I've been groping around for a thesis idea for a year now. First there was the RAWA thing, which dates so quickly and is so depressing. Then there's the Straight Transvestites Writing & Healing on the Internet thing, which goes across way too many theories and is too big and I don't think anyone would take it as seriously as I would. Everyone would see it as a glimpse behind the freak show curtain, which isn't how I view it at all.

So now I'm starting on this Independent Study and wondering what the larger use of it is. (Not that I think one can ever go wrong studying this stuff. I just want to be efficient with the Big Scary Project, that's all.) And then I'm sitting in Theory of Tech Comm the other night and hearing about our Theory & Application project, and thinking about the fact that this is my second semester teaching on the web. (And my first teaching writing in that medium. Hell, my first time teaching any writing at all. I'm glad to be tucked under Chuck's wing for this go-round.) And orality, and how we make meaning differently in this sort of space than we do with a book. And all that turned into a conversation with a friend last night, which harkened back to a conversation I had with Rich a while back. Both of us obviously can read books and understand them, but neither of us can read books on the web. The only time I ever use an e-text is when I need a searchable text. And even then, I always have a hard copy handy.

So what, then, changes when we move classroom pedagogy onto the web? What has to change in the way we present information? Last semester, a goodly portion of my Astronomy students failed the class, and it was because they never did the work. But here's what I want to know: did they not do it because they were lazy, or did they not do it because of the way the work was presented? (I didn't design the website or the lab layout or the texts, although I'm tinkering around a bit in them this semester.) How does orality figure in, or does it? There's something here, I just don't know exactly what it is. Must read. Must contemplate.