Becoming technology critics also involves changes in the way in which we employ technology in our classrooms. When introducing infotech into the classroom it is not enough merely to emphasize the "convenience" of these technologies or their utopian possibilities and then expect students to discover this for themselves. It is necessary to create assignments that will emphasize this and will build on more familiar pedagogical techniques (provision of on-line handouts, expanded office hours from the teacher, prompt response to student enquiries).
Teachers interested in introducing infotech into their classrooms need to bear in mind that it may be necessary to hold special sessions to familiarize students with infotech, and this may in turn require teachers taking classes to develop the skills necessary to instruct others in infotech. In my experience, students almost always demand that any technological innovations relate closely to the course, and it is difficult to create assignments that encourage them to think outside this instrumentalist, goal-directed approach. One consideration here is to avoid the exclusive use of assignments that privilege the teacher as collection point of student input (e.g. response to readings mailed to the teacher) but instead to explore ways of getting students to talk to each other, and to do so in non-specific ways (those not directly related to assignments or even to the class). This is, after all, merely an expansion of one important project of the humanities in general and composition in particular which often goes under the rubric of "encouraging critical thinking": exploring non-hierarchical or non-distributive linkages, emphasizing process rather than specific content.
Technology critics employing infotech in their classrooms should theorize technological and information issues in the classroom in the same way that many of us now overtly theorize writing issues (the linkage between socio-cultural questions and pedagogical practice, for example).
Most importantly, given the very real problems of access to technology that I have outlined above, teachers should always use the "lowest-tech" of the high-tech options when introducing infotech into the classroom. At the moment, for example, making class handouts available through the Web creates a technological requirement that few campuses let alone individual users can meet or master. While these technological difficulties may be solved, and Web access become a relatively cheap option for many classrooms an essential part of actively embracing infotech is that there is always a new technology that comes along and lures us with the promise that we can become more cutting edge than everyone else.
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