Pedagogy & Technology
This page gathers some of the most common ways CWRL instructors integrate technology and teaching in computer classrooms.
Blogging in the CWRL
The CWRL has switched to Drupal-powered blogs. Staffers can keep a blog on the main website (details here), but if you want to use blogs in your classes, you may want to set up your own installation of Drupal at instructors.cwrl.utexas.edu. Refer to the Guide for Drupal Administrators for the technical ins and outs.
Another option is to pick one of the top blogging sites—Blogger, Wordpress, Vox, Typepad—, and set up your own account. Then, invite all your students to be contributors by finding the setting option that allows you to add contributors, and you have an instant window on the learning process for each of your students.
Use a blog as a class homepage
If you update your page frequently, blogs might be a good option. Blogs allow you to make updates on the web (bypassing standard ftp) and arrange posts chronologically. A blog homepage is a fluid text, reacting to and recording classroom events. Because a blog is much more interactive than a traditional class website, the class page is transformed from a mere tool to an integral aspect of the discourse of the class.
The class webpage can be used not only as an administrative aid, but also as a reflective space for instructors and students alike. Instructors can elaborate on course content, reflect on events in class, and solicit reactions from students. Students can use the commenting function to ask questions or add comments. New questions or directions for the class can arise from this interchange. Comments aren't as flexible as discussion forums, but can achieve many of the same effects, right there on the homepage. Adventurous instructors can add students as authors of the class blog, creating a group writing community in cyberspace.
Have students keep blogs
Blogs could be a sort of electronic notebook accessible from any connected computer. Individual blogs could replace some sorts of journals (though remember they are by nature public) or be a place for recording and evaluating on-line sources. As a side-effect of keeping a blog, students may find themselves engaged in an on-line discourse community, because bloggers tend to read and link to one another.
Study blogs as a rhetorical form
If you are interested in blogs but are wary about committing to them, consider designing a unit that looks at blogs as rhetorical entities. Depending on the goals of a particular course, the blogosphere could become the focus of class conversation. For instance, the concept "blog" begs a definitional question--"What is one? How do you know? What are the criteria which differentiate them from other web pages?" Evaluative arguments might also be made (What makes a blog "good"? or Is this a reliable source?), and also causal arguments that look at the implications of self-publishing, instant communications, etc.
Once you've become familiar with the capabilities of our blogware and explored the blogosphere a little, you will no doubt come up with ideas of your own. For further reading on blogs, see "Welcome to the Blogosphere: Using Weblogs to Create Classroom Community," by CWRL instructors Tom Nelson and Jan Fernheimer.
Course Forums
CWRL forums are now administered with Drupal. This page explains how to create a topic, reply to a topic, and how to set up an account.
Creating a Forum Topic (Instructors)
At the beginning of the semester, all CWRL classes will have forums accessible through http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/?q=forum. To add a new topic to your forum, simply log-in and choose create content>forum topic. Make sure you add the new topic to the appropriate class forum: select your class from the drop-down Forums menu (above the Body field).
Replying to a Topic (Students and Instructors)
Although anyone can read a forum topic and comments, you must log in to reply (account details below). You can either reply directly to the topic by filling out the form at the bottom of the page displaying the active topic and replies, or you can make a threaded reply to a particular comment by clicking on the reply link under the comment in question.
Creating an Account (Students)
To create an account, click on Log In at the top right of the screen. Then choose the register tab and fill in your user name* and e-mail address. This e-mail address will receive a message with your password and instructions, so make sure it is accurate. If you do not see receive an e-mail with the subject 'Account details for ______' within a few minutes, check your bulk/junk mail folder.
*Your user name must be your first and last name. Accounts with nicknames will be deleted.
Course Websites
Course websites, which can range from utilitarian to the most highly sophisticated, are popular with both students and instructors. Sites can include course documents such as schedules, paper assignments, and course policies, and can provide a space for class announcements and updates, assignments, student work, link pages, discussion forums and more. Examples of some recent class homepages can be viewed from the CWRL's Online Courses page.
Instructors now have the option of using the Content Management System Drupal to create course sites. See the Guide for Drupal Administrators for details.
