How to Conduct a Course-Based Computer Chat Room: Enabling a Space for Active Learning

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How to Conduct a Course-Based Computer Chat
Room: Enabling a Space for Active Learning

Certain strategies can enable successful chat
rooms in academic courses.                                     by Christyne A. Berzsenyi

Introduction                                    boards. Second, computer chat rooms
                                                immerse students in the act of writing to
Determining how much authority teach-           real audiences, raising their awareness of
ers of writing ought to share with students     audience issues as they exchange mes-
in computer-assisted classrooms is a peda-      sages. Third, chat rooms allow teachers
gogical decision with personal, rhetorical,     to engage the greatest number of students
political, and ethical implications. Schol-     in discussion at the same time. If students
ars such as Porter, Sullivan, Howard,           are not getting involved in conversation,
Takayoshi, Turkle, and others have noted        the medium is not being used to its full
that computer-assisted writing instruction      potential (Hawisher). Fourth, computer
presents challenges regarding how teach-        chat is an effective way to involve students
ers “should” and “could” mediate com-           in collaborative work. For example, stu-
munication with students. In particular,        dents can chat to form groups around
chat rooms, which are real-time written         common interests, exchange ideas for
message exchanges in computer                   developing collaborative projects, and
cyberspaces, are highly interactive, stu-       share course information. Fifth, chat room
dent-centered learning contexts. Instruct-      exchanges easily enable the teacher to
ing students on computer use, dealing           challenge students to a deeper under-
with their communication anxieties, ad-         standing of their responses by asking stu-
dressing inflammatory language use, and         dents to elaborate on a previous message.
reducing frustration are some of the tasks          Finally, computer chat rooms are well
teachers must perform while conducting          suited for developing spaces for coopera-
course-based chat rooms.                        tive learning. For example, students can
    Despite these obstacles, many good          exchange responses to course readings,
reasons exist for incorporating chat rooms      share strategies for a writing assignment,
into composition instruction. First of all,     and discuss other course components.
writing instruction must now accommo-           More specifically, I ask basic writing stu-
date electronic discourses and media be-        dents to read an essay and then post a
cause of the ever-increasing use of             message in the chat room to this ques-
technology. Students need to be proficient      tion, “What is the thesis, purpose, and
at e-mail, Web and database research,           audience of this short essay?” One stu-
computer software presentations, and            dent wrote, “The audience of this piece
electronic chat rooms and discussion            would probably be disabled veterans and

How to Conduct a Course-Based Computer Chat Room: Enabling a Space for Active Learning    165

  Copyright © 2000 by the National Council of Teachers of English. All rights reserved.
paraplegic people. The purpose and the-        straints and the features of the software
sis would be to inform people of virtual       such as message length, message retrieval,
reality and how it is enhancing the future.”   and message reply functions. Once stu-
This assignment requires all students to       dents have some initial instruction, they
present their analyses and allows each stu-    need the opportunity to practice messag-
dent to read the others’ responses to the      ing casually. For example, I once asked
same material, enabling the students to        students in a basic writing class to dis-
learn from each other. Further, such an        cuss what they did over the weekend that
exchange encourages a conversation of          included a Friday the college was closed
multiple viewpoints in an atmosphere of        due to bad weather. One student replied
cooperative learning, shifting some of the     by saying, “my house got washed away
responsibility of teaching from the in-        this weekend.” This message sparked
structor to the students.                      other students to discuss the effects of the
    By examining some of my own peda-          storm on their property, their work sched-
gogical trials, errors, and successes with     ules, and their lives. Here are two repre-
chat rooms, I here offer some strategies       sentative responses: “I had to drive all
for conducting effective participation         these weird detours to get home,” and “I
among students in such settings. I also        drove all the way to school and it was
discuss several models of teacher-student      closed.” Within this casual conversation,
interaction for developing the instructor’s    students experimented with the new com-
role in academic chat rooms.                   munication tool to get a feel for how one
                                               exchanges messages. Such an icebreaker
                                               session assures that students develop lit-
Enabling Students to Conference
                                               eracy in chat rooms before they engage in
It is important for students to know that      more task-oriented conferences. This “get-
academic chat rooms are not for enter-         ting acquainted” session enables success
tainment, as many Internet chat rooms          in subsequent messaging.
are. Rather, teachers must demonstrate             While some students will be experi-
that chat is a valuable writing tool for       enced with computer chat rooms, others
learning and communication. Accord-            are unfamiliar with them and may initially
ingly, the benefits and drawbacks of com-      feel inadequate about participating. These
municating with chat should be discussed       students need encouragement and some
with students before they actually start       time to learn how the medium constrains
their dialogue. For example, I have found      and enables their message exchange. For
it is effective to ask students to compare     example, an adult male technical writing
oral communication with chat room dis-         student expressed his frustration with his
cussion and print writing in terms of the      first experience in an academic chat room.
length of messages, opportunities for in-      As our first chat conference, I asked stu-
teraction, the lack of physical presence,      dents to share project ideas and to form
and so forth have been effective. In doing     collaborative groups, according to their
so, teachers enable more productive use        mutual interests and goals. Brad ex-
of the chat room and prevent apathetic         plained:
or overly playful attitudes of unsuccess-         We were assigned to brainstorm amongst
ful conferencing.                                 ourselves to come up with ideas for propos-
    To begin computer conferences, teach-         als and to form groups. I thought that this
ers need to introduce students to the con-        was a great idea to help get the ball rolling

