C u r r i c u l u m  V i t a e

Laura McGrath is an assistant professor of English at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Georgia, where she teaches a variety of rhetoric and composition and professional writing courses. Her research, which is closely connected to her teaching and professional service activities, centers on computers and writing and eLearning. Before joining the KSU faculty in 2004, she held a Brittain Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she taught technology-enhanced cultural studies writing courses and participated in a year-long electronic pedagogy seminar.

As her department's technology coordinator, Laura helps other faculty members integrate technology into their courses in pedagogically effective ways. She also serves as chair of the department's Committee on Online Learning and is a member of the eLearning Advisory Committee. In addition to these KSU-based leadership roles, Laura serves as Reviews co-editor for the journal Kairos.

Curriculum Vitae

 

Ph.D. English, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, 2003

Dissertation: "Composition and Communication in an Online Environment"

B.A. cum laude , Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, 1998

Teaching Experience

Assistant Professor of English, Kennesaw State University, 2004-present

Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2003-2004

Graduate Teaching Assistant, The University of Georgia, 1998-2003

Undergraduate		Graduate (MAPW)
•  Advanced Composition •  Computers and Writing (Online & Face-to-Face) •  First-Year Composition I and II (Online & Face-to-Face) •  Professional Editing (Online) •  On the Road in America: American Road and Rail Narratives •  Science, Technology, and Society •  Technical Writing (Online)		•  Professional Editing •  Web Content Development

Publications

"Teaching Effective Technology Use in Humanities-Based Technical and Professional Communication Programs." Chapter in "Digital Practice, Digital Divergence: A Professional Communicator's Guide to New Media." Ed. Adrienne Lamberti and Anne R. Richards. (forthcoming, Baywood).

"Teaching New Media, Negotiating Access." Chapter in “Reading and Writing New Media.” Ed. Cheryl Ball and Jim Kalmbach. (forthcoming, Hampton Press)

"In Their Own Voices: Online Writing Instructors Speak Out on Issues of Preparation, Development, & Support," Computers and Composition Online. (Spring 2008). Available at: http://www.bgsu.edu/cconline/OWIPDS/.

"Developing eLearning Policies at the Department Level." Journal of Online Learning and Teaching (JOLT). 2.3 (2006). Available at: http://jolt.merlot.org/vol2no3/mcgrath.htm.

Review of Barbara Monroe's Crossing the Digital Divide: Race, Writing, and Technology in the Classroom. Issues in Writing. 16.1 (2005): 82-86.

Content Developer, Companion Web Site for Good Reasons: Designing and Writing Effective Arguments, Third Edition. Lester Faigley and Jack Selzer. 2005. Available at: http://wps.ablongman.com/long_faigley_gr_3/0,10385,1960988-,00.html.

"Hypertext From a Distance—New Ways of Writing, New Ways of Talking in Freshman English: One Institution's Perspective." Kairos . 6.1 (2001). Available at: http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/6.1/binder.html?response/desmet/index.html.

Presentations

Invited Speaker, "Using Social Networking and Web 2.0 Tools for Instructional Purposes," 2008 SUNY Learning Network AC/MID Summit, Syracuse, New York, February 2008.

Session Leader, "Strategic Web Writing: Effective Practices for Building Your Brand and Audience," SoCon 2008, Kennesaw, Georgia, February 2008.

Speaker, "Online Writing Instructors: Preparation, Development, and Support." CWRL Lecture Series, University of Texas, Austin, November 2007.

"OurSpace: Using Social Networking Spaces to Create Multi-Campus Learning Communities." Sloan Consortium International Conference on Asynchronous Learning Networks, Orlando, Florida, November 2007.

"Online Writing Faculty: Preparation, Development, and Support." Computers & Writing, Detroit, Michigan, May 2007.

"A Model of Support: Faculty Learning Communities for Online Instructors." Sloan Consortium International Conference on Asynchronous Learning Networks, Orlando, Florida, November 2006.

"Blogs, Smart Mobs, and Peer-to-Peer Journalism: Digital Composition and Student Agency." Popular Culture Association Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, April 2006.

