pkittle: Colliding with Technology since 1963

pkittle's birth

Dec 12, 1963

No technology to see here, folks. I'm assured that stone knives and hand-spun suturing silk were involved. Move along.

timeline

Period: Dec 12, 1963 to Mar 2, 2012

pkittle's father buys a calculator for $150

Dec 25, 1971

My mother is appalled. All that money just to do addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. My dad just wanted a cool gadget. Guess which genes I got?

pkittle learns to program

Sep 15, 1979

10th Grade. Some class with the word "Computer" in the title. Mr. Snodgrass taught it. Mainly, we used a PDP-8. There was a lot of switch-flipping, flashing lights, and even punchcards. Total Star Trek: The Original Series vibe. By the end of the year, the class had a couple TRS-80s and we were programming in BASIC.

pkittle steals an Apple ][e ...

Apr 10, 1983

... but only for a few hours. Ed Trotter lived down the hall in the dorms, and had just received the computer from his parents. He shouldn't have left the door unlocked, but he did. My roommate and I played some kind of missile attack game, and wrote some rude little program that annoyed Ed.

Desktop Publishing the Kelso High Echo

Aug 20, 1989

In my third year of teaching high school English, I was given the newspaper class to advise--but only with the proviso that we put Apple Mac computers and Aldus PageMaker in the room. Digital, baby!

Stacking it up

Feb 10, 1994

Film scholar Julia Lesage teaches a class in new media creation, and I learn to make Hypercard stacks. Highlight: a clickable storybook, "Knox has Cat Troubles," written for my not-quite-three son, Drew. Ass-kicking animation for its time, if I do say so myself. And assuming jerky stop-frames constitute ass-kicking animation.

Directing the Computers & Writing Classroom

Sep 28, 1996

The University of Oregon receives a generous endowment and constructs a state-of-the-art classroom for exclusive use of the composition program. Recognizing the cheap and available grad-strudent geek that I was, they appoint me to run it. I use a wonderful program called "Assimilator" to maintain the computers (the program's tagline: "Resistance is futile!"). Cindy Selfe and Gail Hawisher to come to our colloquia, helping us think about how to use technology to support student learning.

The Palm Pilot heyday

Aug 14, 1999

I bought a Palm Pilot (look, it's clear--that means it's even more techie!) with the hope that a geeky device that looked like something from Star Trek would help me organize my life as a new Assistant Professor at Chico State. Or maybe that was just an excuse to buy something shiny.

The blog obligation

Aug 20, 2002

I start requiring my students to use blogs instead of reading responses and other written work. Why? Blogs are cool! Isnt' that enough reason?

What the hell is a Tech Liaison?

Feb 15, 2003

I am awarded an odd title at the Northern California Writing Project, but I go with it. I begin networking with like-minded geeks across the country. I become involved in tech leadership with the National Writing Project. Teachers sharing knowledge about smart use of technology enriches me (and my instruction!).

Wiki wiki

Jul 13, 2004

Christina Cantrill of the National Writing Project introduces me to the wiki. Ears ring. Mind spins. Future students groan in anticipation of the next development of my pedagogy.

Enter Video, stage right

Jan 23, 2007

James Gee's work gives me a rationale for learning how to make multimodal texts alongside my students. On due date, students clamor for a public showing of their projects. They'd never demanded a public reading of their essays in prior classes. Hmm. Maybe that's significant.

Multimodal Memes

Mar 16, 2009

A Writing Project colleague enlists my help: she wants her high school seniors to make multimodal academic projects. Sign me up! We create a stay-at-school-and-work-all-day field trip (without the field trip) to help students get the work done. Public showings for students, staff, and parents ensue.

Inquiring into Social Media

May 18, 2010

One hundred students in a jumbo Freshman Composition course conduct inquiries into social media. They present their results as videos, comics, websites, and games. They embrace a "meta" state of being, using as resources for presentation the subjects they investigated.

pkittle learns timetoast

Feb 27, 2012

Asked to provide a "testimonial" for the multiplicity of composition, I discover and use for the first time the web-based timeline creator, Timetoast. Guess I'm getting a little meta, too.

Tapping into the Multiplicity of Composition

Mar 2, 2012

Colleagues from the National Writing Project collaborate to present an inquiry into the ways digital media have intersected with writing instruction at the 2012 Digital Media and Learning Conference in San Francisco.