Less than five years ago, James Moffett pondered whether students in language arts classrooms have enough opportunities to write for and speak to an audience. ``In order to put their will behind what they're doing, speakers and writers must have authentic audiences, and listeners and readers must become authentic audiences,'' Moffett wrote in the text, Student Centered Language Arts. (Moffett, J. & Wagner B.J., 1992). ``The more often outsiders such as adults or younger children can serve as audiences the better, but practicing discourse constantly requires more audiences and feedback than can be arranged with outsiders.'' While the Internet existed at the time of Moffett's statement, no one could have envisioned the many ways it can be used to foster learning in an English/Language Arts classroom. It's virtually impossible to pickup an educational journal or periodical relating to the teaching of English that doesn't have at least one item discussing ways to integrate the Internet into the teaching of writing. The reason really is quite simple: The Internet offers a global audience for written discourse that Moffett considered so important. One of the objectives of this course is to help teachers find the best ways to take advantage of the new telecommunications technology -- not merely so students can learn how to surf the 'net, but so they can become more effective writers and more aware thinkers. The Internet not only offers motivation for writing, but also moves the purpose of classroom writing beyond writing for the teacher.
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University of Nevada, Reno
Please direct questions to: Larry Baden (baden@scs.unr.edu)
URL of this document: http://spidergram.ccs.unr.edu/unr/sb204/journ/intro.html
Last Modified: Aug 5, 1996
Created by: Craig Edwards