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Editor's Notes

• #3: Thank you for coming today.It may seem that title indicates a challenge, and in a sense, it does.
• #4: It¡¯s a response to the challenge of the CFP¡ªto contest space, to contest knowledgeThis challenge led to a questioning of how we have shaped the conference, and how we have created ¡°the culture of our discipline¡±This leads me to a desire to clarify what this presentation is not¨C it¡¯s not a snarky graduate student condemnation of what the conference is, nor is it intended to chastise those who, for a variety of reasons, do not present well. So what is this presentation?
• #5: Simply, to question, to analyze how the culture of the conference has evolved and perhaps generate (that¡¯s where you come in!) ideas on our direction, specifically as regards to how we both create and can shape it in the future
• #6: One of my main questions in composing this was whether our methods match our purpose.Quite simply, are we modeling the instructional means we value in the ways that envision and construct our conference?
• #8: (Explain diagram)For the purposes of this presentation, I would like to focus on two parts¡ªone half¨C of this illustrated relationship:[click]Learning and Action
• #9: Currently, yes, we have a lot going on. Before the ¡°official¡± conference begins to SIGs and meetings that seem to go into the wee hours. This year, we also have a virtual conference that will take place the following week, which offers¡­[read]The bulk of our conference, of course, is the [click]Which leads me to question, how, in these spaces¡­
• #10: Pedagogically, how would we evaluate the format of the conference as a means for¡­ Learning and Action?
• #11: Ok¨C I¡¯m taking us into some ancient history here, but I wish to cite two foundational learning concepts. Howard Gardner¡¯s theory of multiple intelligences, oft used and abused, posits that individuals have ways of knowing that extend to body, music, etc. His theory has morphed to encompass what is often referred to as ¡°learning styles,¡± meaning individualized ways people best process information.
• #12: In 1993, Allison King wrote ¡°From sage on the stage to guide on the side,¡± which argued that active participation and discussion in order to move from ¡°transmission of information¡± to ¡°construction of meaning.¡±This theory of learning is still touted/ modeled/ idealized some twenty years later
• #13: Fast forward to 2008; research conducted and compiled by the Metiri Group for CISCO points to dramatic improvements in comprehension and retention when integrating multimodal materials with instruction. To quote, ¡°In general, multimodal learning has been shown to be more effective than traditional, unimodal learning. Adding visuals to verbal (text and/or auditory) learning can result in significant gains in basic and higher-order learning.¡± As this figure demonstrates, basic skills increased substantially with non-interactive multimodal learning, while higher order skills increased dramatically with interactive multimodal learning.
• #15: If we¡¯re attending and presenting at sessions for learning and action, how would we gauge the rhetorical efficacy of the methods employed by typical session format? More precisely, The question is not simply why do we ¡°do¡± our presentations the way we do, but whether we have a professional obligation¡ªas educators, as rhetoricians¡ªto be crafting and delivering them differently. I would argue that we should consider, at the very least, if there are ways to re-theorize how we construct and conduct our main sessions in order to be most instructive and rhetorical
• #16: Posters¨C DickieSelfe has been instrumental in bringing poster sessions into the CCCC¡¯s, but these posters, as yet, do not have a formal ¡°home¡± within the conference. Poster sessions have been held as free sessions during the pre-conference workshop times, within the time slot of a formal conference session, and this year, will be under the auspices of the 7Cs. Discussion group formats may develop with a more formalized pre-session outline/ overview that would be made available to attendees in advance; after a brief (5 min.) review, the audience would engage with the presenters in a discussion format. In a sense, this is similar to asking students to read before class and then be prepared to discuss, analyze, and/or argue based on readingsDeliverators are a format used for the past two years at the Computers and Writing conference. Fashioned after TED talks, in this format, a high-powered, dynamic speaker presents on stage and then engages with the audienceTo encourage more multimodal approaches and interactivity, may integrate ¡°Tweet walls¡± with specific hashtags for sessions so that audience can pose questions, comment, etc. (thanks, Will H and Shelley R)Find other means to expand the virtuality of the conference
• #17: If we wish to respond to Malea Powell¡¯s call, then the CCCCs should be one space we wish to contest in order to consider ¡®all our relations¡¯ to learning, to pedagogy, to collaboration, and to innovation.