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Date:         Fri, 11 Sep 1992 21:22:47 -0400
From:         Margaret.Daisley@ENGLISH.UMASS.EDU
Subject:      Reply to Re: (Fwd: *C&CD*) Suspicion, par

Hi! I usually lurk, due to my current gradworm status (still reading material
for upcoming QE, just starting area studies, fantasizing about a research
project that will lead to a dissertation...)  But Robert Royar's discussion
(lament?) touched a lot of buttons.
    I, too, find myself coming into the English dept. through a back door, or
a side door.  When I come across a phrase in my reading such as, "we all came
into this profession because of our love of literature ...." (e.g. Elbow's
WHAT IS ENGLISH?) I find myself feeling marginalized.  I still remember
blithely inscribing hundreds of o's on lined paper at a pre-literate stage and
asking my mother what I had just written.  I love the act of writing, for some
reason.  And I love it when my students get turned on to their own acts of
writing.
    But here's a little story about a "bridge" between the comp and lit factions
that I "accidently" facilitated in our dept. last semester:  I was auditing an
undergraduate Brit.lit course to help me get through the Romantics.  The
faculty member teaching the course seemed very interested in how to integrate
some up-to-date composition methods.  I was teaching in the writing program's
computer lab and noticed that one of the labs was open at the time the Brit.lit
course met, so I asked this professor if he would be interested in having his
class participate in an on-line discussion (we use Interchange) during one of
the class meetings.  He was.  I got clearance to use the lab.  He made plans
to spend the session having the class discuss Keats' "Ode to Autumn" and
formulated some questions to open the discussion.
     It only took about ten minutes to get everyone (about 18 students) up and
running.  And, as all of you who have had successful, fruitful synchronous
on-line discussions can imagine, the result was what Jos.Campbell would have
categorized as "bliss."  It was an intensely imaginative discussion, with
comments bouncing off other comments, with many questions and answers posed,
etc.  I had spent the previous month in the "regular" classroom with these
students and had seen the usual pattern of discussion -- a few highly verbal,
a few totally silent, and that large middle ground of spora dic contributors.
When the class time was up, I felt as if I had to awaken everyone from a lovely
dream -- no one had noticed the clock; everyone was still expounding away. I
gave the prof a transcript of the session, he had it photocopied for everyone,
and we had a discussion (in the "regular" classroom) about the experience the
next class meeting.  One student, who was a frequent contributor to class
discussions, said that she had gone into the computer lab prepared for some
dry, mechanical exercise.  Another student said (my favorite comment): "I
can't believe how articulate we all sounded!"
     Result of story: the prof was so "turned on" that when budget planning
came up, he decided to propose a "fantasy expense" (since the dept. could
barely afford to buy paper clips at the time): a computer lab for the lit end
of the dept.  I just learned tonight, at a Writing Program picnic, that "your
convert" (as the faculty members referred to him) now has another ally in
the lit. faction and they are going to continue to push for some technology
that will support literature classes.
     I have my own fantasy:  I don't think we need a chicken in every pot, or
a computer in every classroom.  However, I          do think every student
needs access to word processing, and every dept. needs access to a "conference
room" with on-line discussion capabilities.  Not every lit.person will want
to use it, of course, because there are still some whose goal is to pontifi-
cate.  But for those who wish that they could pass on their "love" of lit
to their students, on-line discussion seems to facilitate that aim.  I think
part of that "love" comes from loving to discuss all the nuances of a piece
of text.  Regular class discussions rarely seem to get those juices flowing.
CMC almost always does, in my limited experience.
Margaret Daisley@UMass.EDU
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU