| This ethnographical study focused on writing teachers investigating the teaching and learning of computer-aided composition within the context of a computer conference.;The participants in this computer conference, all successful secondary and college-level teachers of writing, worked together to build a collaborative, and productive community. Participants used the unique form of discourse afforded by this computer conference to share thoughts and ideas, to question and examine their notions of literacy, to question the pedagogical and political implications of using computer conferences to teach composition, and ultimately, to question what it means to teach.;Nine insights concerning how participants interacted and learned within this particular computer conference resulted from this study. These insights are: (1) Participants accepted the reality of discussion within this conference. (2) The discourse was limited to typed text. (3) Participants relied on writing as the basis of their discourse. (4) Participants produced two styles of replies. (5) Participants perceived, and lamented, the loss of traditional face-to-face learning contexts. (6) The potential for participation may have been increased. (7) The actual participation varied. (8) The experience, for some, was enjoyable. (9) Paradigms changed when teaching and learning within this new environment.;Computer conferences are, for some, teachers and learners alike, unsettling, in that they contest familiar paper with unfamiliar electronic text, verbal with visual orientation, oral with print interaction, and face-to-face with virtual context. But this study indicates that using computer conferences as sites for teaching and learning may outweigh these unsettling considerations, and in fact, may provide substantial benefit in that they can promote collaborative learning in socially constructed discourse communities available to all participants at all times. The one consideration we may not be able to overcome is the lack of time for desired involvement. As one participant said, "It ended when everyone was just getting the hang of it.". |
