As one who teaches research-focused first-year composition classes, the subject of online fact-checking, “fake news,” and information circulation has weighed heavily on my mind for some time now. I began approaching the topic four years ago by asking students to research the question “Does Mr. Rogers have tattoos?” (inspired by the popular internet meme which suggests just that). Despite developing activities over time to help my students with fact-checking, I found I learned more about about it from watching Catfish episodes than I ever did reading informational texts on digital literacy. The lack of approachable sources on this subject is…
Author: Kristin Ravel
Kristin Ravel
Dr. Kristin Ravel is an Assistant Professor of English at Rockford University. Her research interests encompass multimodality, digital media studies, ethics in communication, and feminist theory.
Title: Introduction to Enculturation, Issue 23: Perspectives and Definitions of Digital Rhetoric Author(s): Justin Hodgson and Scot Barnett Publication: Enculturation Publication date: November 22, 2016 Experience here/Website: http://enculturation.net/what-is-rhetorical-about-digital-rhetoric Image/Screen Capture: Although most of the DRC’s “Webtext of the Month” emphasize engaging and hypertextual composition innovations, the focus of this month’s webtext is an online, primarily text-based introduction to the recent issue of Enculturation. The introduction, written by Scot Barnett and Justin Hodgson, focuses on some general observations from the April 2015 Indiana Digital Rhetoric Symposium (IDRS), which brought together a number of rhetoric scholars to discuss what defines digital rhetoric.…
The biannual Thomas R. Watson Conference on Rhetoric and Composition was held a few weeks ago at the University of Louisville between October 20-22nd. 2016’s conference theme “Mobility Work in Composition: Translation, Migration, Transformation” explored how theory and research on mobility may impact teaching, scholarship, and administration. To celebrate the research and work of this conference, below you can find a series of panel and keynote reviews that explore diverse notions of mobility. If you as a reader or presenter would like to continue these discussions, please feel free to comment below the posts; we also encourage readers and panelists…
Presenters Brett Keegan, Syracuse University Nina Feng, University of Utah Roger Graves, University of Alberta Heather Graves, University of Alberta Geoffrey Rockwell, University of Alberta Review In the panel “Games, Play, and Design,” each of the presenters approached game integration into the composition classroom from different institutional contexts and theoretical perspectives. Yet, what tied these presentations together was the thoughtful level of research and discussion that explored how we, as instructors, may move beyond approaching games in the classroom as a single activity or even a more casual theme, toward creating games that encompass the goals of a particular course…