Professor of English, Indiana University Kokomo
Course Description We live in a time forever transformed by scientific discovery and humankind’s drive to understand and control the natural world. Scientific and technological advancements in the West have made the present moment what it is—from smartphones to vaccines to NASA’s experimental plasma propulsion systems, science and technology are the twin engines of the… Continue reading ENG-W 221: Writing in the Life Sciences
This summer, as the world burned, the coronavirus raged, and the body count from police-assisted killings edged ever upward, I read Brian Jackson's wonderful new book Teaching Mindful Writers and wondered, "How can I pay my respects to the world-historical events of this summer in a way that both honors the enormity of what's going… Continue reading “This Time It’s Personal” Media Project 1: Looking In (ENG-W 131)
Yes, we should all probably be teaching online in Fall 2020. But the powers-that-be have decided, at least for some of us, that we are going to carry on with face-to-face teaching, even as they explain to us in calm, reassuring terms the conditions of our own demise. If we must head back to campus,… Continue reading Teaching in Fall 2020: Ten Strategies for Pandemic Learning
Mind over Chatter: Essential Skills for Navigating the Post-Truth Era is a series of five interactive, Canvas-based learning modules designed specifically for first-year college students and aimed at curbing the spread of problematic information in our time. Made possible by a generous grant from the Rita Allen Foundation and RTI International, these modules can be… Continue reading Mind over Chatter: Essential Skills for Navigating the Post-Truth Era
"The professor's role in this new digital learning environment is not to play the role of the master of content; it is to be the master of resourcefulness. In this role, the teacher models how to think in the face of an endless torrent of information." Richard E. Miller, "On Digital Reading," Pedagogy, 2016, vol.… Continue reading Digital Info Literacy & Online Learning in a Pandemic
This graduate-level special topics course in rhetoric and composition studies focuses on the intersections of mindfulness, misinformation, and media in recent scholarly discussions.
This fully-online, graduate-level course is an introduction to—and a history of—the field of writing studies, which goes by various names, including “composition studies,” “rhetoric and composition studies,” “composition-rhetoric,” and sometimes “rhet-comp.” This course historicizes approaches to writing instruction in the West going back as far as classical antiquity, it surveys writing studies' major movements and moments in the mid- to late 20th century in the US, and it speculates about the teaching of writing well into the 21st century. Together we study the major concepts, themes, debates, and politics of the discipline; investigate the theoretical assumptions and historical foundations that underpin the various movements within writing studies (e.g., expressivism, Writing Across the Curriculum, critical pedagogy, social constructivism, post-process, etc.); and explore the impact of digital technologies on the teaching of writing.
Paul Cook 