166                                                                  TETYC, December 2000
and to break the pressure of the assignment.     ness about their writing. However, guided
   However, it turned out to be inefficient for     chat room interaction with practice and
   me because I couldn’t read and reply to a        play can boost confidence in writing.
   statement in a timely manner that would be
   understood by the readers. There were so
                                                        Clearly, difficulties with adapting to
   many conversations going on at the same          chat room messaging relate not only to
   time that everything I read seemed to be out     computer literacy but to the specific con-
   of context. So I turned from my screen and       text of computer conferencing. In fact, this
   began discussing ideas with the nearest avail-   was my problem for the first couple of
   able person to me. We decided to become part-    years that I started to use academic chat
   ners.                                            rooms in writing classes. During an hon-
    What Brad’s discussion shows is that            ors composition course, I remember ask-
he had trouble understanding the various            ing the small group of students, “Can you
simultaneous conversations. There is a lot          see the difference between my long mes-
of information to process when eighteen             sages that take a while to write and your
students are participating in a chat room           short, interactive, and responsive mes-
discussion, making students who have not            sages?” What was clear is that I was still
used chat programs before feel bom-                 writing elaborate position statements with
barded and overwhelmed. To adapt and                support, just as I had been taught to do
participate effectively with others, stu-           as a graduate student. However, in chat,
dents have to develop a way of making               long messages are not effective because
sense of the data and getting used to the           they take too long and they reflect a pri-
rapid delivery of multiple writers’ mes-            oritizing of single-authored writing as
sages. Reassuring students that this flurry         opposed to the collaborative writing that
of activity is part of the process helps them       students do in chat rooms. What makes
to overcome initial frustration.                    good writing in chat rooms is not the same
    Another example of how inexperience             as good writing in an extended essay, for
may inhibit chat room productivity is of-           example. I had to curb my own learned
fered by an eighteen-year-old male tech-            behaviors of unidirectional writing to
nical writing student, Bryan, who told me           adapt to this new medium of intercom-
in an e-mail message that he was uncom-             munication. This point is important to
fortable with the speed of chat dialogue.           discuss with students so that they develop
He said, “I couldn’t keep up with the dis-          their understanding and application of
cussion. By the time I typed out a re-              chat room writing conventions.
sponse, the conversation was on                         To achieve the goal of 100% participa-
something else, and so I just deleted my            tion among students, teachers have to
message and tried to read up on what was            monitor conferences carefully to know
being discussed. Then, same problem of              who is sending messages and who isn’t. If
being too slow would happen. I just                 a student is not participating, teachers can
couldn’t get in on it.” Bryan’s frustration         inquire about the student’s feelings. For
with the writing-based dialogue is not              example, I directed a message to a male
unusual, particularly for those who do not          basic writing student, Tom, who had not
type quickly or aren’t used to writing in-          sent a single message during the initial
teractively. Moreover, students such as             icebreaker chat: “Tom, did the storm hit
Bryan, who feel less capable as writers,            your home or work place?” By asking this
tend to be less assertive in chat rooms,            direct but unthreatening question, I at-
perhaps from a sense of self-conscious-             tempted to encourage his participation.

