I am pleased to announce that the "Keynote Conversation" at the Computers & Writing Online 2006 Symposium on February 18th will include four of the top scholars in our field.

Cynthia Selfe, Fred Kemp, James Inman, and Cheryl Ball have agreed to join this "conversation" from 1:30-2:40 CST on 2/18/06. This should be quite an event, so make plans to attend! (Discussion topic to be announced.)

I also want to make another pitch for presentation proposals for CWOnline 2006. The deadline for proposals is 11/30, but we are considering extending the deadline into December (more on that soon). Here again is the CFP: http://english.ttu.edu/cw/CWO2006/CFP_CWonline2006.pdf

I've had a few questions about what presenting at this online conference would be like, so I thought I would elaborate on the different presentation formats. This description may help you decide what kind of proposal you would like to make for a presentation.

The key thing to remember about an online conference presentation is that it isn't a lecture format—it is a discussion format. As a presenter, then, you in a sense prompt and guide a discussion. Here is a brief description of the three different forum formats available at the conference:

Asynchronous
--This forum is a listserv/discussion forum format, and will be held in the Computersandwriting.org Drupal site. You could have a common reading as the topic of the discussion (a paper you wrote perhaps). Alternatively, the topic could simply focus on a question, but you will probably want to create some initial questions or statements to prompt the discussion. The discussion extends over five days (and perhaps beyond that), so it has some time for "discussion" over time.

Synchronous
--This is a real-time chat format (held in the TTU enCore MOO). You could have a common reading behind this presentation also, but you can't always count on attendees having read the full paper (and they certainly don't have time to read it during the session). You would probably want to create a series of slides that work as discussion prompts (we would help you do that). Within a 45-60 minute discussion, you probably have time for five slides. Each slide would be a web page that would display on the right side of the screen so people could view the slide as they talked.

Poster Session
--Consider this format as being just like in a face-to-face setting. You would create one slide (webpage) with a summary of results or some data or information. Folks entering the poster session room would be able to view the slide and talk with you about it, or if you are not there they could leave some comments.

I want to extend a special invitation to Graduate Students to submit poster session proposals where results from your work in your classes can be displayed.

The conference website can be viewed at http://english.ttu.edu/cw/CWO2006/default.html.
Contact me with any questions you have about presenting or attending the conference. (Lirvin@accd.edu)

Cheers,

Lennie Irvin