|
I locate the origin of the Graduate Research Network Online on September
5, 2000. I know its origins date back further, but that’s the day Janice
Walker and Susan Lang asked me to coordinate an Online version of the GRN
with the C&W Online 2001 committee. The task was to build upon the
success of the first Graduate Research Network and extend it beyond the
time and space limitations of a face-to-face conference workshop.
Janice and Susan had some definite ideas about what they wanted the
GRN Online to be — a forum that would allow graduate students to interact
and share their work with each other and with experienced members of the
computers and writing community, continue the contacts made during the
Graduate
Research Network 2000 and future sessions beyond the C&W conferences,
and make it possible for people who could not attend the face-to-face conferences
to participate. How that would happen was up to me. This is not to suggest
I was on my own. No, they, and the C&W
Online 2001 committee, were instrumental in the support, suggestions,
and encouragement they gave. Without all of them, the GRN Online would
not have happened. |
From the beginning, the plan for the GRN Online was to bring the GRN online
and establish it as a year-round forum for graduate students to share and
receive feedback on their work, to establish connections throughout the
computers and writing community, and to get information on professionalization
issues. It was clear from my early discussions with Susan and Janice that
we did not want to use GRN Online only to "bring the GRN online" but also
to establish a GRN community. To this end, the following short- and long-term
plans were made:
-
Establish an independent forum that extended the original GRN into a year-round
event.
-
Hold a series of events as part of C&W Online 2001 which would include
social gatherings, small group discussions to discuss work, and professionalization
forums.
-
Establish an email discussion list.
-
Create a permanent home to serve as a base for all future online GRN events.
-
Begin offering GRN events outside of the C&W and C&W Online conferences.
-
Develop an environment conducive to the creation of a GRN community.
|
The Graduate
Research Network Online 2001 offered five events as part of the C&W
Online 2001 conference. The events took place in the GRN Online Complex
on Connections MOO.
-
The GRN Online Opening Ceremonies
-
An event to introduce everyone to the GRN Online Complex, to the GRN Online
participants and discussion leaders, and to offer MOOing practice for those
who needed it. Read
the MOO log.
-
The GRN Onsite and Online: Getting Ready, Getting Involved
-
A roundtable discussion, led by the GRN coordinators, Susan M. Lang, Janice
R. Walker, and John Walter, and past GRN participants James A. Inman and
John F. Ronan, about the Graduate Research Network and the Graduate Research
Network Online. The discussion was intended to help participants and discussion
leaders of both events prepare for the experience. Read
the MOO log.
-
The GRN Online Open House
-
Held before the small group discussions, the GRN Online open house gave
participants, discussion leaders, and guests a chance to interact, look
over abstracts, and talk informally about the projects.
-
Small Group Discussions
-
Arguably the most important event of the GRN Online, the graduate student
participants were divided into two groups and discussed their projects
with other members of their groups, with discussion leaders, and with members
of the computers and writing community who chose to participate informally.
A list of participants
and abstracts
are available.
-
Where Do I Go From Here? Professionalization for Graduate Students
-
A roundtable discussion of professionalization issues facing graduate students,
led by Sharon Cogdill, Lisa Gerrard, Jane Love, and Mike Palmquist. Read
the MOO log.
The first GRN Online was an important step towards reaching our goals.
We worked with the C&W Online 2001 committee as an independent organization,
we established a permanent home in which all our events took place,
we offered a series of social and professionalization events, and we brought
together a variety of graduate students and experienced members of the
computers and writing community including professors, mentors, journal
editors, and administrators. |
C&W 2001 and the
GRN Online: Planning for the Future
|
|
As part of a Computers & Writing
2001 session on the future of the GRN, I presented "Reflections on
the First GRN Online," in which I recapped the first GRN Online and outlined
a plan for the future. Based upon our original goals and the experience
of coordinating GRN Online 2001, I suggested that:
-
we establish an email discussion list,
-
we offer multiple, small group discussions over the course of a few weeks
to enable higher participation and to allow participants to present in
as many of them as they want,
-
we expand presentation/participation options to include asynchronous methods
such as email discussion lists and/or threaded forums,
-
we offer small group discussions during the C&W Online conference
and in the fall, roughly six months apart,
-
and we offer professionalization sessions a few times a year, spaced between
the spring and fall small group discussions
|