Coordinator of Online, Hybrid and Distance Instruction
As coordinator of online, hybrid and distance instruction at Arizona State University, I have been developing and leading best practice workshops for writing instructors. To help facilitate the workshops, I developed a PBWorks wiki site to share ideas, assignments and activities in the classroom. The workshops have included learning and exploring how to use web-based programs, as well as designing online and hybrid writing assignments and effective online teaching practices. As a by-product of being coordinator, I have developed an app for Smartphones and electronic tablets, in the form of an e-text, to share teaching approaches, assignments and activities with the writing instructors at Arizona State University.
Teaching Innovations
I have continued to make innovations in three main areas in my teaching. These three areas are in technologies, communities and in collaborating with instructors at other colleges and universities. The technologies that I have been teaching students how to use for writing are mainly web-based ones, such as PBworks, Prezi, Weebly and Wix. My main website that I use to teach is: http://compositionawebb.pbworks.com. I have chosen to use PBWorks as my main webpage/workspace because it is reliable and offers 2 two gigabytes of from space. I have also started to use social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter as a way to communicate with students. Web-based programs such as these also help students to collaborate and connect to their peers, because it allows them to connect and communicate outside of the classroom.
For the past four years, I have been working with other instructors within the first-year writing program at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. During this time, I have assisted instructors create and develop activities and assignments for their seminar courses in the teaching of research and writing projects. I have collected most of the activities and assignment designs on my PBWorks wiki site, which I use as a storage space and as an electronic “textbook/work,” called the “rhizomal paradigm,” which can be located at this website: http://therhizomalparadigm.pbworks.com. Some of the collaborations with seminar instructors at TAMU-CC have resulted in presentations at the National Learning Communities Conference.
I have also been incorporating community and service-learning projects into my writing courses since 2007. I have developed various approaches and course designs based on my experiences with using service-learning projects in my composition courses. Some examples of the service-learning composition courses I have designed include these semesters spring 2007 course 1 and course 2, spring 2008 course 1 and course 2, spring 2009 course 1 and course 2 spring 2010 course 1 and course 2. The outcome of using service-learning in my composition courses are led to two chapters published in texts on service-learning and the writing classroom and a presentation at the Conference on College Composition and Communication.
Gear Up/STAR Programs
I was a Faculty Fellow in the College of Education at Texas A & M University-Corpus Christi, 2008, 2009 & 2010. My responsibilities included teaching writing, reading and research strategies using technologies such as wikis, databases and Microsoft Word to local area middle and high school students in Texas GEAR-UP and STAR (Students Training for Academic Readiness) early college preparation programs, archivist in compiling students’ work and recording activities and projects designed by fellow teachers in the GEAR-UP/STAR program.
While teaching writing at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi from 2008-2010, I participated as a Faculty Fellow in teaching how to use technologies to write and research to high school students who were in the Gear Up/STAR (Students Training for Academic Readiness) early college readiness program. The Gear Up/STAR early college readiness programs were held during June and July. The design of the Gear Up/STAR program at TAMU-CC resembled a two-week summer camp, where students would be bused by their school districts to the TAMU-CC campus from their hometowns. The high schools that participated in the Gear Up/STAR program at TAMU-CC were considered low income with a high percentage of Hispanic students. The summer learning institutes, which consisted of even to nine instructors from the English, science, mathematics and communication departments, and ten to fourteen tutors, which were undergraduate students from various disciplines. The summer institutes met Monday through Friday for two weeks. The instructors were allowed to design their own activities and assignments with approval from the programs co-directors. The main goal of the learning institutes within this program was to provide high school students with the opportunity to experience university courses.
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Gear Up & STAR Summer Bridge Program at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, June 15-25, 2010, taught PBworks wiki and writing to rising ninth graders from Alice, Corpus Christi, Falfurrias, Kingsville, Mathis, and Odem and played the role of archivist
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Gear Up & STAR Summer Bridge Program at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, June 15-26, 2009, taught English/Writing/PBworks wiki to rising ninth graders from Alice, Corpus Christi, Falfurrias, Kingsville, Mathis, and Odem
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High School Summer Bridge Program at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, July 7- August 5, 2008, taught English/Composition/PBworks wiki to juniors and seniors from Alice, Mathis, Odem, and West Oso Independent School District
Writing Consultant, Texas A&M University—Corpus Christi’s Writing Center, 2007