Reflections about the Computers and Writing Conference

I just attended my very first Computers and Writing Conference last week in Athens, GA. I liked the smaller, more intimate feel of this conference. Both the fact that it was held at University of Georgia and its timing of being held after the semester was over helped make it more casual than the big national conferences I've been to in the last couple of years.

A couple of thoughts about the conference in general. The first official day of the conference we went to a reception and I noticed there was very little diversity to the conference attendees. I think I saw one African American attendant the whole time I was there. Other than that, it was just white, white, Asian-American, white, white, Asian-American, white, white, white...you get the picture. I'm not going to interpret this observation but just leave it as it is.

The other main observation I had I will elaborate on. In one session, someone was reading a paper about Open Source and blatant Raymondism. Ok, yup, I have no clue who Raymond is or was. I gleaned some stuff from the paper, but only sideways. This was an actual paper presentation where a paper was read, word for word, for almost 20 minutes. Those are always harder to understand. Anywho, I'm straying from my point here. At the end of this paper presentation, what I was able to understand was that whether or not instructors/institutions choose to use Open Source instead of corporate packages is a moral decision that involves whether we want to follow a factory or cathedral or market model...there were more models, but I cannot remember them now. The author was really intent on comparing Open Source to all these models he had read about by authors I've never heard of. I was sitting back thinking, yeah, so, that's all well and good to think of this as a moral and philosophical question when we are a week or two finished with a school semester and a couple of months away from the next one. These are not the things I am likely to worry about when I am in week 8 of the semester and students are whining about this or that being too much to understand, and the server is on the fritz for unknown reasons and Student 12 wants to know why she was 2 points away from an A on this or that assignment that is worth .75% of her final grade. And then it dawned on me: author man presenting his paper about obscure things with such a strong passion and encripted lingo must be a grad student! Or someone who only teaches 3 classes a semester and is expected to research the rest of the time.

I usually don't go into a conference with a Community College chip on my shoulder or even realize I am any different from anyone else at a conference, but I really noticed many things this conference, all stemming from the fact that I work in a different environment than they do. It would be so much easier to be all high-minded about Open Sourcing and which technology is the right decision for educators and the like if I weren't dealing with such a technilogical divide in my students, some of whom do not have reliable internet connection at home, others who are returning after many decades and have minimal computer experience. I'm still much happier working at a community college than a research institution. I would much rather focus my time on what happens in the classroom and how to best meet goals and objectives of the courses than reading obscure things and analyzing them in order to get yet another blurb on my C.V. or another checkmark on a tenure checklist. (I'm sure somewhere there are good motives for these things, but I see them as lesser items than the goals and objectives of a course-- things that are directly related to student learning and progress)

Some things from the conference I will try to use next semester:
1. Problems with Google Docs are best solved by belonging to their list-serv or blog ring. I need to join up, but I will do so closer to the next semester's start. Also, I need to talk to someone in networking or help desk about the problem I've been experiencing in the classroom as it seems to be a SWIC only Google problem. I had thought it was a problem between Explorer and Firefox, but it appears it may have much more to do with the log-in procedure and/or clearing the cache.

2. Have 102 students take a survey about how they feel about themselves as researchers. Joyce Walker and James Purdy wrote an article about the survey they did and I can contact Joyce for their survey if need be. I think it would be interesting for SWIC students to compare their answers to those of students from 4 year schools and to start questioning why students feel this way about their own research skills.

3. Whether or not I use a pre-packaged CMS or a number of things pulled together, I need to explain to students why certain applications are the best for what we are doing, so they too buy into it.

4. Students are not as concerned about privacy as we are. This does not mean that they should not be, but they also kind of have a point. Alex Reid gave a great example. He said that if a bunch of teenagers are in the Food Court of the mall talking loudly about their personal lives, they do not think they are doing anything wrong, but they will look at you like you are crazy if they catch you listening to them. Then, you're the weirdo. The same thing happens in on-line communities. If you were not invited to the blog or the intended audience for the blog, then you are the strange one for wandering over and viewing it; you do not belong. This just says to me that the students do need some warning about privacy and their blogs and whatnot and do need to be encouraged to keep their personal lives seperate from their educational lives, but also that I don't need to freak out about students who are willing to share and blend their personal lives into their educational lives because those boundaries are blurred for them. Anyway...I feel like I'm talking myself in circles here. Oh, and mental note to check out Alex Reid's blog.

5. Consider writing syllabi that are more natural in their written structure and less top-down to the students. Right now, I do a very Freirean thing of allowing students to decide the policies on absence and the like. My preliminary syllabus should probably be more conversational than it is at the moment. The discussion of the policies could be taken to chat or discussion board instead of small groups.

6. E-portfolios look like the next great big thing in education. Don't know how I feel about this.