Designing Projects & Activities
Print-based projects
Students can explore the rhetorical advantages and disadvantages of different varieties of visual design by utilizing the graphics, design and desktop publishing programs available on all CWRL computers--programs such as Flash, Fireworks, and Photoshop. They can explore the rhetorical possibilities inherent in print document design using such desktop publishing programs as InDesign.
Web-based projects
In-class web exercises and web-authoring projects engage students while allowing instructors to focus the class' scrutiny on rhetorical principles. The web can bring a wide variety of materials from the outside world into the classroom, and enable students to interact with and receive feedback from many non-academic sources. Students can analyze the political rhetoric of campaign sites, discuss the rhetorical impact of design principles, compare competing discourses, sample newsgroup and bulletin board discussions--imagination being perhaps the only limiting factor to pedagogical possibilities of the Internet.
Multimedia projects
Advanced users can create interactive, multimedia teaching materials that integrate text, sound, graphics, and video with such professional-quality programs as Director, Premier, Peak, or iMovie.
MOO-based projects
The CWRL's Mappe Mundi is a web-based virtual environment where students and teachers can explore and create shared worlds, interact with a variety of responsive characters, find pockets of learning tools and activities, and meet with others in "MOO-space" for classes, collaboration, and discussion. Instructors of rhetoric are finding that role-playing exercises in this environment are an extremely helpful way to give students a deeper appreciation of positionality, audience, and context as they put themselves in the position of the players in a given social situation or issue. See the MOO Resources page.
Managing Your Teacher Folder
This tutorial, written by Tracey Watts, will show CWRL instructors how to access their teacher folder and change folder permissions on both PCs and Macs. It also points users to web sites that have the programs necessary to access their teacher folder from home. The programs are available for free. Students can find information on how to access the teacher folder on both cwrl computers and their personal computers.
NOTE: As of Fall 2005, your teacher folder has been expanded to include a "public_html" folder, which can be used for your websites, and a "private" folder, which can be used to store personal files that others cannot access. In addition to those two default folders, you can create others that your students will have access to for assignment submission and the like.
Opening the teacher folder from a cwrl Mac
When you log on to one of the Macs, the first box you see will appear like the one below. If you choose not to open your teacher folder now and close the box, you can re-open it later in the session. Simply click to open the All Applications folder on the desktop, and scroll down to "teacher_open." The dialog box will appear again.
At the following prompt, enter the teacher's last name.
The following box will appear. Log in using the password that you've set for your inital log-on to all cwrl computers.
A globe with the teacher's name beneath it will then appear on the desktop, just below the the globe marking the transfer volume.
Opening this globe will bring you access to the set of folders that are relevant to your course.
Creating new folders and setting permissions using a Mac
Open the Transmit program. In the dialog box that appears, enter syverson.cwrl.utexas.edu as the server and port 1701. Log in with the user name and password that you use to access all cwrl computers.
Once you're connected, a box like the one below will appear. Your folders will be on the left hand side. In order to create a new folder, simply click on the "New Folder" icon in the main menu.
A box like the one below will appear. Name the folder and hit "ok."
The new folder will then appear in the left side space of the main dialog box. At this point, you'll need to set the permissions for your folder. To do so, go to the File menu, and select the "Get Info" tab.
The following box will pop up. Under permissions, you must click all three buttons corresponding to "User" and "Group." What you choose to give the World, however, is up to you. Marking "read" will allow users to read files, while "write" will allow them to write. "Execute" should always be checked.
Once you've set these permissions, each folder within that original will have the same permissions that you just set. The change, in other words, goes down through the generations of folders.
Accessing your teacher folder from home, using a Mac
You'll need to download an FTP program in order to log in to the system. Fugu is a good option, and you can reach it here: http://rsug.itd.umich.edu/software/fugu/.
Opening the teacher folder from a cwrl PC
Open the Teacher-Transfer Folders icon on the desktop. If you are logged on to the cwrl computers as an instructor, the following screen will appear.
Select the folder with your name on it. This is your teacher folder.
Creating new folders and setting permissions using a PC
To create new folders and set permissions on your teacher folder using a PC, first connect to the server using a secure FTP (SFTP). On the cwrl computers, you can click on the SSH Secure File icon (a folder with a ring of blue dots over it) at the menu bar at the bottom of the screen. The following box will appear.
