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English Studies in a Digital Age: New Classrooms for Bachelor & Expanded Curricular Opportunities
8/2006
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College Composition Program Develops Digital Writing Sections
Writing has changed dramatically in the last ten years. Although writers still compose in traditional ways, digitized technologies have changed the processes, spaces, and products of writing, both in school and in the workplace. To better prepare students for writing in this new era, Miami’s Department of English is pleased to announce the introduction of “Digital Writing” sections of the required first-year writing courses, English 111 and English 112.
This fall sixteen sections of English 111 will be Digital Writing sections and will be taught in a new state-of-the-art wireless classroom (Bachelor 256). In the spring Digital Writing sections of English 112 will also be offered. Students enrolled in these Digital Writing sections will need a wireless-enabled laptop computer, such as a Miami Notebook (http://www.units.muohio.edu/mcs/suppctr/MiamiNotebook), for reading and writing a variety of print and digital genres.
Using a laptop in the classroom in English 111 and English 112 will introduce students to the uses of digital networked spaces and new technological literacy skills at the start of their college careers. In addition to producing academic paper-based essays, students will have opportunities to integrate more digital media into their writing and to write for audiences outside the traditional classroom. Students will have opportunities to share and publish their writing via the Web and participate in online discussion forums across classrooms, institutions and even countries. Because of networked connectivity, instructors will be able to teach critical research skills at every stage of the writing process.
More information about Digital Writing is available at: http://www.muohio.edu/composition or by contacting the College Composition office at 513-529-1393.
New Media Lab Available for Upper-Division English Courses
The Interactive Media Studies Program (http://student.sba.muohio.edu/ims) has moved a new media computer lab to Bachelor 254. This facility has a state-of-the-art teacher’s station and twenty-two desktop computers loaded with high-end media software. Diverse programs in the English Department will now be able to extend current curricula of a number of courses through the use of this media classroom. In addition, faculty are working to design and propose new upper-division seminars that will utilize the classroom-based availability of digital technologies, including such courses as “Writing for New Media,” “Visual Literacy: Thinking and Writing In and About Images,” and “The Technologies of Writing & Reading.” For more information about this classroom, please contact the English Department at 513-529-5221.
Acknowledgments for Individual & Institutional Supporters
The Department of English would like to acknowledge the efforts of the following faculty who helped to spearhead this project:
- Cynthia Leweicki-Wilson, Professor, Director of College Composition
- Heidi McKee, Assistant Professor, Coordinator of the Digital Writing Collaborative (DWC)
- Keith Tuma, Professor, Chair
The Department would also like to extend thanks and acknowledgments to the many individuals and programs across campus who made these classroom and curricular opportunities possible:
- Jeffrey Herbst, Provost and Executive Vice President
- Reid Christenberry, Vice-President for Information Technology
- Richard Pettitt, Associate Dean and Special Assistant to the Provost
- Carolyn Gard and her staff in Academic Technology Services, including Gail Campbell, Randy Mikesell, and Tim Reisert
- Robert Howard and Kathie Brinkman of Support Services and Campus Partnerships
- David Francko, former Associate Dean, College of Arts and Science
- Raymond Gorman, Associate Dean of the School of Business
- The members of the Classroom Enhancement Council
- The Ohio Writing Project
- Glenn Platt and the Center for Interactive Media Studies