We now have teachers of writing and communication who have always lived in a digital world: had access to the Internet, had email, and have grown up with social media. For these teachers (and the rest of us as well), digital resources have become ubiquitous. As teachers, we are participants in this digital evolution and are acutely aware that many digital resources are beneficial both to teaching and to society at large. Writing and communication scholarship offers several interrelated theoretical discussions about teaching with digital resources, often as a subset of or interlinked with discussions about multiliteracies, multimodality, and multimedia. Regardless of how we perceive digital technology, with limitless possibilities or as a slippery slope toward a dystopic future, digital technology is here to stay, and our pedagogies must reflect this reality. As teachers, we need to leverage technology in ways that help students think critically about their own technological choices. This talk will discuss ways to ensure that students become agents of their digital futures as well as consider how digital tools can be used for learning, teaching, and researching in the 21 century.
April 18-19, 2019 – Invited Talk – Iowa State in Ames, IA