Elizabeth Wardle and Douglas Downs re-conceptualize college composition in their text, “Teaching about Writing, Righting Misconceptions: (Re)envisioning “First-Year Composition” as “Introduction to Writing Studies”.
In conjunction with Wardle’s “Intractable Writing Program Problems, Kairos, and Writing about Writing: A Profile of the University of Central Florida’s First-Year Composition Program”, Wardle identifies key factors in the cause of statistically failing composition programs. Wardle calls attention to the importance of encouraging future success by pursuing only relevant and applicable knowledge, as well as stressing that composition courses are an entryway to writing, not a certification.
By directly addressing the limiting components of our current form of writing instruction, Wardle builds a course with Douglas that seeks to emphasize, “teach[ing] potentially transferable conceptions of the activity of writing rather than “basic” writing skills that are in fact highly specialized and conceptualized” (27).
The relevance of Wardle’s process and discovery to my own indicated to me that I am on the right path. My course on AI and Writing seeks to integrate the most modern technologies into writing instruction in order to emphasize the importance of future application and a forward-thinking process.
My whole life I have watched teachers fight with technology, from the dreaded busted DVD player to the introduction of the Smart Board™, spanning all the way to the beginning of the end: artificial intelligence. The initial reaction is always the same, anger, embarrassment, apologies, and class continues on, but I would consider it a hindrance to the classroom and the learning process.
Shouldn’t our educators be familiar with their tools? How could they be when they are constantly being changed depending on which company is willing to shell out more money to the school? What if learning about utilizing and applying the newest technologies on the market became an expected benchmark for students and teachers alike?
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