Graduate Certificate in New Media Composing and Teaching
Center for Digital Expression
Texas Christian University
Certificate Awarded November 1, 2019
Introduction Letter
To the ICCE Advisory Committee,
I have been working on this portfolio since my first semester of graduate school at TCU over three years ago. Since then, the New Media Writing Studio has become the Center for Digital Expression, and I've learned more about the complex role of new media in contemporary scholarship, pedagogy, and the academy. I've created websites, lesson plans, Pecha Kuchas, PowerPoint presentations, seminar papers and projects, exam portfolios, and a prospectus, and all of these projects in all of these genres have drawn on my accumulation of knowledge, which includes a more considered approach to the affordances of tools and materials, both digital and nondigital. I will move forward in my career with a critical yet open perspective on the use of new media tools, knowing the vital importance of an ethical and critical orientation of the wielder of those tools. I seek to persuade my students to adopt that orientation as well.
This portfolio meets all of the requirements laid out for the New Media Composing and Teaching certificate. It draws on three years of experimentation with new media that challenged my students, assisted organizations, and expanded my knowledge. Some of these projects I would never do again (see: using Prezi to map a Toulmin analysis) and other projects I would modify in order to emphasis certain elements of new media differently (see: a digital writing class focused less on genre and more on implicit and explicit decision-making). All of these experiences--prompted by CDEx sessions, class discussions, conversations with colleagues, and good ol' trial and error--have made me into a more thoughtful teacher and scholar with skills, ideas, and perspectives that can assist any institution with the considerations surrounding the use of new media. I look forward to advancing my knowledge and re-evaluating my use of new media with the advent of new technologies, new affordances, and new challenges.
Thank you for your consideration. Please let me know if any information is missing or links are broken. I look forward to hearing from you about my portfolio.
I have been working on this portfolio since my first semester of graduate school at TCU over three years ago. Since then, the New Media Writing Studio has become the Center for Digital Expression, and I've learned more about the complex role of new media in contemporary scholarship, pedagogy, and the academy. I've created websites, lesson plans, Pecha Kuchas, PowerPoint presentations, seminar papers and projects, exam portfolios, and a prospectus, and all of these projects in all of these genres have drawn on my accumulation of knowledge, which includes a more considered approach to the affordances of tools and materials, both digital and nondigital. I will move forward in my career with a critical yet open perspective on the use of new media tools, knowing the vital importance of an ethical and critical orientation of the wielder of those tools. I seek to persuade my students to adopt that orientation as well.
This portfolio meets all of the requirements laid out for the New Media Composing and Teaching certificate. It draws on three years of experimentation with new media that challenged my students, assisted organizations, and expanded my knowledge. Some of these projects I would never do again (see: using Prezi to map a Toulmin analysis) and other projects I would modify in order to emphasis certain elements of new media differently (see: a digital writing class focused less on genre and more on implicit and explicit decision-making). All of these experiences--prompted by CDEx sessions, class discussions, conversations with colleagues, and good ol' trial and error--have made me into a more thoughtful teacher and scholar with skills, ideas, and perspectives that can assist any institution with the considerations surrounding the use of new media. I look forward to advancing my knowledge and re-evaluating my use of new media with the advent of new technologies, new affordances, and new challenges.
Thank you for your consideration. Please let me know if any information is missing or links are broken. I look forward to hearing from you about my portfolio.
Curriculum Vitae
Both versions of my curriculum vitae have been updated as of Fall 2019.
Examples of Scholarly Work
Model of a Toulmin Argument:
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Conference Presentation:
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A selection of presentation visuals can be found on my Researching page, but this PowerPoint in particular was necessary due to the fact that I wished to play a selection from a student's audio narrative in my presentation. I embedded the audio within the presentation and included the text of the selection on the slide; however, when I posted the presentation to my site, I removed the slide in order to protect my student's intellectual property. While I had her permission to share her narrative in my presentation, I did not ask her permission to post the audio on my site. I did have IRB permission to share students' reflections on the process of converting between genres, and I shared those reflections by scanning the students' handwritten reflections. As I was talking about affect and personal writing, I wanted to help the audience consider their own students. I read aloud the reflective words during my presentation, just in case the handwriting was hard to read for those in the back of the room.
TCU Graduate Instructor Teaching Portfolio |
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For the past two years, I have created a digital version of the annual required graduate instructor teaching portfolio. While this portfolio is not publicly accessible on my site, due to the confidential nature of some of the required materials, I plan to incorporate portions of the materials (such as teaching philosophy, selected evaluations, etc.) into my public professional portfolio before going on the job market. I elected to put this portfolio under Scholarly Work, because the act of creating courses and reflecting on pedagogy is indeed scholarly work. Though it may be framed more personally, it is based on both theory and praxis. Formatting my portfolio this way is a lot more work, but ultimately, it organizes the material in ways that help me conceptualize my teaching and pedagogy in new ways. Plus, I simply copy the page for each new portfolio and work on it gradually throughout the year, decreasing the burden of finding and compiling all of the necessary components when the deadline approaches each February.
