As educational MOOs like Lingua MOO become more ubiquitous in academia, virtual communities will spring up as microcenters of knowledge and research, not to mention as macrowebs in which the relation among educational MOOs (i.e., GNA network) spreads over into webbed teaching and resource environments. Eric Crump, Michael Day, and Rebecca Rickley have discussed the intersection of such virtual communities and pedagogy in their article, "Creating a Virtual Academic Community." In addition, many outstanding online pedagogical resources may be found at Eric Crump's Online Writery, where various syllabi, student projects, and technologies for writing instruction are displayed and linked.

At the 1996 CCCC, I was fortunate to chair a forum on MOO pedagogy and theory where a discussion of the ins and outs of teaching with MOOs furthered the growing energy of educators who are eager to learn new ways to enhance the reality of everyday teaching. One point the panel wanted to make clear is the importance of guidelines for planning and of proper client platforms when MOOs are used in teaching. The C-FEST colloquia series at Lingua MOO also gives teachers an opportunity to learn about using MOOs in teaching in addition to providing a forum for general discussion about the impact of technology in the field of rhetoric and composition. Logs of the C-FEST meetings are archived at Lingua MOO in addition to various seminars and papers on the subject of MOOs.

Finally, a host of electronic journals and online conference links may be found on Lingua's Archive and Resource page. Journals like PRE/TEXT, Kairos, CWRL, Rhetnet, and CMC are joined with informative links to CCCC96 and CW96, the Computers and Writing Conference in Logan, Utah.

Back to the start page