Looking Forward

Lest this be read as a tale of resignation to the status quo, I want to make clear that we as technorhetoricians must continually advocate for improved material and social conditions for technology on our campuses. We should never stop trying to enhance the technological ecologies at our respective schools. But while we do, we should steer our energies away from reinforcing destructive technological binaries that only lead to frustration. Binaries of technology richness and lack are particularly unhelpful when viewed in light of an ecology: an always changing network of actants. Because ecologies are fluid, spaces for intervention always exist. James Porter et al's (2009) methodology of institutional critique was based on this principle: "Though institutions are certainly powerful, they are not monoliths; they are rhetorically constructed human designs (whose power is reinforced by buildings, laws, traditions, and knowledge-making practices) and so are changeable. In other words, we made 'em, we can fix 'em" (p. 611). One of the ways the authors proposed "fixing" institutions was through David Sibley's notion of "boundary interrogation," or looking for spaces within the institution that demonstrate instability or ambiguity (p. 624). Considering the entropic nature of technological ecologies, our challenge as technorhetoricians becomes one of kairos: when is the most advantageous moment to advocate for change? Becoming fixed in a position of technological "lack" would likely not encourage us to interrogate the boundaries.

We must strike a difficult balance between looking for opportunities to enrich our own technological ecologies and becoming adept at maximizing the resources we do have. Striking that balance requires that we continue talking to each other, to administrators, to colleagues who understand what we do, and to colleagues who don't. In contrast, we should not suggest that enacting a digital pedagogy requires "battling" local conditions and constraints. War metaphors, not surprisingly, do not seem to serve anyone well.