How to Conduct a Course-Based Computer Chat Room: Enabling a Space for Active Learning      167
Indeed, it worked. It seems that some stu-      participation. Elaborating on the connec-
dents need that direct invitation to par-       tions between active learning, critical writ-
ticipate, whether they are in oral group        ing, and collegiality in collaboration are
discussions or in computer chat rooms.          useful in getting the point across without
Once invited, they interact. Also, teach-       having to invoke the university policy on
ers must draw out shy students who have         appropriate academic conduct. However,
communicative anxieties about being ig-         I do at times have to reinforce ethical
nored by others or about being sent in-         conferencing practices when a student
flammatory messages. Critics such as            does not uphold them, a problem address-
Daisley have argued that being ignored          ed in the next section.
by others is emotionally devastating. With
this knowledge, teachers can discuss the
                                                Approaches to Teacher and
effects of rejection and encourage students
                                                Student Interaction
to include everyone in the conversations.
    To orient students to chat room proto-      As I work to construct an active learning
cols, I ask students to chat about what         space, I define appropriate moderator
they think comprises a successful and           roles for my interaction with students in
unsuccessful conference, during which           chat rooms. Moderator roles comprise stu-
they usually identify responsibility toward     dent-teacher dynamics as well as particu-
others as a key factor. Here are two repre-     lar responsibilities, which include
sentative responses of the class’s concep-      welcoming new chat participants, facili-
tions of successful and unsuccessful chat       tating dialogue, fostering a sense of com-
room dialogue: “A successful chat is one        munity, setting ground rules, and
in which all comments are responded to          enforcing the rules of etiquette. In addi-
and all questions are answered. It is one       tion, teachers must construct task-focused
where no one person gets left out, by de-       chat activities that keep students work-
sign or accident [. . .] . An unsuccessful      ing toward a goal. As a moderator, the
chat is where people just want to ‘listen       teacher needs to make the best use of chat
in’ so to speak. It is where everyone is        conferencing, allowing inspired and mo-
waiting for someone else to say something       tivated students to develop strands of dia-
so you end up watching a blank screen”          logue. Confused and inquisitive students
and “A successful interchange is everyone       also need the discursive space to articu-
participating actively [. . .] . Insufficient   late questions for clarification and elabo-
responses make the interchange appear           ration. Like people in conversations, those
slow, tiring, and dry. Questions are not        in chat exchanges need some room to
answered properly or jokes are not re-          develop, to build rapport, gather infor-
sponded to with laughter. I would rate          mation, and make decisions. My goal in
that as unsuccessful chat.” Both students       chat is not to homogenize student re-
define responsive messaging as critical to      sponses but to provide options and to
successful conferencing.                        encourage students to contribute in ways
    In addition to this discussion about        that allow them to experiment, explore,
responsibility, teachers can establish the      teach, inquire, challenge, understand, and
ground rules for what is acceptable and         interrelate. Moreover, I want to encour-
effective participation in the classroom        age chat room dialogue that is stimulat-
chats. In turn, students share responsi-        ing in order to foster both students’
bility for each other through respectful        curiosity and their enjoyment of language,

168                                                                  TETYC, December 2000
the medium, and the subjects of the dis-       of the criticism “stupidly” and the upper-
cussions. An appropriate moderator role        case letters, which typically signify shout-
also promotes a critical perspective on the    ing, emotional emphasis, and anger.
technology used.                               Janice’s message signified that she was
   To construct a more comprehensive           shouting her frustration and criticism of
sense of moderator roles, I considered         the position that films with female casts
scholarship on participant roles, partici-     are only enjoyed by women, and not by
pant styles of exchange, and moderator         men. If I were to “moderate” this confer-
roles (Peha; Hardy, Hodgson, and               ence by urging her to temper her inten-
McConnell; Kerr). Since the research did       sity, I might have attempted to deflate the
not fully address how I might co-construct     intensity of Janice’s frustration at the bi-
intellectual, social, and political writing    ased reception of women as subject mat-
spaces with students, I began to search        ter in film; this approach would
for words that would describe dynamic          undermine the power of Janice’s feminist
and collaborative teacher-student interac-     critique. Furthermore, if I were to silence
tion. In the next section, I analyze vari-     or take control over her messaging, I
ous approaches to moderating student           would undermine my goals of promoting
conferences to present readers with strat-     students’ critical literacy, sense of agency,
egies for successful chat.                     and political activism. Therefore, “mod-
                                               erator” doesn’t fully accommodate my
                                               pedagogical goals. Instead, I encouraged
Moderator Roles
                                               further debate on the topic by asking,
Since the most common term in com-             “What makes a ‘chick flick’ unsuitable to
puter-mediated conferencing scholarship        a male audience and suitable for a female
has been “moderator,” this is where I be-      audience?” As a result, students produced
gan my inquiry. Considering the various        an energetic discussion about our culture’s
connotations of the word, I realized that      values regarding women and communi-
to be a moderator suggests that a teacher      cation, work, art, relationships, and so
encourages students to avoid intense ex-       forth.
pression in order to have messages that            Another common term in composition
are uniformly moderate. More specifically,     pedagogy is “facilitator,” which literally
the word, “moderate,” calls to mind con-       means “one who makes easier or less dif-
cepts such as conservatism, status quo,        ficult” (OED 1989). In part, facilitation
and caution. In contrast, I want students      accurately describes the process of assist-
to struggle in learning, to challenge          ing students in accessing conferencing
norms, and to imagine alternatives. I don’t    software and learning messaging conven-
want to erase difference or level out in-      tions. While I strive to provide clear and
tensity because intensity enervates action     simple instruction about using the soft-
by providing a powerful impetus for            ware, I am not trying to make communi-
change. For example, a female student          cation appear easy to perform. As teachers
named Janice boldly posed a rhetorical         of writing know, effective rhetoric is never
question, “Why are films with men en-          easy to achieve, either in print-based writ-
joyed by everyone and films with female        ing or electronic writing. What makes
casts stupidly referred to as ‘CHICK           computer conferences peculiarly chal-
FLICKS’?” Her frustration about the            lenging is that students send their mes-
double standard comes through in her use       sages to multiple audience members in

