I haven't actually blown up a computer yet...but it's only a matter of time...

The Dell I owned was definitely put through its paces during my undergrad years. I remember the day I got my first laptop (the aforementioned Dell laptop), for high school graduation. The sense of freedom that came from owning my own piece of technology was wonderful. After four years it, however, did require a new hard drive. (Because who needs virus protection in a dorm right?) Haha. Not.

Of course this wasn't my first experience with computers. I remember my dad used to bring home old desktops that had "died" (so to speak) and let my younger sister and I loose with screwdrivers to take them apart. I ended up using the shiny bits of metal to accessorize my Barbie Dream House, while she ended up actually figuring out how to fix what she had broken. This anecdote combined with the death of my Dell may explain better than I can my ensuing relationship with computers.

As a student, I use my computer for the internet, Microsoft Word and iTunes.

As for finding it (my computer) "necessary," I don't presume to suppose I could live without it. Having had social, economic and academic access to computers for the majority of my life, I do find the convenience hard to do without. I learned the "home row" method of typing in third grade and I had my first email address for almost 10 years before I upgraded. My fifth grade teacher let me use the classroom computers (I remember when my elementary school got all new Macs...big day)to send emails to my dad from school.

To separate my personal use of computers to the ways I use them as an instructor isn't much. I expect, as Wysocki states, my students to compose on computers only to print them out so I can comment in pen. I communicate with my students via email and require a multimedia project at the end of the semester. But because I didn't (and don't) have much technical knowledge of how computers actually work and don't know how to run anything beyond the most basic of programs; I feel as though I can't expect my students to learn these things from me in a competant manner.

I enjoyed the fact that Wysocki chose, and noted such, not to define new media until almost 20 pages into the book. Her discussion of the materiality of writing, and her entreaty to writing teachers to understand the ways they teach/ understand materiality, had to be discussed before her definition could make sense. I completely agree with her theory that and 8.5"x11" piece of paper with linear text is different than an interactive web page in how it encourages readers to react and engage. Of course she expressed my thoughts in much more detail than I ever could...

I realized today while reading, and actually teaching that I am jealous of the advantages/ and challenges that computer technology provides students with in this technoculture that surrounds me as a teacher. As an example, I was doing a crash course on MLA citation today and they (my students) were bemoaning the Maimon handbook. I attempted to explain to them that this was the way I had to learn citation formatting. No EasyBib or Citation Machine for me. The relatively easy to understand spiral-bound Maimon manual provoked a completely different reaction for them than it does me. Whereas I see those citation machines as the easy way out (my disdain does not allow me to interact with sites such as these) they see the way I was teaching them as old fashioned. Materiality and the way it functions at its finest.

It made me think about my assignment...

As I was reading "Made Not Only in Words," I was considering Yancey's point about how technology seems to be infiltrating (in a good or bad way, I haven't come to the conclusion yet) our composition classrooms. That is her most basic argument, but it made me consider the assignment I will be handing to my students in approximately 2.5 weeks. I revised it over the summer and now I think it perfectly applies to this article.

The assignment is an argument paper on whether or not texting is affecting students' writing ability. And by ability, I mean the way of writing a traditional academic paper. I actually text quite a bit myself, but when a student pulls out a phone in my class, for some reason I want to throw it against a wall. Yet I have to agree with Yancey's point that those thousands of texts add up. Not unlike the stupid Facebook profile write-ups and "25 things about me" surveys, they (they, being students) are writing...

It is safe to say, that because they aren't being forced to write, that students don't even realize the sheer number of words they put down (on screen or in print) a day. It's astonishing. Thus, despite my abhorrence of people texting when they should be writing their essay for my class, I can't help but think that as long as students communicate on a regular basis through words, then it can't be anything but good.