Technology to Try

This is the page where we'll add good digital tools to try in the composition classroom with brief descriptions of how we're using them -- and how we're hearing they're being used in other classrooms.

• Twitter as class communication. There are probably countless ways to use this in composition. I'm  using in my English 101 class this fall as an announcement board and as a place for students to make brief recommendations -- or not -- of the readings they are doing in class. I've embedded a Twitter feed on our class Blackboard site and on a blog I've created as an example for a blog assignment students are doing. Both feeds draw from posts with the class hashtag embedded in them (#BSUEng101). That way, any student can make a post for the class to see. Students who don't wish to create a Twitter account e-mail me their tweets and I post them with the class hashtag. We discuss in class the limitations and benefits of the feed.
• Twitter as a research tool. This is a Twitter plan I'm hatching for next semester, so no data yet whether it works or not. I will be requiring my English 102 students to create a Twitter account and find and follow others who are posting about the research topics students choose. Over the course of the semester, students will evaluate the information they find through this method and compare/contrast with traditional research methods. They will write a reflective report for their research portfolio.
• YouTube. Students can search for and post videos here, and they can do basic editing on the site (cutting and creating a storyboard). The benefit: It's a public site and rich for discussion about audience. I have students use their research from a traditional research paper to create Public Service Announcements to post on YouTube. I haven't done much with students in terms of "marketing" their videos, but I think there might be opportunities to do that as part of a discussion of other social media platforms, audience and rhetorical context.
• Tumblr. This is a ridiculously easy to use blog platform that is visually appealing. It's a good introduction to blogging and can help students get in the habit of writing daily. Some members of our digital group are using this platform.
• Blogger. Another easy to use blogging platform. I'm having English 101 students use this as a space for reflection (a traditional journal/log activity) and I'm planning to have students post selected polished writing on their blogs as part of their portfolio. One of the great things about this platform is that it's easy for students to make private if they don't want to broadcast their writing to the entire World Wide Web.