When people ask me what I do as a DRC fellow, I often describe myself as a bridge between different conversations and communities related to digital rhetoric. That is, I view the DRC site as a space where teachers and researchers from different areas come together to share ideas and resources. My goal, in turn, is to both make spaces for new and exciting ideas on the site, and to reach out to (and learn at ton from) the incredible people who are generous enough to share their work with us. In this post, I’ll reflect on some of the projects that resulted from these efforts this year.
One of my projects this year was to spark new conversations and ideas by coordinating reviews for conferences that were not represented on the site before. As you can see in our “other reviews” section, we had reviews for sessions at Great Lakes THATCamp, the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Conference, as well as WIDE-EMU 2013, in addition to our annual MLA and C&W reviews. Next year, we hope to have even more conferences represented on the site, so that we can continue expanding the resources available for our readers. If you’re going to a conference related to digital rhetoric, computers and writing, and/or DH next year, and you’re willing to share a review with us, please let us know!
In addition to engaging in new conversations through conference reviews, being a DRC fellow gave me the chance to listen to new ideas being shared during the conferences themselves, and to get input from our readers about what they would like to see on the site. For example, at the 2013 WIDE-EMU conference, I co-led a presentation discussing the development of the DRC wiki. During this presentation, various attendees helped us identify specific concepts, places, and people who should be represented on the Wiki. Later, we continued this conversation at the 2014 Computers and Writing Conference, where we got more ideas for improving both the Wiki and the site more broadly. You can access our C&W Storify here.
Another exciting aspect of being a DRC fellow is the chance to interact with members of our community through social media. Getting the chance to tweet during Digital Learning Day and to get new ideas for the WIki through Twitter has been incredibly helpful, and I look forward to continuing these conversations next year.
Though I love to reflect on all we’ve accomplished this year, what I’m even more excited for at this point are all the upcoming projects that will take place as we get into a new school year. For example, I’ll be coordinating a blog carnival centered around multilingualism and technology, and I’ll be working with a Visual Rhetoric graduate seminar at MSU to share ideas about visual rhetoric in digital spaces.
Looking forward to another year! Much more from me soon.