"Teaching Digital Composition: Challenges and Opportunities." Conference on Writing, Teaching, and Technology, Amherst, Massachusetts, April 2006.

"Technology, Literacy, and First-Year Composition: Strategies for Teaching and Learning." Student Success in First-Year Composition Conference, Statesboro, Georgia, February 2006.

"Designer—Text—User: How Electronic Communication and the Turn to the Visual Are Changing Composition." Computers and Writing Conference, Stanford, California, June 2005.

Chair, "Visual Rhetoric/Visual Literacies: Accessing the Image in Writing Curricula" and "A Multimedia Look at How Students Gain Access to Careers in Professional Writing." Conference on College Composition and Communication, San Francisco, California, March 2005.

"Using Blogs and Discussion Groups to Model and Create Community." Georgia and Carolinas College English Association Conference, Lawrenceville, Georgia, February 2005.

"Easing Anxieties in the Composition Classroom: Can Composing for the Web Help Students Overcome Their Fear of Writing?" Student Success in First-Year Composition Conference, Statesboro, Georgia, February 2004.

"Student Language Use in Electronic Environments." Modern Language Association, San Diego, California, December 2003.

"Incorporating Technology into the Composition Classroom: Access, Attitudes, and the New Literacy." Conference on College Composition and Communication, Denver, Colorado, March 2001.

"Sifting through the Cyberclutter: Teaching Web-based Research Skills." Tech Expo 2001, Athens, Georgia, April 2001.

"Collaborative Campus Project: Rhetoric, Technology, and Classroom Re-Composition" (with Christy Desmet, Lissa Holloway-Attaway, Angela Mitchell, Greg VanHoosier-Carey, and Patsy Worrall). ALLC/ACH Conference, Glasgow, Scotland, July 2000.

"Hypertext from a Distance: New Ways of Writing, New Ways of Talking in Freshman English" (by proxy, with Christy Desmet). Computers and Writing Conference, Fort Worth, Texas, May 2000.

Funded Work/Funding Awards

Incentive Funding Award for Scholarship (2007-2008)

Leader, Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning-Funded Faculty Learning Community on eLearning (2005-2006)

Faculty Technology Coordinator, Reading African Communities in American Parlors National Endowment for the Humanities Proposal Project (2005-2006)

Workshop Development Team Member, Kennesaw Mountain Writing Project Technology Initiative, National Writing Project Seed Grant (2005-2006)

Professional Service

Reviews Co-Editor, Kairos (2006-present)

Editor, Kennesaw State University Press (2004-2006)

MLA Present-Day English Language Executive Committee Member (2003-2006)

Grader, Georgia Regents' English Examination (1999-2005)

Technology Leadership and Service

Faculty Workshop Leader

• "Online Discussions: Strategies for Success." KSU CETL. February 2008.
• "Technology, Pedagogy, and English Studies." KSU English Department. May 14-16, 2007.
• "WebCT Basics." KSU English Department. Delivered once each semester.
• "Building Your Own Web Page." KSU English Department. 2005.

Chair, English Department Committee on Online Learning (2007-present)

Member, English Department External Communication Committee (2007-present)

Member, eLearning Faculty Advisory Committee (2007-present)

Elected Representative, Information Technology Advisory Committee (2006-present; secretary 2006-2007)

Vista Transition Faculty Leader and Transition Team (2006-2007)

Member, HSS Webmaster Hiring Committee (2006)

Technology Specialist and Webmaster, Kennesaw State University Department of English (2004-present); elected Technology Coordinator (2007-present, serve on departmental advisory council)

English Department Representative, College of Humanities and Social Sciences Technology Committee (2004-2005)

Web Site Developer and Committee Member, Local Planning Committee, 2003 Joint Conference of the Association for Computing in the Humanities and the Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing (2002-2003)

Improving Your Online Course, Quality Matters Workshop (2007)

Ask the Experts: Tips, Techniques, and Creative Strategies for Teaching Online, Sloan-C, Orlando, Florida (2007)

Digital Media and Composition Institute, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio (May 29-June 9, 2006)

SMART Board Master's Training, Atlanta, Georgia (2006)

Web Authoring with Macromedia Dreamweaver Workshop (2006)