Technology in the College Classroom: Humanities

In soliciting manuscripts for the Humanities collection, we reviewed essays describing innovative uses of technology in courses ranging from poetry, creative writing, and literature to foreign language, archeology, and pop culture criticism. This presented unique challenges in selecting pedagogical innovations that might have some level of generalizability across courses. In the end, we selected essays describing applications of technology to issues of writing, becoming critically reflective, inquiring, and preparing for the authentic tasks of good citizenship. Our hope is that these outcomes have enough shared heritage to find applicability to most instructors in the Humanities.

Together, the nine essays in this volume describe innovative approaches to common pedagogical problems such as teaching critical analysis and inquiry, providing authentic opportunities to practice and refine emerging skills, and increasing student motivation and engagement. Many university instructors face these issues and, as shared by these authors, technology can help when applied with clear outcomes in mind and with creativity and enthusiasm.

It is our sincere hope that the Technology in the College Classroom Series will assist higher education and its faculty in the pursuit of better, more effective teaching and learning, via the use of technology.

                                                The Editors

        Acknowledgements
        Series Introduction
        Volume Introduction

0. Carol Ann Bays
   Using Technology to Enhance Critical Reading in the World Literature Classroom

0. Peter Caster
   Audience, Authority, and Technology in the Reception of Student Writing

0. John B. Jentz, James B. South, and Timothy S. Yoder
   Using Technology to Teach Critical Thinking, Logic, and Information Technology

0. Cara Lane
   Teaching Literature through Interpretive Web Design: Student Editions of Pride and Prejudice and Great Expectations

0. Benson McCorkle and J. Brian Chambley
   Writing Our Way Through Technology: A Proposal for Merging Process and Product in the Computer-Supported Classroom

0. Mark McGuire and Rochelle Simmons
   Using Multimedia Technology to Teach Literature

0. Lisa Muir
   Early American Manuscripts Come Alive with Twenty-first-century Technology: Early American Imprints in the Classroom

0. Tamara Powell
   Web Site for Creating Goods and Services Proposals in Technical Writing

0. Cate Brubaker and Elizabeth Priester
   Culture At Your Fingertips: Implementing Internet Technology In The Foreign Language Classroom

Jason Steed holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Nevada Las Vegas and has published over two dozen pieces of scholarship and creative writing. He has also designed and taught a number of online courses and received a grant at Western Oregon University to design and use student-created web pages in literature courses. He was a visiting professor at Brigham Young University before leaving the English Department to become a student again at The University of Texas School of Law. He hopes to continue his academic career following graduation in 2009.