The Fifth C: Computers, Special Interest Group Session. CCCC1995, Washington, DC

Sponsored by the CCCC Committee on Computers in Composition andCommunication

Eric Crump, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri

Judi Kirkpatrick, Kapi'olani Community College, Honolulu, Hawaii

[1995, Washington] [1996,Milwaukee] [1997, Phoenix][1998, Chicago]

Session Report for the 1995 SIG

All the responses from folks at the 5th C SIG meeting areorganized into the representative categories which those at themeeting identified. It seemed more useful to include all commentsabout each category together, so I've integrated the lists. I've notrepeated any comments which were phrased identically, or nearly so. Ihad to use some personal judgement on a few responses in order todecide which category the ideas fit best. Once which seemed to beunique are in the miscellaneous category at the bottom. While I'msure I've manipulated the info somewhat (and I admit that I added aword some place), I think the majority of info here fairly reproducesthe information collected at the meeting.

The line in ALL CAPS indicates the category name; the followingparenthetical number indicates the number of groups which dealt withthe issue.

traci gardner
traci@daedalus.com

COMPENSATION...RESPECT & CREDIT (4)

-- Professional recognition and compensation for our roles as computer-oriented scholars, including publications about computers and publication in e-journals.

-- Pedagogical validation

-- Language credit for computer languages/environments -- Time commitments

-- Get it established as a way of gaining national respect, i.e., scholarship -- List of electronic sources

-- Rel. of 5th C and 7Cs -- advocacy?

-- Employment -- tenure and long-term employment -- Faculty development

-- Overload, burnout, early retirement

 

ACCESS...AUTHORITY (5)

-- E-mail for all profs and grad students -- E-mail for all students

-- Universal access for post-secondary students to Internet -- Directories of resources to accompany e-mail access -- Community colleges --> student access to material and lines & cultural connections, universities' access)

-- Students need to have access; empower but don't mandate -- Have/Have Not; students getting on computers, control of labs, etc.

-- Have/Have Not -- exclusion of economically disadvantaged from cybercommunity -- Electronic literacy

-- Who controls the tools?

-- Oversight -- keep red tape out of our business. Don't limit access to MOO or listservs

-- Censorship -- when, how, do we?

-- Minority access -- certain environments used more often by minorities -- also the same groups that access is limited to -- Hardware, materials, lines, gigabytes, processor speed -- Hardware --> availability, poor quality, funding, finding ways to replace and supplement existing equipment

 

INTERNET POLICY (3)
[This category probably overlaps in content and focus with Access/Authority] -- Future of WWW: implications

-- WWW

-- Classroom

-- Corporate

-- Budget

-- Creating web servers

-- Censorship of WWW -- Policy needs to be stated; religious advocates want to restrict access [censorship is also listed with access above] -- On-line writing support through netscape -- Counteract move toward charging for Internet access

 

TRAINING & PEDAGOGY (3)

-- Professional training, pedagogical training to include computer component -- How teachers get trained -- survival

 

DEFINITIONS (3)

-- Computers in English Departments _aren't_ computer science but the current, relevant tools of language transmission and production, and therefore well within our domain and duty

-- Definition of "work"

-- Definition of "learning"

-- Definition of "computer literacy" and "electronic literacy" -- Computer literacy (ESL+)

 

POLITICAL ACTION (3)

-- Health

-- Radiation Health

-- Realities

-- Outreach to K-12

-- CCCC Policy recommendations/standards for computer literacy -- CCCC Articulate a position on legal liability of users/instructors/providers

 

MISCELLANEOUS (1)

-- Ownership -- of your own writing even when published on the net. University shouldn't own student/professor's writing/code.

-- Information Overload -- "da firehose"

-- we need new tools; intelligent tools

-- Communities in Cyberspace

--Is what they are doing authentic "work"?

-- Software

-- Depart from skill/drill