Cathy and Cynthia Selfe

Cynthis Selfe along with her frequent co-author have been encouraging and promoting a changing view of Technology and computers in composition studies. Cathy, very clearly in the beginning of her presentation, makes us aware of the diversity of Cynthia Selfe and her long list of areas of expertise.In her career Selfe has taught Hypertext theory, computers in writing , Grammar and Editing, Literature and Lore and .... Science Fiction. Seems to be a very versatile Gal - go girl. She apparently knows and writes about the Lore of the upper Peninsula of Michigan, Technical writing, Computers in pedagogy , Technical Communication and Visual Rhetoric!

Her first work was , The Benevolent Beast: Computer-Assisted Instruction for the teacher of Writing, 1983. In 1989 Selfe began writing with Hawisher as co-editors of Critical Perspectives on Computers and Composition. Besides her contribution to composition and computers, she also writes about Feminist theory in composition, literacy, educational reform, and writing comprehension. I am only guessing what is Writing comprehension. Could it be writing so others can easily understand your point, your argument? Would it be that the writer is literate enough - fluent and clear enough for the reader? Or is this about the reader ? The student of writing should be able to grasp what theories different authors prefer and how they apply those theories?

She and others would argue that visual information can be regarded as text, and that the power relationship between words and pictures is one that is not co-dependent, but rather it is inspirational. "Words inspire pictures just as pictures inspire words." This seems to me to be true and it is worthy of a reminder of it's truth. It has been true in fact before computers.

Summaries are always a good idea and Cathy's addition of Selfe's important ideas was helpful to this reader. The first point is that Selfe maintains that teachers must incorporate technology into the classrooms -and into their ( the teachers' )lives, because the students are using it. This one applies to me. Selfe would tell me that I must not let the gap between student and teacher to widen!

Secondly, we as teachers must not teach our students to be " indulgers "of technology ( by letting it be a babysitter, play games, or get carried away with "style alone." Instead we must teach them to be technology scholars.

Finally we must be aware of the power of technology to be a means of liberation or a means of oppression. In their article," The Rhetoric of Technology and the Electronic Writing Class," Selfe and Hawisher caution teachers that they must "assess ways in which the use of technology might shape, for better or for worse, their strategies for working with students."

It takes careful planning, they contend, to incorporate computers into our classes. We must not fall into the trap of continuing to make the teacher the lone power in the classroom, with teaching doing all the talking and students only listening, while not being encouraged to make contributions. They add also that drill and kill practice grammar software is also not a good use of computers in the classroom. ( I am not familiar with these kill and drill grammar exercises online) However, I would be interested to find out if these exercises could apply explicitly to give practice to L2 students in specific areas where they are weak or missing skills.

As with any new tools in the classroom, we must remain diligent to use technology in positive smart ways to help students continue their composition and discourse in a different ways.