|
|
English Faculty
|
| Teaching & Learning with Technology |
| Dr.
Tom Fish Teaching and Technology Advocate |
 I
have been a teacher of composition and British literature at Cumberland
College since 1984. However, the primary focus of my
professional development during the past decade has been with the
pedagogical use of the "new media."
I was perhaps among the last generation of graduate students to complete a dissertation on a portable electric typewriter. However, when a dozen years ago my department established a computer laboratory to support our freshman composition program, I saw it as a great opportunity for both students and faculty. Today I manage that computer lab and find myself grading my students’ electronically submitted essays at the keyboard. In the interim I have learned an old lesson: new technology does not solve problems – it does not of itself improve writing – but it does provide new strategies for solving problems. As I continue to explore with my students a variety of literary topics – Romantic poetry, Victorian fiction, Shakespeare, critical theory – I endeavor to use the new media to pursue the traditional liberal arts goal of encountering and understanding the realities of human experience: psychological, social, and spiritual. Our students increasingly exist in a cultural vacuum with no familiarity with or appreciation of history and heritage. Modern media contribute to this vacuum but also provide access to resources that can fill it with information and understanding. The Web is the medieval scriptorium revisited. It can be confusing. It can be a compendium of mediocre fragments. But it contains hidden cultural treasures as well. Some of my attempts to assist students in discovering these treasures are reflected in course-related websites I have developed. You will find links to some of these by clicking on the menu for ACA Websites on Literature. Currently I am especially interested in refining assignments that lead to student-authoring on the web. The LitCrit Web (a project supported by an ACA Faculty/Student grant) was my first serious effort in nurturing such student-authoring. This semester (spring 2001) I am developing a course entitled "Writing with the New Media" that will become part of a new writing track for the English major. The interest in my department in this course reflects how important web technology and other new media are to our future professionally and pedagogically. The Virtual Center also represents the ACA’s collective awareness of this importance. As an English Teaching and Technology advocate for the Virtual Center, I want to work with you to face the challenges and embrace the opportunities of this future. If you have any comments or suggestions about how this website can be of value to you in this endeavor, please email me. |
|
Copyright
2001, The Appalachian College Association (ACA) |