Teaching students to write into the future

"I want my students to be nimble writers," says Janine DeBaise. "They need to be ready to adapt to a world that keeps changing."
DeBaise incorporates hybrid elements into a writing and research course at ESF. Her students have built websites and blogs, hosted weekly twitter chats, collaborated with students in Georgia , Florida, Pennsylvania, and Taiwaan, and presented their scientific research to the general public via the internet.
SUNY honored DeBaise with the Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2023. DeBaise is the education editor for Terrain.org, a place-based online magazine founded in 1997.
In her article Learn Like an Arachnid: Why I'm MOOCifying , DeBaise explains why and how she has incorporated digital pedagogy into her teaching. In her article Best Practices: Thoughts on Flash Mob Mentality, she explains why the universal design principle can lead to bad pedagogy. Her chapter about the value of living/learning communities (co-authored with Julie White) was published in the book Building and Sustaining Learning Communities by Hurd and Stein. She wrote Chapter Nine Best Practices in the collection Critical Digital Pedagogy, a peer-reviewed book centered on the theory and practice of critical digital pedagogy. She has been invited to speak about writing pedagogy at national conferences many times over the last twenty years.
In a podcast published by the journal Hybrid Pedagogy, she is interviewed by Chris Friend, who describes her teaching style as Responsive Teaching.
Janine has taught at ESF since 1992. Her courses have included technical writing, scientific communication, composition, research writing, contemporary nature literature, and urban environmental literature. For many years, she was part of a living/learning community at SUNY-ESF which integrated writing with science courses and student life topics. In 2013, she was part of a four-person team who built and facilitated a one-day MOOC for educators who wanted to incorporate MOOC-like elements into their courses. On the international level, she has worked as part of the administrative team for #TvsZ, an open online game which teaches digital literacy.
DeBaise incorporates hybrid elements into a writing and research course at ESF. Her students have built websites and blogs, hosted weekly twitter chats, collaborated with students in Georgia , Florida, Pennsylvania, and Taiwaan, and presented their scientific research to the general public via the internet.
SUNY honored DeBaise with the Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2023. DeBaise is the education editor for Terrain.org, a place-based online magazine founded in 1997.
In her article Learn Like an Arachnid: Why I'm MOOCifying , DeBaise explains why and how she has incorporated digital pedagogy into her teaching. In her article Best Practices: Thoughts on Flash Mob Mentality, she explains why the universal design principle can lead to bad pedagogy. Her chapter about the value of living/learning communities (co-authored with Julie White) was published in the book Building and Sustaining Learning Communities by Hurd and Stein. She wrote Chapter Nine Best Practices in the collection Critical Digital Pedagogy, a peer-reviewed book centered on the theory and practice of critical digital pedagogy. She has been invited to speak about writing pedagogy at national conferences many times over the last twenty years.
In a podcast published by the journal Hybrid Pedagogy, she is interviewed by Chris Friend, who describes her teaching style as Responsive Teaching.
Janine has taught at ESF since 1992. Her courses have included technical writing, scientific communication, composition, research writing, contemporary nature literature, and urban environmental literature. For many years, she was part of a living/learning community at SUNY-ESF which integrated writing with science courses and student life topics. In 2013, she was part of a four-person team who built and facilitated a one-day MOOC for educators who wanted to incorporate MOOC-like elements into their courses. On the international level, she has worked as part of the administrative team for #TvsZ, an open online game which teaches digital literacy.
Selected Conference Talks about Teaching Writing and Literature
"When a Thousand Islands Aren't Enough" Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment. Portland, Oregon. July 2023.