Examples of Teaching-Related Work
Pedagogical Work
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For the online classes I teach through George Fox University, I record videos to recap each week and note patterns I saw in the work students submitted. I also preview assignments for the next week. Rather than using these videos to lecture on content, I use them to connect with my long-distance students. The videos allow students to hear my voice and transfer my voice to the comments they receive on their papers. Additionally, I often record the videos in my home, as I know my students largely do their schoolwork in their homes, generally after a long day of work and putting kids to bed. I invite students into my home and share with them, like they share their writing with me.
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Often when students do multimodal or digital projects rather than traditional papers, I give feedback on drafts through audio comments. Sometimes I use Soundcloud, but lately I've recorded in Audacity and exported the file to D2L. I use audio feedback for similar reasons that I make videos, with the added benefit that it requires me to look at each project holistically. Plus, the process is much faster than writing out comments.
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GoogleDrive
I often recommend the use of GoogleDrive in classes, particularly for ease of collaboration. In ENGL 40283 Editing and Publishing, I assisted all groups in setting up shared folders with their portions of the TCU Press manuscript the class was editing. They worked on their manuscript section collaboratively both in and out of class. We also had a shared Google Spreadsheet style sheet that all groups collaborated on for consistency among groups. Groups could easily see what terms had already been looked up and maintain consistent usage of terms throughout the entire book. I maintained the style sheet throughout the project, and we frequently pulled up the spreadsheet in class to troubleshoot particularly tricky terms. When the project was finished, the style sheet had over 700 terms on it.
Additional Pedagogical Work
PowerPoints/presentation software, discussion boards, videos, podcasts, social media sites, open-access textbooks
PowerPoints/presentation software, discussion boards, videos, podcasts, social media sites, open-access textbooks
Student Work
My digital portfolio has many student examples of projects. Rather than repost them here, I will link to the pages for particular classes and point to specific units for sample student work and project descriptions. Here I will provide context, reflection, and evaluation rubrics.
ENGL 10803T Writing for Online Communities
This course was a themed version of ENGL 10803 that focused on public online writing. All student work was formatted for the web and published on their online blogs. Students had the option to use pseudonyms, but only one did; if I were to teach this class again, I would emphasize this decision more.The first major assignment was an analysis of the persona they create through one of their social media pages. The third involved writing a profile of an online community, and the final unit was a remediation of their profile into another (usually digital) form like an infographic.
For the second unit, teams of 2-3 students wrote a TCU-pedia page about a TCU landmark that did not have its own Wikipedia page. In doing so, students did archival research, interviews, and field observations, ultimately crafting a web page that looked similar to a Wikipedia page. They did not actually create the page for Wikipedia, as I wanted them to use subjective inquiry methods like personal experience and interviews, which Wikipedia does not accept. The students did incredible work, and I learned so much about the TCU campus. On the page above are three particularly interesting TCU-pedia pages, though others can be found on other students' pages.
Below is the rubric for evaluating. With a collaborative assignment, it can be hard to evaluate the final project. I gave students both a team grade and an individual grade based on individual process work and teammates' evaluations of their collaboration.
This course was a themed version of ENGL 10803 that focused on public online writing. All student work was formatted for the web and published on their online blogs. Students had the option to use pseudonyms, but only one did; if I were to teach this class again, I would emphasize this decision more.The first major assignment was an analysis of the persona they create through one of their social media pages. The third involved writing a profile of an online community, and the final unit was a remediation of their profile into another (usually digital) form like an infographic.
For the second unit, teams of 2-3 students wrote a TCU-pedia page about a TCU landmark that did not have its own Wikipedia page. In doing so, students did archival research, interviews, and field observations, ultimately crafting a web page that looked similar to a Wikipedia page. They did not actually create the page for Wikipedia, as I wanted them to use subjective inquiry methods like personal experience and interviews, which Wikipedia does not accept. The students did incredible work, and I learned so much about the TCU campus. On the page above are three particularly interesting TCU-pedia pages, though others can be found on other students' pages.
Below is the rubric for evaluating. With a collaborative assignment, it can be hard to evaluate the final project. I gave students both a team grade and an individual grade based on individual process work and teammates' evaluations of their collaboration.
ENGL 20803 Writing as Argument
I structured this class in such a way to require students to think about the stakeholders of the issue they were researching and reach them through a genre and medium effective for that particular audience. For that reason, in the third unit of this class, I received a variety of arguments in a variety of forms: infographics, videos, PowerPoint presentations, formal and informal letters, web articles, business proposals, and more. Each student also completed a Statement of Goals and Choices (SOGC) so I could understand the intentional rhetorical decisions that composed the argument and so students could reflect on the process. Students received extra credit if they actually circulated their argument to their audience, and many did. For instance, the student who wrote a letter to her math teacher actually gave it to him and had a conversation with him about what she learned about the limitations of pop quizzes.
