Supply-Side Dreams: Composition, Technology, and the Circular Logic of Class

Specialists in computers and composition have argued that literacy educators can acquire the technological expertise to make students critically as well as functionally literate users. But acquiring such expertise imposes costs that are not distributed evenly among those who are being urged to take on these roles. Composition's revision of its mission to make compositionists players in the fast-moving world of futuristic innovation can exacerbate class divisions, as scholars with the resources to develop technological expertise define such expertise as the mark of a socially responsible educator, simultaneously naming those with fewer resources as less deserving others and forcing those others to live with decisions made far beyond their socioeconomic spheres. To explore these implications for class within a technologically advanced academic environment, this article examines the shift from Indiana University's in-house course management software, Oncourse, to a new, more sophisticated version, ultimately recommending that experts in computers and composition resist self-identification as “pioneers” and choose instead the role of “representatives” for others who are differently situated in the field.