"Ekphrastic Writing: How it works and why it matters" The Biennial for the National League of American Pen Women. Washington, DC. April 2022. "Seventh Generation" Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment. Virtual biennial conference. August 2021. "Fools for Nature: the Transformative Power of Environmental Humor" Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment. Davis, California. June, 2019. "Creative Writing from the Wrack Zone: Awareness, Action, and Activism" Association for Literature, Environment, and Culture in Canada. Victoria, British Columbia, June, 2018. "The Brain–is Wider than the Sky—" Society for Literature Science and the Arts, Toronto, Ontario, November, 2018. "When We Ignore the Warnings of Environmental Science" Society for Literature Science and the Arts. Tempe, Arizona, November, 2017. "The Techne of Audience: Bringing the Real into the Classroom" Computers & Writing Conference, Findlay, Ohio, June, 2017. “Perforate Your Classroom: How Hacking the Online Game #TvsZ 6.0 Brings Together Faculty, Students, and Community” Emerging Technologies for Online Learning International Symposium. Dallas, Texas, April 2015. “Remixing #TvsZ: Hacking Games, Narratives, and Borders” EDUCAUSE conference, Los Angeles, California, February 2015. “Learning through Games: #TvsZ” The Humanities and Technology Camp: Digital Pedagogy. Atlantic City, New Jersey, June 2014. “Social Media and Pedagogy” The Humanities and Technology Camp. Syracuse, New York, April, 2014. “Can Mosquitos Inspire Creativity? Writing About the Natural World” Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts. Milwaukee, Wisconsin, September 2012. “Just Enough Science: Writing to Raise Ecological Awareness” Society for Literature Science and the Arts. Kitchener, Ontario, September 2011. “Word Play: Creative Writing Workshop” Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment. Bloomington, Indiana, June 2011. “Learning From Ecology: Writing as a Way of Listening to Place” Conference on College Composition and Communication. Atlanta, Georgia, April 2011. “Environmental Writing in the Age of Global Climate Change” Associated Writers and Writing Programs. Washington, DC, February 2011. “Learn the Flowers” Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts. Indianapolis, Indiana, November 2010. “From Awareness to Advocacy: New Directions for the Environmental Essay” Associated Writers and Writing Programs. Denver, Colorado, April 2010. "The Virtues of the Virtual: Using Blogs to Communicate Place across Space" Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment. Victoria, BC, June 2009 "Grass Roots, Web Logs, and Virtual Moss: An Ecocritical Look at Blogging" Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment. Spartanburg, South Carolina, June 2007 "Creative Integration: Science, Creative-Writing, Collaboration, and Original Voice" Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts. New York, New York, November 2006 "Learning a New Language: Faculty/Student Affairs Collaboration" Living-Learning Programs and Residential Colleges Conference. Syracuse, New York, October 2006 “Minding the Body, Embodying the Mind: Moving Between Creative Writing and Composition” Conference on College Composition and Communication. Chicago, Illinois, March 2006 “Ecocomposition: Literature, Science, Community, and the Environment” Conference on College Composition and Communication. Chicago, Illinois, March 2006 "Creative Responses to Nature" Two linked panels of artists, writers, and scientists. Society for Science, Literature, and the Arts. Chicago, Illinois, November 2005 “Skyscrapers, Pigeons, and All That Jazz: Teaching and Writing Urban Nature Literature” Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment. Eugene, Oregon, June 2005 “Extreme Makeover: From Learning Community Initiative to Campus Culture Change” Living-Learning Programs and Residential Colleges Conference. Bloomington, Indiana, November 2004 “When Science and Story are Woven Together: Ecology, Native Wisdom, and Spiritual Insight in Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Gathering Moss” Society for Literature and Science. Durham, North Carolina, October 2004 “Exploring Science, Literature, and Ecocriticism: How do we Reconcile the Worldview of Science Literature with Spiritual, Intuitive, Emotional Responses to the Earth?” Roundtable. Co-organized and co-chaired with Michael Bryson. Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment. Boston, Massachusetts, June 2003 “Art, Music, and Performance Can Transform the Writing Classroom: Deep Play Leads to Creative and Critical Thinking” Half-day workshop. Co-organized with Joan Goodman. Conference on College Composition and Communication. New York, New York, March 2003 “From Ropes Course to Poetry: Getting Students to Take Risks With Their Writing” Conference on College Composition and Communication. New York, NY, March 2003 “Cross-pollination: When Writing and Botany Overlap” Society for Literature and Science. Pasadena, California, October 2002 “Acting Up, Acting Out: Playful Strategies in the Creative/Critical Classroom” Workshop. Conference on College Composition and Communication. Chicago, Illinois, March 2002 “Why Teaching Writing is Like Catching Snakes: Considerations of the Body and Alternative Ways of Using Classroom Space” Conference on College Composition and Communication. Denver, Colorado, March 2001 “Excerpts from Naturaleza, Tangent Express, Las Nubes, and Grandma’s Crabapple Tree: Group journals empower students in the multicultural classroom” Conference on College Composition and Communication. Minneapolis, Minnesota, April 2000 |