Teaching+With+Technology+Resources+and+Support

Web Resources for Teaching with Technology
Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) - A great writing resource for students, which includes information on the writing process, grammar and citation, research, writing in specific genres, and more. @http://owl.english.purdue.edu/

Troy Hicks' "Teaching Writing" wiki - CMU Assistant Professor of English Troy Hicks provides links to short instructional videos on tools such as RSS, Google Reader, wikis, blogs, and Google docs: http://eng315.wikispaces.com/Technology_Resources

WMU's Teaching English Through Technology Website - Dr. Allen Webb has created a website for English educators interested in using technology in their classrooms. @http://www.wmich.edu/teachenglish/

WMU's Faculty Technology Center - Not so much an online resource, but a description of technological services available to instructors. Don't forget to use the 10 free hours of work they will do for you each semester! @http://www.wmich.edu/ftc/services.html

Wikis
Collaborative webpages. A class wiki might center around research or could be a collaborative exploration of the writing process. Some free resources for creating wikis are:

http://www.wikispaces.com @http://pbworks.com/academic-campus.wiki

See Troy Hicks' eng315 wiki for examples of class anthologies published on wikispaces: http://eng315.wikispaces.com/Student_Wiki_Pages. Notice how his students use the wiki discussion page to comment on each others' drafts.

Blogs
Online journals or web logs. Students can create individual blogs or the instructor can create a class blog to which students can contribute. Free resources for creating blogs are:

@https://www.blogger.com/start @http://www.livejournal.com/

Websites
Class websites can be used to post readings & assignments, publish student work, host discussions, and more. @http://www.webs.com/ will get you started on building your own class website.

More Fun Stuff
Digital Stories - The Center for Digital Storytelling defines a digital story as "A short, first-person video-narrative created by combining recorded voice, still and moving images, and music or other sounds." Students can experiment with telling their story in a multi-media format and explore how this changes their writing. See examples at: @http://www.storycenter.org/.

Public Service Announcements - An alternative to the "argument essay." Check out the Ad Council website for examples: @http://www.adcouncil.org/default.aspx?id=15

Memes - Having your class research, analyze and create their own internet memes can be a fun way to look at the trajectory of texts and genres. Here's an NPR interview on the internet meme phenomena: @http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121931675. Also check out Rocketboom's Know Your Meme page: @http://www.rocketboom.com/category/know-your-meme/

Using Genre to Describe Genre - As a twist on the "unfamiliar genre" assignment, challenge your students to use the genre they are investigating to describe that genre. Here's a prescription for creating an Oscar-winning movie trailer, made as a movie trailer: @http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbhrz1-4hN4

Frequent Problems and Questions
New to Macs? Here's a "cheat sheet" to get you started:

Can't Print? Try clicking "File" then "Print" rather than the print icon on your document toolbar.

Trouble Connecting a Laptop to a Projector? Use the following keys to connect different laptops to a projector:

Dell: Fn + F8 HP/Conpaq: Fn + F4 Toshiba, IBM, Lenovo: Fn + F5 Fujitsu: Fn + F10