How to Conduct a Course-Based Computer Chat Room: Enabling a Space for Active Learning   169
rapid electronic delivery. Recognizing the    in terms of how, why, when, and with
substantial challenges of time and audi-      whom to use each medium.
ence that academic chat rooms pose, I             A term that may better describe the
want to complicate electronic written ex-     rhetorical action I was performing in the
change for students who may have popu-        example above is “intervention,” which
lar notions of entertainment-oriented         suggests interference in the communica-
Internet chat rooms.                          tion among students. The connotations
    Without being reductive, teachers         of “intervention” have both violent (mili-
should encourage students to discover all     tary) and proactive implications (Alcohol-
the possible uses of electronic media by      ics Anonymous) in popular discourse. In
directly asking, for example, “How could      academic contexts involving computer-
this medium of communication serve our        assisted rhetoric, James E. Porter advo-
group work, class discussions, and shar-      cates an interventionist presence in
ing of out-of-class assignments?” In re-      classroom conferences, promoting ethical
sponse to this chat message from me,          writing practices: “[. . .] teachers should
composition students sent thoughtful          not try to control their students’ writing,
messages such as the following from           but [. . .] in their effort to avoid control
Bruce: “I like the convenience of discuss-    they should not give up their role as in-
ing my part of the paper with my partner      terveners, their role as teachers of com-
who can respond to me from any termi-         mitment” (135).
nal on campus or at her apartment.” While         As “interveners,” teachers have to con-
this previous message asserts the value of    trol undesirable behaviors, promote de-
using conferencing to complete collabo-       sired behaviors, and, as a last resort, take
rative writing assignments, another com-      punitive actions for prohibited behaviors.
position student, Lili, questioned its        If other students’ well being and respect
usefulness in another context: “I’d rather    are at stake, then I have to adopt the role
talk than type if we’re in the same room.     of “intervener,” by asserting the codes of
It just doesn’t make sense to me.” This       university conduct or at least initiating a
counter position had to be addressed in       discussion along these lines. For instance,
order to show this student the important      while working with students in a class-
distinctions between oral talk and com-       room chat among a small honors compo-
puter chat. Further, this question war-       sition class, I had to address the various
ranted discussion about the benefits and      legal issues related to a student named
drawbacks of each form of communica-          Tom, who played a practical joke on an-
tion in terms of achieving particular peda-   other student Jim. Since the class was very
gogical goals. The chat accomplished          small, students had gotten to know one
more than an oral lecture from me because     another quite well and shared a friendly,
all students could participate in the dis-    informal relationship. The prank occurred
cussion, which would have been limited        when Jim left his computer terminal with-
by number of speakers and points of view      out logging off the system, leaving his
in an oral discussion. Considering what       account information still current and ac-
we accomplished as a class during this        cessible by anyone. To teach Jim a lesson
discussion, I didn’t so much facilitate,      about the security risks of not logging off
meaning simplify, exchange as enable stu-     the system properly and, in turn, provid-
dents to develop a more complex under-        ing others with access to his account, Tom
standing of the media of chat and speech      wrote the following message through Jim’s

