CandCBlog

Proposals are now being accepted for the 13th annual GPACW, which will be held on the campuse of North Dakota State University the weekend of October 8 – 9, 2010.  The deadline for electronic proposals is August 15th.

Specific details for the conference can be found here:

http://www.socialmedia.ndsu.nodak.edu/?page_id=20

Inside Higher Ed has an interesting story running today addressing the ways in which people in the humanities are using the ever-increasing storehouse of digital books provided by Google to conduct research projects that would otherwise be nearly impossible.  For example, they mention how one group of folks is write a computer program that will scan through all of the Victorian literature available on Google Books to look for specific types of religious references in order to test the theory that the Victorian Era marked a significant decline in religiosity for England.  Google is even funding some of this kind of research as a means of promoting the academic potential of this expanding database of cultural material.

I think this article really gets at how new media are effecting the humanities.  It wasn’t too long ago that much of an English professor’s entire career could be spent reading analyzing one author – or even one book – deeply and closely.  With the advent of digital resources like Google Books, however, one might be encouraged to look more quantitatively at literature, searching for revealing patterns across large bodies of literature.

Here’s the link to the article for more info:

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/07/14/google

Inspired by all of the Tweeting going on at Computers and Writing this year, I’ve created an official CCO Blog Twitter account and added a stream to the sidebar of the blog page.  I plan to use this for a number of different purposes including live “tweeting” conferences, sharing links to resources, and other nifty possibilities that occur to me along the way.

As the Twitter feed on the sidebar will likely not funnel through to those of you reading this blog via RSS, you may want to follow us directly on Twitter.  Our Twitter handle is tweet4cco.

This feature is still in a “beta” phase in terms of how I will use it on this blog, so feel free to send suggestions of how you think it could be useful.  I’m open to suggestions!

This year at the Computers and Writing conference in West Lafyette, IN, Dr. Kris Blair, our Editor here at CCO, was awarded the Charles Moran Award for Distinguished Contributions to the Field.  As its title implies, this award is given each year to a scholar with outstanding achievements in scholarship and service to the field.  Given Dr. Blair’s long list of peer reviewed publications, her extensive and first-rate work with graduate students, her role as editor of a quality online journal, and her outstanding commitment to the field of computers and writing, Dr. Blair is an excellent choice for this award.  Those of us who are fortunate enough to work with Kris on a regular are so proud to see her recognized with this important award, which she so rightly deserves.

Congratulations Kris!

Here is a link to the Charles Moran Award description.

Guest Editors Randall McClure and Janice Walker welcome submissions for a special issue of Computers and Composition related to the potential intersections between the future of the Internet and the teaching of writing.  The full CFP, as published on the WPA listserve, is below:

Kevin Kelly (2008) has suggested the first lesson of the Web is that we “have to get better at believing the impossible.” According to Kelly, the editor of Wired magazine, the Web is only 5,000 days old and its growth to this point was unimaginable to those working with the Web just ten-plus years ago. Additionally, Tim Berners-Lee (2007) has argued “it is incumbent on all of us to understand what our role is in fostering continued growth, innovation, and vitality of the World Wide Web.” Kelly believes such innovation will make the Web the operating system in the future of computing and, in doing so, create a future Web that is inseparable from writing. In the spirit of these comments, we dedicate this issue to looking 5000 days ahead, to the future of computers and composition ten-plus years from now.

This special issue examines the theoretical, practical and pedagogical issues and implications of future versions and uses of the Web for the teaching of writing. The issue suggests what the relationship might be between computers and composition in the early years of the next decade—a vision for 2020—and beyond.

Questions to consider include the following:

1.     In what ways will enhancements in portability or mobility change how students receive information and compose with computer technologies and what, if anything, should composition teachers do to accommodate or recognize such changes in reading and writing?

2.     In what ways will the increasing individualization and customization of the Web, such as virtual worlds and personalized avatars, impact the teaching and learning of writing?

3.     In what ways will improvements in global access to the Web change the nature of composing with computers?

4.     In what ways will the Web and web applications become more ubiquitous in our lives, and how will the Web’s increased presence change the teaching of writing?

5.     In what ways will application genres evolve over the next decade and how might they change composing with computers?

6.     Which vision of the future Web is most promising/concerning for work in computers and composition?

7.     In what ways will semantic technologies and/or intelligent applications change the ways in which students access and use information in the process of composing with computers?

