Re: authenticity

William Tilson (wtropic@NERVM.NERDC.UFL.EDU)
Mon, 19 Aug 1996 16:04:00 -0500


>I'm responding to several ideas in the latest discussion on grading,
>authentic writing, etc.
>
>I've had a success recently. I taught my freshman comp class this summer
>to set up their own web pages using html. Their last "assignment" was to
>present their last argument--an epideictic argument--on the web. We talked
>about the web as another rhetorical tool, and I gave them full reign to
>present their argument in whatever format and organizational structure they
>liked.

i'm coming from an architecture curriculum and have been using networked
writing environments(NWE at UF) for the past two semesters in seminars on
urban design theory. We(meaning the class(es) and I) have found the
webenvironment (hypertext, mailists and moo) to be an excellent context in
which to model a discourse on changing concepts of the public realm in the
American city. traditionally this type of activity occurred as an adjunct
to the studio setting with lectures, and papers on various topics. Now,
it's a hybrid form combining studio like sessions of notecards, strings,
realtime image projects and critique with readings, and class moo sessions.

as a supplimental thread to the discussion on topics, how do you use
images? what relationship do they have to the text? and, how are you
evaluating *design*? is this purely based on personal choice?

William L. Tilson
Associate Professor
Director, Preservation Institute: Caribbean
College of Architecture
331 ARCH University of Florida
Gainesville, FL 32611
904.392.4836 fax 904.392.7266