Web 2.0 Applications for Composition Classrooms

Anyone who has watched TV lately can attest to the plethora of cell phone commercials that boast about the amount of applications available to download. These applications, or apps for short, are purported to do more: connect more people in more ways, create more networks, build more communities, and keep more people in "the know" or in "the loop." More. More. More. Probably, the most famous cell phone commercials are the commercials for the iPhone. There's an app for that, has become the iPhone's signature slogan because chances are, of the more than 100,000 apps iPhone supports, there is an app for you and anyone else who uses the iPhone. If you want to check how many calories are in your lunch, for example, there's an app for that. Or, if you want to check exactly where you parked your car, there's even an app for that as well. While this book is not about using cell phones in writing classes, although that will happen sooner rather than later, this book is about collaborating more, connecting more people, creating more networks, building more communities, and it is very much about applications that help us do those things. Essentially, I have asked college writing instructors to speak about how and why they teach writing while using technologies and, in particular, Web 2.0 applications. Of their writing classes, specifically, I wanted to know, "Is there an app for that?"