8.     In what ways will the assessment of writing change to accommodate developments of the Web?

The guest editors invite proposals that answer these or other questions regarding the future of the Web and its influence on the teaching of composition.

Proposals should be one page, single-spaced (approximately 500 words). Deadline for submission of proposals is July 1, 2010. Please send proposals via email to Randall McClure (randallmcclure@georgiasouthern.edu). Queries are welcome. Final manuscripts will be 15-30 pages in length, double-spaced. Manuscript deadline for accepted abstracts is September 15, 2010. Final manuscripts are scheduled to be due in February 2011, and the special issue is scheduled to be published in Fall 2011.

Today in the Bowen Thompson Student Union at Bowling Green State University, Professor Kristine Blair will deliver her Distinguished Faculty Lecture on the changing nature of academic scholarship in the wake of digital technologies.  She draws on her experience as a department chair and an online journal editor (the one associated with this Blog) she will argue that traditional, print-based institutional reward structures for faculty scholarship must grow and develop to fully accept and embrace digital, web-based modes of scholarly productivity.

This is a great honor for Kris, and those of us in her department and/or who work with her at Computers and Composition Online – or in any one of the many scholarly enterprises she plays a role in – are very proud of her.  Her work positively affects a lot of people. If you’re near BGSU today around 4:00 pm, be sure to stop by and watch her presentation in room 206 of the student union.  If not, next time you see her at a conference, be sure to give her congratulations for what surely will have been a successful presentation.

It’s that time of year again when we all start making plans to propose panels and presentation for next year’s 4Cs conference, and, as such, I thought it would be appropriate to remind everyone about a really valuable yet, I think, under-recognized presentation opportunity at the Cs:  The Computer Connection.  Each year the CCCC Committee on Computers in Composition (7Cs) solicits proposals for presentations on the use of technology in the classroom, scholarship, or just about any other disciplinary pursuit for inclusion in a special cluster of presentations, known as the Computer Connection (CC).

I had the pleasure of presenting in the CC this year in Louisville, and I am happy to say that it was one the best Cs experiences I have had so far.  My panel was well attended, and audience members asked lots of questions.  The moderator actually had to ask us to end Q and A because we ran out over our allotted time.  Here are a few details about how the CC works.  There are only two presenters per panel, each person getting 25 minutes to speak, which leaves lots of time for discussion.  Also, given the technological topics of these presentations, all presenters have access to computer projector equipment, which is not the case for regular Cs presentations.  The CFP deadline is usually well after the official Cs deadline.  In fact, the deadline comes after most people hear whether or not their Cs proposal was accepted or not.  Additionally, the CC is not part of the 1 presentation/1 speaking role rule at Cs, which means that it can be done in addition to any other speaking role you might have.

For budgetary reasons, this under-recognized component of the Cs is unfortunately not well publicized.  You won’t find any mention of it on the Cs website, and it is not mentioned in the conference program, though there usually are paper flyers available at the conference near where the official programs are given out.  If you are interested in giving a presentation on any topic related to the intersection of computers and composition/rhetoric, I hope that you’ll consider sending in a proposal for next year’s Computer Connection and that you’ll spread the word to others who might be interested as well.  Alternatively, if you don’t end up presenting at CC, look for the CC flyer at the conference when you register so you can come by to watch some of the presentations.

Here is the link to the Computers and Writing Clearinghouse website for more info on what the Computer Connection is all about and how you can submit a proposal.

http://computersandwriting.org/CCcall07

Mendeley is an iTunes-like tool that allows you to organize your research articles and citations much like you would organize your music and videos in iTunes.  It also provides automated citation generation, file-sharing, and MS Word and Open Office integration.  Best of all, it works in Windows, Mac OSX, and Linux.  Oh yeah, and it’s free.

https://www.mendeley.com/

I just found a post to this 1995 Newsweek article in which the author confidently details all of the reasons the Internet will never have the level of impact on culture that it clearly ended up having over the last fifteen years.  It’s kind of an amazing read:

http://threewordchant.com/2010/02/24/why-the-internet-will-fail-from-1995/

Computers and Composition Online is happy to present its Spring 2010 issue, which presents webtexts addressing a number of important disciplinary concerns.  Readers will find pieces addressing the role of blogs in developing professional identities, the linkage between fear and technophobia, the SecondLIfe writing technologies, assessing new media, and so much more.

As usual, please feel free to post any comments or questions about the articles here on the blog!

http://www.bgsu.edu/cconline/edwelcomesp10.htm