by Christopher Dean, Will Hochman, Carra Hood, and Robert McEachern

The Southern Connecticut State University English Department leapfrogged from having few dedicated computerized writing classrooms to creating a wireless laptop lab. So what?

At NYU and The University of Southern Colorado, I developed computerized classrooms for writing instruction. In this context and the context of our webtext’s title metaphor, the conflicting tension between technology and pedagogy’s identity politics play out a "Love/Hate" relationship through the image of a "naked emperor."

I have had to be that naked emperor to get colleagues motivated while agreeing that the best motivation for computer innovation is still about knowing what to question and criticize. My great privilege these days is working with a dedicated group of teachers as we make our transitions into new learning spaces. Bob McEachern ("The Humanizing Effects of Wireless Laptops") helped me realize how much technology has become a humanizing force in my teaching, and Carra Hood ("Exuberance and the Failure to Learn Their Names") has made me question what it means to be a compositionist. Chris Dean's hypertext, "The Many Colored Coat of the Emperor: Multi-layered, Literate, and Physical," deepens the pedagogical issues of teaching with wireless laptops while also capturing the spirit of our creativity and fun in his wild prose.

Finally, I consider why wireless laptops are a technological and pedagogical innovation well worth adapting--a text I call "Why Wireless Laptops?"

We are simply four teachers telling our learning stories about being on the cutting edge of technology, and yet we also complexly form a complex group of teachers who are changing the way our faculty colleagues teach writing.

Node Five of the Introduction