ABSTRACT
The first thing you notice about the classroom is its aural texture—not quite silent, but very quiet—just a staccato, percussive clicking of fingers on keyboards rapidly typing, then pausing in a cyclic rhythm, repeated around the room; the quiet hum of the computer fans complements the buzz of the fluorescent lights. The students in question are taking part in an upper level writing course titled “Writing and Technology,” taught at a midsized public university on the east coast of the United States. The class is primarily made up of White, middle-class women and men who are in their junior or senior year of their undergraduate careers; 90% of the 20 students are White, 20% are male. And although digital literacy is a specifically stated goal of the course, the professor teaching the course did not develop it as a vehicle for literacy instruction; it was, instead, developed using common curricular models from the field of technical and professional communication.
