UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — English professor Stuart Selber recently received the 2022 Computers and Composition Distinguished Book Award. His book "Institutional Literacies: Engaging Academic IT Contexts for Writing and Communication," explores information technology in the setting of college writing. 

“The question I explore in the book is: What kind of infrastructure makes sense for teaching writing?” he explained. “My ultimate goal was to write a book that any writing teacher could use to understand how IT groups work in their own schools. The book helps writing teachers interact with IT professionals on campus in order to shape IT environments for student writers.” 

Selber compared devising academic IT solutions to attempting to hit “a moving target.” His research concludes that the best institutional changes are not ones that seek to be short-term remedies. Instead, he stressed the importance of examining these choices for valuable lessons about educational infrastructure. 

Since Penn State undergraduate students are required to take two writing classes before they graduate, Selber said it is crucial that IT specialists are well-informed on how writing courses operate so they can help to devise effective institutional learning spaces.

“I think it’s very helpful for people who design and maintain IT infrastructure to understand where faculty are coming from, because very large programs on campus use that infrastructure in central ways,” he said. “Much if not most writing today is created on digital platforms.” 

Selber received the 2021 Teaching and Learning with Technology Impact Award in honor of his long-term commitment to enhancing the learning experience at Penn State through technological innovation. He is also known for engineering the University’s first online English class almost 25 years ago.