The Computer and the Page: The Theory, History and Pedagogy of Publishing, Technology and the Classroom (New Directions in Computers and Composition Studies)

This book is about the nature of publishing: its processes, history and technologies. It also explores the relationship of technology to pedagogy and how publishing has been a part of reading and writing instruction throughout the 20th century. Today publishing is both an individual and a collaborative process that is commercially, organizationally and pedagogically driven. The goal of the book is to provide a theoretical, historical, and philosophical conception of publishing that would help teachers who are beginning to work in computer-supported environments.

Kalmbach explores the nature of publishing in a historical context, showing how the role of the personal computer evolved into the publishing tool it is today. Yet despite the focus on computers, Kalmbach does not examine publishing as a technological enterprise but rather as a social action.

The book begins with an extended discussion of the nature of publishing. Kalmbach jettisons the traditional components (writer, text, reader, etc.) of a published work for a more current model, defining the components as being the publisher, the document, the reproduction/distribution process, and the user. These terms are more applicable to modern publications, which may never involve ink, paper, or even traditional text, but may include images or sounds on a CD-ROM or Web page. Kalmbach then discusses how the advancement of publishing technology has put more sophisticated publishing power into the hands of individuals and enabled them to reach progressively wider audiences.

He examines what the publishing power of the personal computer means in an academic setting, comparing and contrasting the results of using computers in the classroom to early experiments where typewriters were used for educational purposes. --Elizabeth Lewis