I decided to put this site together after a conversation I had with a colleague here at Eastern Michigan University about teaching in one of our department computer labs. He had lots of good ideas about teaching writing but he didn't know what to do with the computers in the room in the most literal sense.

I posted a message to the wonderful acw-l listserv and lots of suggestions, links, and ideas followed.

Here are some disclaimers: I personally don't do all of these things and wouldn't recommend all of these activities. And I certainly am not suggesting that you try to do all or even most of these activities in a particular class. I've included an eclectic variety of ideas here thinking that if some of these idea works for someone, it's a good thing, and I'd rather give people the opportunity to make their own decisions about what they think are good (or bad) ideas.

About half of what's here are based on my own experiences; the other half or so of what's here are suggestions that folks sent to me via e-mail, and I simply "cut and pasted" them onto these pages. I haven't done a lot of editing of those suggestions, and I also haven't made any separation in terms of level of complexity or the like. Some of these activities might be more appropriate in a first year writing class, some of them might be more appropriate in an upper-level advanced writing class, etc.

Most of what's here are just ideas to get you started-- inevitably, you'll need to do more research in order to make these things work.

In short, your mileage may vary.

If you've got an idea for teaching in computer labs of all types, send it to me, skrause@online.emich.edu and I'll include it.

In the meantime, I'd like to thank the following for their contributions. Because I've done a lot of "cutting and pasting" to put these pages together, I have lost track of who suggested what, but I just want everyone to know that these are the folks who offered some ideas in the first place.

 

Stuart Blythe Todd Taylor Sylvia Edwards Peter Sands

Alex Babione Arlene DeLeon Lori Mathis

And my Winter 2000 English 516 students

 

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