The emergence of ChatGPT has sent shockwaves through many secondary and post-secondary English departments. There’s no shortage of doomsaying and prognosticating about the future of writing instruction, even the discipline itself, in the wake of the large language model revolution. Luckily for us, my guest today is Dr. J Palmeri—Professor of English and Director of the Writing Program at Georgetown University. J’s work exploring the past, present, and future of multimodal composition is some of the richest, most comprehensive scholarship I’ve seen. Better still, J practices what they preach in the classroom. Over the course of our dialogue, J details the ways they use new media pedagogy to learn with students, embrace play, compose for real audiences, hack technology, center learning, and ultimately to rethink teaching and learning. There is no shortage of philosophical questions and practical suggestions, but my favorite part of this episode is the way J situates his work on multimodality within a broader story—one that will likely resonate with many of you. This episode is a powerful reminder of why technology is only a tool. Whether that technology is tactile, digital, or artificial intelligence, there is no replacing the deeply human parts of teaching, learning, and communicating alongside others.
Faculty Page
100 Years of New Media Pedagogy (Open Source Book)
Academic Research (Google Scholar)