Michael Cripps moderates student writing panel at annual English teacher conference

Michael J. Cripps, Ph.D., associate professor, director of composition and chair in the Department of English, recently moderated a panel discussion, titled “21st Century Student Writing," at the annual meeting of the Two-Year College English Association (TYCA) Northeast, held in Portland, Maine.

Panelists included Tim Dalton of the CUNY Graduate Center, Dianne Fallon of York County Community College, Kelly Secovnie of the Borough of Manhattan Community College and Steve Straight of Manchester Community College.

The group explored a range of perspectives on 21st century literacy, including the enduring value of reading print texts and the potential for tools, such as Adobe Spark, to help students present research in new ways. 

Cripps introduced the speakers and framed the panel by linking themes in 21st century literacy to several of UNE’s current initiatives in digital literacy, including the English department’s and the University’s work with ePortfolio, an electronic portfolio of student-generated content shared as a Web site.

He also discussed the growth in multimodal composition within English and writing courses and the new multimodal literacy badge offered by the University.

The conference, hosted by six of the community colleges in the University of Maine system, featured a wide array of presentations focused on emergent pedagogies and curricula within English, writing studies and the Writing Across the Curriculum movement. Speakers from dozens of colleges and universities across the northeast region took part in the conference.