Keynote Speakers
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Composing the Future:
Designing Digital Writing Experiences that Foster Connection, Participation, and Justice
Digital writing tools abound in today’s educational context – teachers and students are presented with an overwhelming array of options for designing, producing, and sharing compositions that can reach massive audiences almost instantaneously. In the face of so many choices, how can educators harness digital tools in ways that meet student needs, amplify their voices, and help them develop as individuals, scholars, and citizens? We will offer a framework for designing digital writing experiences that capitalizes on what digital tools do best – connecting young people to open networks of people and resources that help them to explore their interests and participate in empowering social action. We will share student writing and discuss strategies for implementing innovative digital writing projects in classroom and community learning spaces.
Designing Digital Writing Experiences that Foster Connection, Participation, and Justice
Digital writing tools abound in today’s educational context – teachers and students are presented with an overwhelming array of options for designing, producing, and sharing compositions that can reach massive audiences almost instantaneously. In the face of so many choices, how can educators harness digital tools in ways that meet student needs, amplify their voices, and help them develop as individuals, scholars, and citizens? We will offer a framework for designing digital writing experiences that capitalizes on what digital tools do best – connecting young people to open networks of people and resources that help them to explore their interests and participate in empowering social action. We will share student writing and discuss strategies for implementing innovative digital writing projects in classroom and community learning spaces.
Antero Garcia is an Assistant Professor in the English Department at Colorado State University. His research focuses on developing critical literacies and civic identity through the use of participatory media and gameplay in formal learning environments. Among Antero’s publications are the recent books Pose, Wobble, Flow: A Culturally Proactive Approach to Literacy and Learning (with Cindy O’Donnell-Allen, Teachers College Press, 2015), Doing Youth Participatory Action Research (with Nicole Mirra and Ernest Morrell, Routledge, 2016), Critical Foundations in Young Adult Literature: Challenging Genres (Sense, 2013), Teaching in the Connected Learning Classroom (Digital Media Hub, 2014).
Nicole Mirra is an Assistant Professor of English education at the University of Texas at El Paso. Her teaching and research focuses on the intersections between critical literacy and civic engagement across multiple contexts, including urban secondary English classrooms, grassroots youth organizations, and digital learning communities. Her work has recently appeared in English Journal, Reading & Writing Quarterly, and Democracy & Education. Her book, Doing Youth Participatory Action Research: Transforming Inquiry with Researchers, Educators, and Youth, co-authored with Antero Garcia and Ernest Morrell, was just published by Routledge Press. She is also the new director of the West Texas Writing Project.
Nicole Mirra is an Assistant Professor of English education at the University of Texas at El Paso. Her teaching and research focuses on the intersections between critical literacy and civic engagement across multiple contexts, including urban secondary English classrooms, grassroots youth organizations, and digital learning communities. Her work has recently appeared in English Journal, Reading & Writing Quarterly, and Democracy & Education. Her book, Doing Youth Participatory Action Research: Transforming Inquiry with Researchers, Educators, and Youth, co-authored with Antero Garcia and Ernest Morrell, was just published by Routledge Press. She is also the new director of the West Texas Writing Project.
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Kevin Hodgson
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A Day in the Life of a Digital Writer/Educator
Sixth grade teacher and Western Massachusetts Writing Project Technology Co-Director Kevin Hodgson breaks down a day of digital writing. His keynote will not only uncover the widening variety of media available to compose in this digital age, but also make visible the strategies and intent of using technology for an ever-expanding notion of what writing is and can be. Topics of audience, stance, publication, collaboration and Connected Learning principles will inform the session, making clear that it's not about the technology--it's about the writer. Kevin will also connect his personal life as a digital writer with his teaching practice in the classroom. And he will preview the annual global Digital Writing Month inquiry celebration happening in November.
Sixth grade teacher and Western Massachusetts Writing Project Technology Co-Director Kevin Hodgson breaks down a day of digital writing. His keynote will not only uncover the widening variety of media available to compose in this digital age, but also make visible the strategies and intent of using technology for an ever-expanding notion of what writing is and can be. Topics of audience, stance, publication, collaboration and Connected Learning principles will inform the session, making clear that it's not about the technology--it's about the writer. Kevin will also connect his personal life as a digital writer with his teaching practice in the classroom. And he will preview the annual global Digital Writing Month inquiry celebration happening in November.
Kevin Hodgson is a sixth grade teacher at William E. Norris Elementary in Southampton MA and technology co-director for the Western Massachusetts Writing Project. Kevin believes in the idea that all students are writers and that writing is one of the most fundamental means of understanding the world. His views around literacy include interaction within the digital world, meeting students on common ground and helping them make the shift from passive consumers to active creators and collaborators. He is a co-editor of Teaching the New Writing: Technology, Change and Assessment in the 21st Century and blogs regularly at Kevin’s Meandering Mind. He can also be found on Twitter as @dogtrax.