170                                                                TETYC, December 2000
account: “I am gay.” During the next class      changes also are used to complicate is-
session, I discussed several relevant issues    sues and to discover competing perspec-
with students. First of all, there was the      tives and courses of action.
legal problem of Tom posing as Jim and              For example, in a chat about the ethi-
using his account. Even in jest, using          cal elements of inflammatory language
another’s account is a misconduct that          online, students had differing opinions
violates academic integrity. Second, there      about whether it was unethical to “flame”
was the issue of homophobia, which can          (trade angry insults) online. Some thought
have potentially harmful consequences.          that flaming was “stupid” or “a waste of
If classmates perceived Jim as “coming          time”; others thought it was “fun” and
out” as a gay man, some students may            “funny to see others’ reactions”; and still
have reacted with gossip, exclusion, ver-       others thought that flaming was “mean,”
bal abuse, and even violence. Third, the        “rude,” and “hurtful.” As students articu-
manner in which Tom tried to embarrass          lated views, they found both common
Jim into learning his lesson by causing         ground and differing views, surprising
suspicion about his sexual orientation had      some who could not imagine a conflict-
homophobic implications on Tom’s part.          ing position to their own. Therefore, I find
    As a result, we all learned valuable les-   the term “negotiator” inadequate to de-
sons about chat room participation, prac-       scribe attempts to draw out differences
tical jokes, and university policies            rather than to put an end to them in stu-
concerning student accounts and security        dents’ writing. As an alternative to con-
protection. As the intervener, I initiated      sensus, I ask students to consider what
critical analysis of the message’s emotion-     they believe, what they can support, and
ally charged meanings. While interven-          what they are willing to act upon and
tion as critique and challenge accurately       why—this describes a dynamic critical
describes what I do with students in chat,      rhetoric, in which I play a part as students
I feel that the term “intervener” connotes      build an interactively written text.
intrusive policing, which I rarely have to          Another term, “coordinator,” denotes
do with students. Mostly, I provide feed-       the tasks of scheduling and regulating
back about students’ chat writing to en-        participants as teachers do in conducting
courage participation and critical              course-based chat room assignments.
reflection.                                     However, teachers can’t control chats in
    Another term I have come across in          the same way that coordinators control
discussions about leveling the hierarchy        speaking conventions. Like conversations,
within student-teacher interactions is “ne-     chat room discussions are responsive to
gotiation.” Like mediation, negotiation         participant’s input, which makes ex-
involves at least two differing parties and     changes fluid rather than scheduled and
often also includes an intermediary agent,      orderly. For example, an upper-level tech-
who enables a compromise or decision,           nical writing student Mary, had the rel-
agreeable to all parties. However, unlike       evant background and expertise on the
most negotiation situations that aim for        group’s project topic, and, therefore, an-
closure or decision-making, successful          swered members’ questions and guided
chat exchanges often are designed to be         the direction of the writing and research.
exploratory or expressive, not resolute or      Also, Mary praised helpful contributions
consensual. While making decisions is           by other students: “I like that idea. It will
one action chat users perform, chat ex-         work well with the stuff I have on why

