Conclusion

Humanities computing is not the same as using the computer in instruction, or teaching online, though there are clear areas of overlap. I do not intend in this paper to try to deal with issues of online versus classroom teaching; suffice it to say that my experience of teaching online has convinced me that some subjects are particularly appropriate for online delivery, and that many students actually benefit from the different method of delivery. It is true that some students gravitate towards the Humanities precisely because they wish to avoid the technological, and I would argue that we need to accommodate such a choice, much as it may go against the grain of those of us attending this conference; but the argument I have been developing is that it is important to ensure that on the whole our students are more than passive pointers-and-clickers; that they get the kind of intellectual exercise in the new medium that we expect in the old, so that they are not fated to be electronic couch potatoes, mute in a world where the voices of millions are being published on personal web pages. This proposal is one way that we can ensure that our students are active participants in shaping the digital world we are all inheriting.

We have not only a responsibility to equip our students for a changing environment where the means of writing and communicating are changing rapidly, but a wonderful opportunity through them to influence the nature of the change.