 Previewing my CCCC 2025 presentation: “Leveraging AI Technology to Support Learning in Writing: A Constructivist Approach with a DIY Ethic” 🔗 April 9–12, 2025 | Baltimore Convention Center When I was 19 years old, I started a record label. I had no formal training, no business plan, and certainly no roadmap. What I did have was a group of friends, a local record store, and a shared belief in building something ourselves—without waiting for permission. We booked shows, pressed vinyl, handed out flyers, and mailed zines across the country. We were messy. We were broke. But we were learning. Constantly. Fast forward nearly three decades, and that same DIY ethic is still at the heart of my work—only now, I apply it in the writing classroom, where I teach students to write, revise, and reflect with the help of another unexpected collaborator: artificial intelligence. This April, I’ll be presenting at the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) in Baltimore. My session, “Leveraging AI Technology to Support Learning in Writing: A Constructivist Approach with a DIY Ethic,” explores how we can rethink AI not as a shortcut or threat—but as a scaffold that supports heutagogical, student-centered writing instruction. From the Invention of Writing to the Calculator: A History of Resistance to Tools My presentation opens with a look back. Plato thought writing would destroy memory. Teachers in the 1800s feared the eraser would make students careless. In the 1970s, the calculator sparked concerns that students would stop thinking. AI is just the latest in this long history of tool panic. But in punk—and in pedagogy—the message was always: Don’t wait for permission. Experiment. Figure it out. Mess up. Try again. That’s the ethos I bring to my classroom today. AI as Audience, Partner, and Provocation In my writing classes, students don’t use AI to generate essays. They use it to test them. I encourage them to simulate an audience—prompting the AI to respond to their résumé, a job description, or a cover letter. With the right guidance and heuristics, they learn to ask better questions and get more useful answers. The result? AI becomes a stand-in audience—helping them practice, revise, and reflect. As Louise Rosenblatt reminds us in her Transactional Theory of Reading, meaning happens in the interaction between reader and text. AI lets students simulate that transaction—anytime, anywhere. Heutagogy and the Zone of Proximal Development I draw heavily from Vygotsky’s concept of the Zone of Proximal Development—the idea that students grow best when supported just beyond their current ability. AI, when used with intention, can serve as that “more knowledgeable other”—providing immediate, low-stakes feedback while allowing students to experiment and revise. This is heutagogy in action. Students are independent, not isolated. Final Thought: Strategy Over Selling Out Sure, sometimes teaching with AI feels like selling out. But in punk—and in teaching—it is not about purity. It is about purpose. Used with care, AI can amplify our values, not replace them. It can extend our reach as instructors and expand our students’ capacity to think, reflect, and write. Like punk scenes that thrived on collaboration and critique, our classrooms can be spaces of mutual support, trial and error, and growth—with AI as one more instrument in the band. BONUS: Check Out the Slides and Resources Used for My Presentation Hopefully, these slides and resources can help YOU better understand my topic. If you have any questions, by all means feel free to reach out: [email protected] You can download the slides using the link below: 
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