- This special issue of Currents in Electronic
Literacy is dedicated to work presented at the ninth annual
Spring Colloquium of the Computer Writing and Research Lab (CWRL).
Since 1986, the CWRL has fostered ongoing inquiry, experiment,
development, and practice that explores the uses of technology
to support teaching and learning in a broad range of undergraduate
and graduate courses. While the majority of these courses are
rhetoric and composition courses, the CWRL also hosts literature
courses, such as Literary Contests and Contexts, and courses
in the Division of Rhetoric and Composition's new concentration
in Technology, Literacy, and Culture.
- Each spring,
faculty and graduate instructors teaching in the CWRL share
what they are teaching and learning in our networked computer
classes, present projects they and their students have developed,
and discuss ongoing research efforts. Although I have now been
working in the CWRL for eight years, I always learn new ways
of thinking, new practices, and new technological approaches
at the colloquium.
- We are
fortunate to have strong institutional support for the work
of the Lab, which provides graduate instructors reduced teaching
loads in exchange for staffing time; this time can then be used
to learn new applications, experiment with a wide variety of
electronic media, develop research projects, and informally
share skills and knowledge. The value of this dynamic and robust
ecosystem has been proven through the production of more than
150 publications and conference presentations; the creation
of software applications such as the Daedalus Integrated Writing
Environment, Critical Tools, and the Learning Record Online;
and the development of an astonishing number of innovative courses.
- The articles
presented here represent a tiny fraction of the many contributions
CWRL instructors and faculty have made to our understanding
of teaching and learning in computer-enhanced environments.
I'm very pleased to be asked to introduce this window into the
inspiring work currently in progress in the CWRL. We hope this
issue will prove helpful to faculty and instructors currently
teaching in computer classrooms as well as those who are considering
the possibilities.
|
Please
cite this article as
Currents in Electronic Literacy
Spring
2002 (6),
<http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/currents/spring02/syverson_intro.html>.
|
