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Date:         Tue, 29 Sep 1992 08:05:31 -0700
From:         James Crosswhite <JCROSS@OREGON.BITNET>
Subject:      Computer Travels

  OK, more results of my computer travels. First, an aside:
when I was on the UP two weeks ago, the leaves were already
starting to fire up. 20% according to the Weather Channel.
(And by the way, whose job is it to measure the changes in
the color of leaves? Are there professional Autumn trackers?
Do they use special color-sensing instruments? What a job! -
-only seasonal, though, unless you get multi-hemispheric
contracts). I didn't understand what caused some groups of
trees to turn before others. Is it the microclimates? The
species and sub-species? From the air, there would be acres
of red splashed through the green. On a drive south from
Houghton, a quarter mile of red and orange, then green,
green, green, orange, green. I love the way the leaves and
light make the air seem visible. A real shower of light.
Just the 20% change was sufficient to cheer up my taxi
driver on the two trips to the fogged-in Houghton/Hancock
airstrip. Oh yeah, if you fly into Houghton, be prepared to
stay longer than you'd planned. And if you're not used to
the kind of food they prepare there (sorry, but I wasn't),
there's always Marie's. A real haven.
   To the subject. Bob Boston and Eric Crump have recently
made this into a question, and it's something I've been
thinking about since the beginning of my project. There's a
natural tendency to want to teach students how to use the
computers instead of teaching them how to write. Eric Crump
insists that these two things are connected, and I wouldn't
want to deny that I see some connection, but the connection
I see is relatively slight. On my campus, we teach written
reasoning, and when we focus consistently on question,
thesis, reasons, structures--the global issues of an
argumentative essay--we make a lot of progress. Any time we
spend on formatting, fonts, style sheets, and so on is time
taken away from our primary goals. It's different, I think,
for tech writing or professional writing or business
writing. There the connection is closer. Although there the
danger of conflating the teaching of writing with the
teaching of computer use is probably greater, too.
  A course in written reasoning, which is what our first
year composition course is, is not a course on what the
computer will do, or what current software can do. We can't
teach everything, but we can teach a few things well. I'm
hoping to use a fairly simple word processor, one that can
be learned quickly, or else use a powerful word processor
which can be used to write and revise efficiently with only
a little training. The purpose of the word processor will be
to make writing and revising easier. I want to make the
technology a medium instead of an object as quickly as
possible.
  However, I also want to recognize that there's a lot of
interest in what the machines can do, so when my ideal
computer classrooms become labs in the evenings, they will
be full of complicated and powerful programs for students
and teachers to experiment with. Consultants will offer one-
shot workshops on features of the programs and will be
available to help out whoever's interested in learning more
about the powers of the machines.
   This obviously leads to a question about what else
computers are useful for in the program I'm dreaming up.
I'll wait until tomorrow to develop the point, but I'll say
now that the single greatest use I'm envisioning now, one
that will help us realize our goals more effectively rather
than set new goals for us, is to use networked computers to
increase the kinds of and opportunities for written
communication.
   Bis Morgen,

Jim Crosswhite  jcross@oregon.uoregon.edu
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU