Andrea Beaudin

With the near ubiquity of online and hybrid instruction, learning management systems (LMSs) have been touted as a singular, often “one size fits all” mode of course delivery. Many departments and institutions, citing concerns over security and ease of student adaptation, have mandated specific LMSs for classes. Yet such directives often neglect the importance of pedagogy and, ultimately, academic freedom. Kimball (2005) and Palmquist (2006) both argue that technology is, in essence, pedagogy—the digital means of instruction is as much an expression of course (and instructor) values and goals as the course content and assignments. An LMS, therefore, constitutes a rhetoric. However, this relationship between LMSs and rhetoric has yet to be explored. For this purpose, I rhetorically analyze two popular LMSs used in the composition classroom, Blackboard Learn and Moodle, as a means for constructing each system’s vision of the instructor-student relationship and the “work” of the composition course. The goal of this analysis is to provide instructors and departments a basis for an informed, empowered, and productive dialogue about the adaptation of specific learning management systems.

#4c13: the Twitter hashtag for the 2013 convention of the Conference on College Composition and Communication (C's). What would a bunch of composition instructors have to tweet? How much did we tweet and when, who was tweeting, and what were we, as C’s attendees, all a-Twitter about?
For this review, I've used the free online apps Text Analyzer and Taxgedo to crunch the numbers and sift through and analyze the data. I also randomly selected and categorized some tweets to share.

If the purpose of technical communication instruction is to provide future practitioners with a theoretical and practical foundation to engage in technical communication, how do we bridge academic theory with “real world” new media praxis? Today, technical communicators must not only be good writers; they must have a degree of new media literacy. Enter the new media lab. At Texas Tech University (TTU), the Multiple Literacy Lab (MuLL) provides a practical playground of sorts for students to use multimedia tools of the trade and to engage in technical communication, both theoretically and practically

2014 CCCC presentation, arguing that the philosophy driving the creation and continuing development of the Writing Studio (http://writing.colostate.edu) positively influences user (student writer, writer, writer teacher, teacher) experience and learning.

As the recent exchange between Selfe and Hesse (2009) makes clear, the very definition of the nature of our work is subject to question. Are we teachers of writing (composing only with words) or teachers of rhetoric (using Ruskiewicz’s definition to encompass composing using a variety of media)? We need look only as far as the CCCCs to see how the lines are drawn—not in the content of the presentations, but in their delivery. While some follow the so-called “traditional” form by reading from a printed essay at such events, others are calling upon other methods, most notably using Power Point. Though our presentations often explore such issues as teaching to a variety of learning styles and the importance of interactivity in the classroom, the presentation deliveries themselves are often in contradiction to the concepts conveyed.  One should consider how we, as a profession, would assess our rhetorical efficacy in this space in which we aim to inform, provoke, convince, and even, at times, shock our peers.
While this presentation will in no way claim to set the gold standard for presentation style, it will explore the historical foundations of our current conference presentation practices as well as propose ways to “re-theorize” the conference itself. The question is not simply why do we “do” our presentations the way we do, but whether we have a professional obligation to be crafting and delivering them differently.

As many composition instructors move to integrate multimedia assignments into their classes, they face a new dilemma: how to assess what is often, for both teacher and student, unfamiliar in both medium and mode of expression. The development of clear assessment guidelines is vital for effective learning, as these can assure students, department chairs, and administrators of the pedagogical validity of such assignments. This session will guide participants from pedagogy to practice, helping them to develop criteria for multimodal assessment.