Click on the Quick Connect link. Enter syverson.cwrl.utexas.edu as the host name and 1701 as the port. The user name, as well as the password you'll next be asked for, will be the same as you currently use to gain entry to cwrl computers.
Choose the New Folder icon in the menu bar just above the Remote Name series of folders (on the right side). This icon is the folder with the starry graphic on the upper right corner of the folder. A new folder will then appear under Remote Name, and you'll be prompted to name it. Then right-click on the folder that you wish to set permissions for.
Choose Properties.
Under permissions, you must click all three buttons corresponding to "Owner" and "Group." What you choose to give the Other, however, is up to you. Marking "read" will allow users to read files, while "write" will allow them to write. "Execute" should always be checked. Once you've set these permissions, each folder within that original will have the same permissions that you just set. The change, in other words, goes down through the generations of folders.
Accessing your teacher folder from home, using a PC
If you wish to access your teacher folder from home, you can download the SSH program for free from UT. Go to http://www.utexas.edu/its/bevoware/ to view a list of downloads. SSH is listed along with many other downloads under the heading Utilities. Once you've installed SSH, you can then follow the instructions given above for using the teacher folder.
Mind Mapping Software
This page provides some resources for OmniGraffle and Novamind, programs for combining graphics and text on CWRL Macs.
NovaMind and MindMapping
Novamind is a program based on the principles of mind mapping developed by Tony Buzan. (See The Mind Mapping Book, available in the CWRL library.) NovaMind is a truly intuitive program that students can pick up in a few minutes, and so is useful for in class invention or organization exercises.
Creating a mind map:
About mind maps
Guidelines: electronic
NovaMind tutorials
Sample Mind Map created with NovaMind
OmniGraffle and Paper Puzzles
OmniGraffle is a program that allows users to link different shapes and pieces of text. It is useful for engaging with difficult texts by encouraging close reading and making connections among components clearer. OmniGraffle is a bit harder to learn than NovaMind but has more power.
Overview of Synchronous Chat
Synchronous chat sessions can be very useful in or out of class activities for stimulating discussion, invention, or analysis.
This page will provide an overview of why you would might want to use synchronous chat and what resources are available.
Why Synchronous Chat
The utility of chat for out-of-class communication is clear; however, it may seem odd to be engaged in online conversation in a classroom setting.
It's also a major mission of our web development: maintaining and updating past resources by retrofitting our MOO and iChat pages to new technology. This new node will include a sort of overview for teachers (like these profiles and links to our missing iChat assignments and an
Resources
The CWRL provides a few options of hosting and transcribing chat sessions.
- Our MOO, MappeMundi, is still available, but has become unstable. We do not recommend relying on it too heavily.
- Psi, an open source chat program, is now available. See our documentation for it.
Chatzy a quick and easy html chat program you can do without an extra program and creating accounts. (Good for a quick in-class session.)
Software Supporting Instruction
Online research
While not a substitute for a trip to the library, much research can be fruitfully begun online, and many, many resources are now available for this purpose. Students can search the Web, the UT Library catalog, or access the many (often full-text) online databases that are available from the UT Library Online homepage. Additionally, instructions for efficiently using a wide range of online resources are now available to both students and instructors in the form of the UT Library System's Tilt Tutorial.
Documenting sources
Using programs such as Endnote, students can learn to properly document their work and to format their citations according to MLA guidelines.
Record-keeping and class management
Many instructors utilize spreadsheet programs such as Excel or FileMaker Pro as grade books, using them to calculate grades and keep track of assignments and rosters. Blackboard, an automated course webpage provided by UT to all instructors, also keeps track of rosters and grades, provides a space for announcements, assignments and other course documents, and has other utilities.
Evaluating student work
Former CWRL Director Peg Syverson's Learning Record Online integrates research, assessment, and teaching and learning practices for computer-enhanced literacy development. The Learning Record provides a format for documenting student progress and achievement, based on interviews, observations over time, samples of students' naturally occurring work, and well-supported interpretations of learning across five dimensions. More comprehensive information is available at the LRO website.