This book is a history composed of histories. Its particular focus is the way in which computers entered and changed the field of composition studies, a field that defines itself both as a research community and as a community of teachers. This may have a somewhat sinister suggestion that technology alone has agency, but this history (made of histories) is not principally about computers. It is about people-the teachers and scholars who have adapted the computer to their personal and professional purposes. From the authors' perspectives, change in technology drives changes in the ways we live and work, and we, agents to a degree in control of our own lives, use technology to achieve our human purposes. REVIEW: ". . . This book reminds those of us now using computers to teach writing where we have been, and it brings those who are just entering the field up to date. More important, it will inform administrators, curriculum specialists, and others responsible for implementing the future uses of technology in writing instruction." - Computers and Composition
A history of computers and composition tracking the classroom practices, research, journals, conferences, and counter arguments developing from the integration of writing pedagogy and computer advances from the 1960s on into the 1990s. Much like computer/composition curriculum, the volume is chronological yet manages somehow to avoid a systematic address to the more difficult questions of implementation and relevance. The historical aspect is perhaps most advantageous in helping instructors discover a framework for effectively using technology in their classrooms (if they can manage to secure the funding). Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