Students also had the ability to use different digital mediums, and between this unit and the previous one (wherein they created an issue map linking multiple sources), many chose to use digital tools to create visual representations of their arguments and sources. One of the examples linked to on my page is to a 14-minute long video about the reasons TCU students should live on campus, complete with interviews and voiceovers. I find that allowing students to make their own decisions about tools and genres, as well as topics and audiences, requires them to invest in the process and the outcome. Sometimes it was challenging to evaluate such different projects, but having the SOGC and knowledge of their intended audience allowed me to peek behind the composing curtain and assess the process as well as the final product. The student who made the video about housing struggled with volume consistency in her video, but that was a minor issue compared to the process she went through to learn Adobe Spark and conduct interviews. I am always so impressed by my students' work, and so proud to see them compose arguments that matter, both to themselves and to their communities.
Below is the rubric for the unit 3 argument project, including the annotated bibliography and SOGC components.
I structured this class in such a way to require students to think about the stakeholders of the issue they were researching and reach them through a genre and medium effective for that particular audience. For that reason, in the third unit of this class, I received a variety of arguments in a variety of forms: infographics, videos, PowerPoint presentations, formal and informal letters, web articles, business proposals, and more. Each student also completed a Statement of Goals and Choices (SOGC) so I could understand the intentional rhetorical decisions that composed the argument and so students could reflect on the process. Students received extra credit if they actually circulated their argument to their audience, and many did. For instance, the student who wrote a letter to her math teacher actually gave it to him and had a conversation with him about what she learned about the limitations of pop quizzes.
Students also had the ability to use different digital mediums, and between this unit and the previous one (wherein they created an issue map linking multiple sources), many chose to use digital tools to create visual representations of their arguments and sources. One of the examples linked to on my page is to a 14-minute long video about the reasons TCU students should live on campus, complete with interviews and voiceovers. I find that allowing students to make their own decisions about tools and genres, as well as topics and audiences, requires them to invest in the process and the outcome. Sometimes it was challenging to evaluate such different projects, but having the SOGC and knowledge of their intended audience allowed me to peek behind the composing curtain and assess the process as well as the final product. The student who made the video about housing struggled with volume consistency in her video, but that was a minor issue compared to the process she went through to learn Adobe Spark and conduct interviews. I am always so impressed by my students' work, and so proud to see them compose arguments that matter, both to themselves and to their communities.
Below is the rubric for the unit 3 argument project, including the annotated bibliography and SOGC components.
Additional Student Work
ENGL 10803 Remediation Project
ENG 3300 Instruction Project
ENG 3303 Audio Narratives
ENGL 40283 Information Pages
WRIT 110 Blogs
ENGL 10803 Remediation Project
ENG 3300 Instruction Project
ENG 3303 Audio Narratives
ENGL 40283 Information Pages
WRIT 110 Blogs
Service to the Community
Technical Secretary for TCU's WBH Chapter of RSA
2016-2018
Link to site
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During my first fall at TCU, I stepped in to take over the Technical Secretary role after the previous incumbent was unable to continue. While the chapter's site and blog template was already set up, I reorganized the pages and made it a central hub for upcoming events and information, as well as an archival repository. I reorganized the member profiles and the events page and standardized the entries on the resource page. I reviewed the alumni page and checked every alum's job listing for accuracy. I also wrote blog post entries and posted photos after every WBH event, and I'm glad each subsequent technical secretary has continued the practice. Lastly, I created a page about WBH's namesake, Winifred Bryan Horner, including a short biography, reminiscences from Dr. Enos, old photos found in an archive, and a selected bibliography. During my tenure, I treated the site as an important aspect of our chapter's functioning, and the changes I made to the site reflect that orientation.
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Additional Service Work
Watson Conference Session Review for the Digital Rhetoric Collaborative
Blog Post for the CCCC Committee on the Status of Graduate Students
Watson Conference Session Review for the Digital Rhetoric Collaborative
Blog Post for the CCCC Committee on the Status of Graduate Students
Selected Professional Development
Digital Professional Portfolio Workshop - 9/2/16
NMWS Scholarship Roundtable - 10/14/16
Graduate Certificate Luncheon - 11/11/16
Jody Shipka Workshop (2 hrs) - 3/3/17
NMWS workshop - 3/31/17
NMWS showcase - 4/7/17
Digital humanities session - 9/8/17
Digital humanities session - 9/15/17
Digital humanities session - 9/29/17
TCC multimodal pedagogy session - 11/10/17
Digital humanities student panel - 10/2/19
Total: approx. 12 hours
NMWS Scholarship Roundtable - 10/14/16
Graduate Certificate Luncheon - 11/11/16
Jody Shipka Workshop (2 hrs) - 3/3/17
NMWS workshop - 3/31/17
NMWS showcase - 4/7/17
Digital humanities session - 9/8/17
Digital humanities session - 9/15/17
Digital humanities session - 9/29/17
TCC multimodal pedagogy session - 11/10/17
Digital humanities student panel - 10/2/19
Total: approx. 12 hours
