Article

With the rapidly increasing application of educational technologies in many aspects of college curricula, this seasoned writing center director, with more than sixteen years in the front lines of one-to-one instruction, can only blush when remembering the heated, serious, debates over whether to buy a new 512k computer (even with dual disk drives and the latest version of MS-DOS) over staying the course with a CPM-run Kaypro metal box.

Donald Schön (1983) describes “reflective practitioners” as those who are able to do all of the following: read and write and think and theorize about their own practice. They take what they’ve learned, assimilate it, and then they are able to apply it in different situations, altering content and application as context demands.

In 1984, when my supervisor invited me into his office to “talk about” purchasing computers for the Johnson County Community College (JCCC) Writing Center (the Center), my only prior knowledge about computer technology came from a month’s stint of working for Lee’s Temporaries one summer between teaching terms. That computer was the size of a small closet and ate data cards that I fed it for two long weeks.