take over personal interactions. I would miss that if I taught exclusively through technology.