I have been very interested to read in the literature that we can marginalize our students and create the "other" by engaging in technology practices that privilege one group over another. Some of this privileging comes because students from depressed economic backgrounds simply do not have computers; this leads to unfamiliarity with a basic understanding of the opportunities computers afford for research into an infinity of fields. In the 1990's President Clinton launched an initiative to provide technology for schools, but the initiative did not reach its full potential because resources went to schools with enriched programs and less disadvantaged students. Those schools where students were already marginalized and which lacked enrichment programs were overlooked in the funneling of resources.

To this point, I have not incorporated technology into my pedagogy, but after being in Dr. Pagnucci's class, Technology and Literacy, I am eager to begin testing the waters. None of the classrooms where I will be teaching five composition classes this semester have computers for students; Since none of the five classrooms where I will be teaching writing have computers for the students, so I will have to set up sites where the students can engage each other. Nevertheless, I am excited about incorporating technology into my teaching.

Specifically, I plan to set up a chat room where students can talk about their writing (their plans, their struggles as they engage in the actual process, and revision ideas). Blogging is a great idea, and Dr. Pagnucci told us how to annotate other students' blogs onto blog, so this will be another one of my goals, -- another way to incorporate writing into the curriculum. Since I am not normally adept at technology, I will ask one of the school's multi-media technicians to help me with these projects.

In the literature I read how one teacher of first-year composition teaches basic commands for Microsoft Word throughout the semester in sync with various functions she asks the students to perform in their writing. Of course, two of the four days she teaches per week are in the computer lab (sigh!). But she incorporates functions such as deleting letters, words, and whole lines, moving blocks of text, etc. Since I am interested in having the students add graphics (and maybe even animation and sound) to their writing, I would teach those functions as well. Additionally, some of the students are computer-savvy, and they could help with the demonstrations and models. A rather breath-taking goal is to build a class webpage where students could add features that interest them, e.g., short stories about cultural traditions, favorite authors, songs, recipes (for my Mexican-American women). etc.