Over the past fall and the summer semesters, I’ve been participating in an exciting pilot program at my university called UMW Domains (or sometimes, “A Domain of One’s Own”). The basic idea is to give students their own domain names and some webhosting, which they can then use to construct their digital identity during their time at UMW. It’s an alternative to off-the-shelf eportfolio solutions, and it’s a powerful way to approach digital competency, with the full rhetorical stakes of identity formation. What follows isn’t intended to be a complete run down of this project. For that, read Tim Owen’s blog entry from earlier last year, or some of the coverage or mentions in Wired, Inside Higher Ed, etc. Instead, what follows is a specific reflection on my own experiences.
For several years now in my Writing through Media class, I’ve been requiring students to purchase their own domain registration, and among its pros and cons, setting up a website on a personal domain is a process that has the power to be transformative for many people. I really believe this.
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