I just wanted to add a bit more to our discussion that we had today regarding html teaching practices. Having only been in the graduate program for a little less than a month and having not taught any classes obviously, it’s difficult to relate to all of you. I do however bring recent experience of being a “student” in the classroom (obviously so do all of you, but I’m confident I’m the youngest of the bunch). I’m a recent learner in html coding and such. Even up until a year ago I had no idea how coding worked. I guess I fall into the category of students unacquainted to the practice. Regardless, being an English major has always been clearly about writing, yet two years ago I found my interest which was the architectural structure of writing in relation to computers. With information architecture comes the demand to at least understand html coding and the basic structure that is involved with it, not just being able to operate specific web tools such as joomla or wordpress and even dreamweaver.

The know-how of recognizing the origin of a web based page is imperative to the aiding in the understanding of a web sites structure, or architecture. In order for a student to understand html teachings, it’s important to understand the oblivious state in which they’re most likely in (as we covered in class), as was I. More importantly, I believe it is in each individual teacher’s responsibility to tweak their pedagogical approaches to adhere to students needs, regardless the situation. Jeff pointed out the fact that he really doesn’t know any different when it comes to html coding, that’s just how he was brought up.

With that said, students need to be willing to step it up and learn the modern foundation for writing in society today, which involves computers. Along with that, they’re in need of stepping out of their comfort zone which regularly involves simply being entertained by the digital world but rather engaging in it. As Rea and White stated, “To work effectively within the medium, both instructors and students need to understand the medium itself, because it is not only changing culture, but also the means through which people communicate and share information.” (423) Once the teacher understands their role in adapting their pedagogical approach to adhere to the classroom environment, may that be html coding or simply writing and computers in general, as well as the student understanding their place and necessary cooperation with teachings, then both can coalesce and proceed to understand one another. Obviously if the student is not in mutual understanding with the teacher, the difficulties in educating that will arise are many. This is where the problem lies.