TROY HICKS, PhD

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Troy Hicks, PhD, is Professor of English and Education at Central Michigan University (CMU). He directs both the Chippewa River Writing Project and the Master of Arts in Educational Technology degree program. A former middle school teacher, he collaborates with K–12 colleagues and explores how they implement newer literacies in their classrooms. In 2011, he was honored with CMU’s Provost’s Award for junior faculty who demonstrate outstanding achievement in research and creative activity, in 2014 he received the Conference on English Education’s Richard A. Meade Award for scholarship in English Education, and, in 2018, he received the Michigan Reading Association’s Teacher Educator Award. Dr. Hicks has authored numerous books, articles, chapters, blog posts, and other resources broadly related to the teaching of literacy in our digital age. Follow him on Twitter: @hickstro

Keynote:

Can I Cite That?: Examining What Counts as Evidence in a Digital World

In an era of fake news and alternative facts, it has become increasingly complicated to think about what "counts" as evidence in academic writing. Long gone are the days when writers could simply trust a ".org" or ".edu" site, or be told to simply dismiss Wikipedia as unreliable. Building on the Association of College and Research Libraries "Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education," we will examine the tensions –and possibilities – that arise when writers use different kinds of text (including images, videos, tweets, blog posts, and more) as evidence in academic argument. We will also explore the boundaries of copyright and fair use, exploring the intersections of these legal issues with the ethical issues of plagiarism and citation.

Afternoon Workshop:

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Define, Deepen, Discover: Using a Visible Thinking Routine to Explore Concepts in Detail

When we consider one of the primary challenges that face our student writers – from elementary school or graduate school – we can boil it down to this: students struggle to add appropriate details and examples. Because we often find that we have little time in our jam-packed curriculum to explore topics in a substantive manner, it is important to go deeply into some ideas, even if we can’t go into that much detail with all of them. This teaching demonstration builds on a strategy that I consider an “oldie, but goodie” – the Frayer model – and uses digital writing tools such as concept mapping tools and Google Docs to scaffold students’ thinking when crafting an extended definition.