Rearticulating E-dentities in the web-based classroom: One ttechnoresearcher's exploration of power and the world wide web

This article argues that in order to be critical agents for change, web-based instructors must interrogate the contradictions and ambiguities of cultural narratives about the World Wide Web. Because cultural narratives of technology affect the possible range of instructor and student e-dentities, computer composition instructors must better understand, negotiate, and build strategies for creating more democratic learning environments in the web-based classroom. This article discusses a semester-long, articulatory study of web-based composition teaching at Purdue University. An identification, description, and analysis of the cultural narrative of the Web as a global village in relationship to participant instructors' classroom experiences demonstrates the challenge to create complex e-dentities in the computer classroom. This article suggests ways of rearticulating the role of the instructor as critical agent through contextualized teacher training.