Week 3: Change as Progress

As I was reading through Palmeri's prologue and introduction to Remixing Composition:  A History of Multimodal Writing Pedagogy, I couldn't help but relate to his narrative.  I previously taught at Indiana University South Bend and Indiana Institute of Technology before coming to Ohio.  At both institutions, I taught my students the way former teachers and professors taught me - I focused on traditional alphabetic assignments and paid little attention to the growing technologies available around me. 

At IU South Bend, we used a service called OnCourse and at Indiana Tech, we used Blackboard.  I used these sites as ways to record grades and keep track of attendance, but never had students turn in assignments online.  A fellow instructor at IU South Bend once saw me grading papers the old-fashioned way (with a stack of printed essays and a red pen) and said, "You still grade papers like that?"  It was the only way I had ever graded papers, so I had never put much thought into it before.  "It's just easier than teaching the students to submit online and it's easier than having to grade online."

But was it?

When I began my GSW training at Graduate Student Orientation during the week of August 17th, I was informed that we were required to have our students submit all assignments online.  I admit that I panicked a bit.  I used OnCourse and Blackboard minimally at my previous institutions, and now I was required to run my class without print format!?  I realize how backwards this sounds in our modern society, but I was afraid that my lack of experience with technology in the past would make it extremely difficult for me to not only teach my students to use these new technologies, but to teach myself.

So far, it hasn't been as difficult as I thought it would be, and my students are on-board with using Canvas to turn in assignments (and they know how to use the technology better than I do).  The online forum makes class resources readily available to everyone, saves ink and paper (which can be expensive, especially if using a printer at home), and allows me to grade essays more quickly and give students feedback more efficiently.  As Palmeri mentions, I felt like I too was "venturing into uncharted pedagogical waters" (2).  While I opposed these "changes" in the past, experiencing Canvas, learning how to use new technologies in our ENG 7280 course, and reading about Palmeri's struggle in implementing multimodality into his classroom has helped me to recognize technology for what it is - "progress" (Palmeri 5).  Embracing multimodal texts "requires us to move beyond our past" and gives us the tools necessary to teach students to not only be aware of available technologies, but to use them effectively in school and later in their careers.  The world is changing; fighting against technology only hinders me and my students.

As Bolter mentions in the beginning of his article "Introduction:  Writing in the Late Age of Print," the printed book was once thought of as a thing that would bring an end to institutions as people knew them.  Clearly, printed books have only increased the delivery of knowledge and information and have allowed people all over the world to enjoy the same texts and learn and think in new ways.  Technology is the same - it will not bring an end to traditional composition, it will join with it and allow us to experience writing in new and exciting ways.

Source:  thenextweb.com