Given this complicated, charged environment: the writing classroom, with its myriad purposes and practices, how, now, in the twenty first century, can we best use technology? Beyond our use of microsoft word documents, emails, servers, online dictionaries and internet research, how can we integrate the startling, new advances of technology--the ever present virtual discourse that occurs in almost every field and every interest group in both academia and, perhaps especially, beyond--with the very essence of teaching writing?

1) what to do about the silence/privacy issue that Anne Gere so successfully raises in her recent article in College Writing, and 2) how to balance the drive for technological advancement and the need for basic writing skills. All of my students wrestled with this question, and all addressed it in individual ways. Some balanced the two, some favored one over the other, and many of them say that they worked overtime to get the most out of both opportunities...