Blogging the Composition Symposium (East Lansing Edition)

I'm blogging from the Composition in the 21st Century Symposium being sponsored by Bedford St. Martin's and being held at Michigan State University (there's a Drupal site for the symposium here). Rather than detailing all of the notes that I take in a blog post I'll go ahead and do some quick and dirty paragraphs here and do an attachment with all of my notes, and I may just upload that periodically throughout the day. So here we go! Click through below to read more of the extended post and later my jumbled notes will be available as an attachment.

Session 1: Kathi Blake Yancey brought to us the preliminary findings and ongoing questions that come out of her portraits of composition study of writing study. What she does for me is to add proof to what I already expected about the direction that writing instruction and teaching is taking. Including the fact that 67% of instructors using technology are using it for web research (while 3% or less are using blogs or wikis), and that it is the R/C specialists that are using the technology in ways that work more toward replacing rather than just supplementing traditional print text. (We also learned during this session that Nick Carbone failed FYC as a kid).

After the opening session by Kathi we move into a workshop model for the next series of speakers. Folks come up and give us a spiel for a couple of minutes and then we'll work in small groups with specific charges.

Session 2: Danielle Nicole DeVoss is going through and showing us a serious of visual rhetoric images including those that remediate existing images for political purposes.

• The iRaq ads
• Ready.Gov

Looking at the question “What is visual rhetoric?” from a number of different angles: teachers, WPAs, students. What gets taught and how do we teach it?

Brian Huot gives me a cite for a text that looks at (among other things) how children come to literacy visually. Language Stories & Literacy Lessons Hurste, Woodward, Burke (Boyton/Heinemann, 1983).

Working in break out groups on limitations and possibilities of technology in the composition classroom. I also spent some time playing with mrpicassohead.com. See also Scott McCloud (author of Reinventing Comics) for looking at rhetoric, writing, and comics. www.scottmccloud.com

Session 3: Lee Odell on Visual Rhetoric and the Teaching of Writing

A quick and dirty on how to teach visual rhetoric to students for the "uninitiated" writing teacher. (Thinking about lots of stuff)
Thinking rhetorically about visual information and audience. Looking at the visual cues in traditional print text. Thinking about how to teach students about visual rhetoric. Thinking about it in terms of what students need to achieve with their projects and working from there. The function of the visuals that get used by students.

Fading fast in the afternoon!
Session 4: Janet Eldred

New and Improved: Second Generation WAC Programs
Looking at assessment, attrition rates, etc. and how they (U of K) made it through to the 2nd generation despite the negatives.

Session 5: Doug Eyman

Teaching Digital Composition/Digital Rhetoric

What is Technology?
Writing is a technology (Dennis Baron)
Writing is Visual (Diana George)

What is Composition
Multiplicity of representation Modes Gunther Kress
Carlos Salinas

DigiRhet.net
Community
Critical Engagement
Practical Application

Bill Hart Davidson draws me in to the evil that is Flickr Badges! Here is the evil that is Flickr badges (keyword: writing).

www.flickr.com

Next up is the roundtable that I am participating in so I probably shouldn't blog at the same time. :-)

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