About the Classroom

The Computers and Writing Classroom is an attempt to merge the traditional teaching of writing with the emerging technologies of the twenty-first century. Simply placing students and teachers in a room filled with computers will not, of course, magically transform them into better writers and better teachers. However, the technology used in a networked classroom operates as a particularly apt set of tools for learning how to read, write, and think critically. To accomplish this, the teaching in the Computers and Writing Classroom still uses as its base the rhetorical concepts outlined in John Gage's The Shape of Reason. The classroom's technology is not an end in itself, but a different means by which to accomplish the goal of the University of Oregon's Composition Program: to produce intelligent, articulate writers.

The Computers and Writing Classroom operates through the efforts of many people. Our teachers are, of course, the most important component in making any class successful. Their work is orchestrated and assisted by Carolyn Bergquist, the Director of the Composition Program, John Gage, Director of the Center for Teaching Writing, Kelly Sultzbach, the Associate Director of Composition and Nicholas Henson and Melissa Sexton, the Assistant Directors of Composition. Behind the scenes are Emily Thomas , the Assistant Director of the Center for the Teaching of Writing, and Donna Laue, the Computers and Writing Technology Specialist.