How to Conduct a Course-Based Computer Chat Room: Enabling a Space for Active Learning   171
this building needs to be torn down com-       leaders and followers. Furthermore, to
pletely instead of remodeled.” In addition,    insist on my own authority as the role
Mary solicited volunteers to complete          model would hinder the class’s learning,
work: “We still need the data on cost of       including my own, which would be a
dumping the demolished building rem-           pedagogical mistake.
nants. Can someone do that by next                   For example, technical writing stu-
class?” If I had coordinated this group’s      dents with much experience in chat writ-
interactions, I might not have used Mary’s     ing taught the class how to use various
expertise, which allowed her to anticipate     nonverbal cues in our messages to con-
problems and work needs; I might have          vey emotions, actions, and gestures (i.e.,
squelched her effective leadership, which       ¨␣˘ , which suggests a smile or pleasure).
enabled this group to move forward on          As a result of the technical writing class
their assignment and collaborate success-      discussions, I learned how vital these sym-
fully. As a coordinator, not only might I      bols are in clearly constructing the tone,
have encouraged Mary and other students        a writer’s identities, and writer-reader re-
to be passive, but I would have also done      lationships in electronic messages. More-
a disservice to the group’s progress be-       over, my students taught me that real-time
cause I did not have the expertise on          chat exchange enables the class to share
building demolition or construction to         in the teaching as well as the learning—a
guide them effectively. Instead, I promoted    lesson we discussed as we defined the
students’ agency in group projects, not my     characteristics of our chat room exchanges
own authority in order to enhance their        and relationships. Students showed me
learning, which coordinating does not          that we could be immersed in the act of
fully enable me to do.                         writing as discursive play and experimen-
    Similar to the role of guiding students    tation, participating in a game of literacy
is leading them, which also suggests go-       education, which we all enjoyed and re-
ing first and taking the initiative. In cre-   sponded to with intensity and genuine
ating an assignment, teachers act first by     curiosity (Daisley). In turn, students took
setting up assignments and activities, tak-    on their responsible teaching roles with
ing the first step toward their learning and   pride and serious application.
guiding them through learning experi-
ences to a new place of understanding.
We define requirements and delegate tasks      Conclusions about Teacher
to our students. However, in this model        and Student Interactions
of teacher-student interaction, the teacher    In this somewhat exploratory essay, I’ve
possesses the authority of the leader while    identified a series of attitudes, behaviors,
students are the followers, doing as the       responsibilities, tasks, desires, power dy-
teacher does. What is problematic here is      namics, and models of interaction with
that some of my students have more ex-         students in a context of cooperative learn-
perience with computer conferencing than       ing. Perhaps the best way to approach this
I do. Being a role model places emphasis       dilemma is not to determine what role
on the teacher’s performance as ideal,         teachers ought to assume toward all stu-
ignoring the possibilities for students        dents in all contexts. Rather, I advocate
teaching each other how to be effective        that teachers determine what relationships
electronic writers. In my concept of in-       they can coconstruct with students in
teraction with students, we take turns as      order to best achieve pedagogical goals.

172                                                                 TETYC, December 2000
As teachers build interlocutor relation-           By perceiving students to be in a rela-
ships with students in course-based chat        tionship with instructors, teachers disrupt
rooms, we shift reading and writing roles,      traditional roles and subject positions of
we share responsibilities of leadership and     knower and nonknower. No longer
team support, we mutually invite each           should we think of teachers as doing
other to participate, and we establish the      things to students or visa versa. Rather,
conventions and opportunities for discus-       teachers and students are engaged in in-
sion within the community and                   teractive learning made possible in chat
cyberspace that is our classroom. Seeing        rooms. Approaching chat rooms as a se-
interaction with students in terms of re-       ries of relationships with students pro-
lationships that are constantly in flux elic-   motes an awareness of the dynamic
its a more responsive approach to               exchanges of words, symbols, ideas,
individual student concerns, particular         power, and roles in which teachers and
group dynamics, and unique contexts.            students participate. Once writing instruc-
What I’ve attempted to do is explore the        tors imagine and promote a variety of in-
variety of tasks, responsibilities, and roles   teractive relationships in course-based
that teachers consider as they initiate and     chat rooms, they will more effectively in-
engage students in critical language ex-        spire audience awareness and rhetorical
change in academic chat rooms.                  sensitivity.

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   1995.

Christyne A. Berzsenyi is an assistant professor at Penn State University, Wilkes-Barre, where
she teaches basic writing, technical writing, advanced business writing, honors composition,
and women’s studies courses in computer classrooms. Her research includes rhetoric and eth-
ics in computer-mediated composition and mass media.

            Research Assembly Midwinter Conference
                     February 9–11, 2001

The annual midwinter conference sponsored by the NCTE Assembly for Research will take
place February 9-11, 2001, at the University of California-Berkeley Graduate School of Educa-
tion. The theme this year is “New Literacies for New Times: Bakhtinian Perspectives on Lan-
guage, Literacy, and Learning for the 21st Century.” For program details and registration
information, contact Caroline T. Clark, Language, Literacy, and Culture, School of Teaching
and Learning, 222A Ramseyer, 29 W. Woodruff Ave., Columbus, OH 43210-1177; phone:
614-688-5449; e-mail: clark.644@osu.edu. Registration deadline is January 9, 2001. For ho-
tel reservations, contact the Durant Hotel, 2600 Durant Ave., Berkeley, CA 94704; phone: 800-
2DURANT or 510-845-8981. You must reserve a room by January 9, 2001, to receive the
special conference rate.

174                                                                   TETYC, December 2000
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