JAC Volume 15 Issue 1

This collection is a forward-looking, innovative collection of essays by instructor-researchers who engage considerable reflection and anticipation when discussing their concerns for future changes in composition studies. Indeed, the incorporation of technology into the writing classroom instigates change. Because this text enters us into the future of our discipline, it is essential to helping those involved with composition evoke beneficial pedagogical changes. Once we acquire a future vision through this text, we can see current signs of change and act now rather than react in the future. By taking us to what "will be," the authors force us to consider differently what "is."

Although the collection is broad in scope, the material found within benefits readers both experienced and inexperienced in the field. We all need to consider where we are going in order to accurately and purposefully strategize what we are doing in our classrooms presently. Our research must reflect an accurate future vision if we are to conduct studies that will benefit the students as well as the teachers. An emphasis that the book lacks is a student emphasis. While our work should benefit our field (which is the emphasis of the collection), because students are the ultimate rationale behind any research and pedagogy, they should be the ultimate beneficiaries of our research.

The editors divide the material into three sections. The first, "Re- Imagining the Profession: Teaching and the Virtual Age," contains four essays asking us to "think hard about the future and ask what it might hold for us as writing teachers." Charles Moran's essay, "Computers and the Writing Classroom: A Look to the Future," provides two views of classrooms that seem too futuristic to be real, but which currently exist: the "computer- equipped, brick-and-mortar writing classroom" and the "virtual on-line classroom." Moran's engaging discussion includes theoretical and practical rationale for contemplating these rooms as well as the problems that occur in and around them. Although Moran suggests that our job as educators is "to help our students manage the transition between electronic text and print in ways that take advantage of the two media," there is never any mention of ways by which we can offer such assistance to our students or even to ourselves or each other. A move toward such considerations is found in Cynthia L. Selfe's "Preparing English Teachers for the Virtual Age: The Case for Technology Critics." In her discussion of ways to educate teachers entering the electronic classroom, Selfe urges us to be vigilant in criticizing our pedagogical practices. It is not enough to accept technology and learn how to navigate through various programs; we must be ever critical of our technological purposes and actions. As Selfe notes, computers "cannot be understood simply as tools" for writing, free "from the social, political, or economic contexts in which they are developed and in which they continue to be used." Selfe provides five important ways in which English education programs can play a stronger role in teaching educators to be ever critical of their technological use.

The final essays of this section regard the political nature of computers and composition instruction. Elizabeth Sommers' "Political Impediments to Virtual Reality" challenges us to look at the political climates of our English departments. The future departments she imagines are not drastically different from our present political positions. Thus, we need to work on establishing not only a strong place for composition studies, but also for those interested in composition and computers at the grass-roots, depart- mental level. In "Exploring the Implications of Metaphors for Computer Networks and Hypermedia," Janet Eldred and Ron Fortune consider the politics of the language used toward the study of composition and computers. For example, we need to consider the gap between writing and speaking; do we consider synchronous writing as speech? If we do not place a length requirement or a grade on conference contributions, are we not considering them speech? What about Hypermedia? These authors suggest ways by which we may begin our critique of the metaphors we use to consider, produce, evaluate, and describe our pedagogical practices. Our language shapes our field; for this shape we are responsible.

Part Two of this volume, "Looking Beyond Virtual Horizons: Teaching Writing on Networks," is a collection of four pieces on specific studies of computer conferencing. Gail Hawisher discusses pros and cons of using networks in a writing classroom in her essay "Electronic Meetings of the Minds: Research, Electronic Conferences, and Composition Studies." This essay summarizes the current research and suggests directions for future study. William Wright, in his essay, "Breaking Down Barriers: High Schools and Computer Conferencing," describes Breadnet, "one of the more successful electronic endeavors for English classes, linking not only students but also their teachers across many different communities all over the country." Although there are few insights into the effects of computers on writing in this essay, Wright provides some tips on structuring assignments in a conference environment. In "Teaching Composition in Tomorrow's Multimedia, Multinetworked Classrooms," Hugh Burns discusses the effects of an "extraspecial" learning experience, "using the 'breakthrough' electronic technologies of synchronous networking, distance learning, and satellite television." A televised, synchronous discussion took place between students and teachers at three separate locations. While supporting his claim that ... interactivity' is the real strength and hope for computers," Burns asks difficult pedagogical questions and provides suggestions for ways in which we may guide the future learning of our students. The final essay in this section diverges from the previous three with an intriguing consideration of "the similarities between the science of chaos and current theories of social epistemic rhetoric." Paul Taylor, in "Social Epistemic Rhetoric and Chaos Discourse, explains these theories and then applies the concepts to a computer conference to describe how "our traditional notions of authorship, coherence, and style are changing along with our scientific theories and the technology of communication." Taylor suggests that "computer conferencing is evolving into a new genre" worthy of serious consideration by those in our profession and out.

"Navigating Virtual Waters: Where Do We Go From Here?" is the final section of the volume, a section intended to move us from previous study to future study. In the introduction to this section, the editors warn us that "regardless of the potential benefits that computer technology may offer us, we are not immune from misapplying it to both our teaching and our research." In "The Virtual Context: Ethnography in the Computer-Equipped Writing Classroom," Marcia Curtis and Elizabeth Klem argue for more ethnographic research that focuses "not on 'texts' exclusively, but on the 'contexts' in which writers produce them." Correctly, these writers note that the socio-political elements of the electronic writing classroom warrant study equal to examination of ways in which computers affect writing. Christine Neuwirth and David Kaufer's "Computers and Composition Studies: Articulating a Pattern of Discovery," offers a thorough cross-disciplinary methodology for studying the effects of software on student learning. These writers emphasize the fact that we as writing instructors need to become an integral part of creating the software that we will use to help educate our students. Paul LeBlanc discusses the potential for hypermedia to revive faculty interest in creating software in his essay "Ringing in the Virtual Age: Hypermedia Authoring Software and the Revival of Faculty-Based Software Development in Composition." The new hypermedia software allows faculty non-programmers to create programs. LeBlanc poses two distinct challenges: for us to further research toward creating "a strong theoretical base for [our] pedagogy that does not now exist in hypermedia," and for us to develop software while educating our "colleagues and chairs on the evaluation of software efforts."

Richard Selfe concludes the volume with "What Are They Talking About? Computer Terms That English Teachers May Need to Know." This glossary divides terminology into approachable categories such as "Desktop Publishing,” “Hardware," "Hypermedia," "Networks," and "Software." The terms discussed encompass those common to the past decade of research and those that will become common in the decade to come.

Readers of this volume are provided multiple perspectives on a variety of computers and composition research. Experts in each area present clear, comprehensive discussion of their work, suggesting further territory for us to explore as this genre unfolds. The reflexivity of these writers serves as a clear example of what they ask of us. Furthering the goal of "analyzing our teaching carefully and bringing this sort of critical approach into our writing classes," the collection calls for more ethnographic research. This is a helpful suggestion as long as the ethnography includes those from other disciplines. Stories about what we do will only get us so far. We need to incorporate assistance and methodologies from other disciplines in order to more thoroughly examine the impact of computers on students and plan new pedagogics to best benefit the students. This collection seeks not to problematize our discipline and our work within it, but rather, to familiarize readers with what is to come and to encourage the direction of research, theorizing, and pedagogy toward ways that will benefit our increasingly technological field. All of us currently teaching writing and those being trained to teach writing will benefit from considering the challenges set forth in this text.