From the Special Issue Editor‪.‬

In my book on using technology in L2 composition teaching (Bloch, 2008), I begin with an anecdote from one of the earliest CALL-sig (Special Interest Group) meetings at the International TESOL conference in the early 1980s. At a panel of some of the leaders of the sig, a colleague asked whether there was any evidence that computers helped students write better. The experts hemmed and hawed that there was no real evidence to prove this and there was even some evidence that students might even write less. The colleague responded that she couldn't ask her dean to buy computers unless there was proof that they helped students write better. Today, we may still have to beg administrators for money, but the use of various technologies has become almost inevitable. The issue that teachers must ask now is: Given the vast number of technologies they have access to--be it hardware, software, or Internet technologies--which ones are most appropriate for the teaching they are engaged in? Teachers are overwhelmed by the number of technologies continually coming online. Before one technology is fully understood, a new technology is released that promises an even better learning experience. When I wrote my book, I feared that the moment the book was published, it would be outdated. In fact, a slew of new technologies that I had barely mentioned are now seen as potential tools for composition teachers. Microblogging sites like Twitter, social networking sites like Facebook, and new ways of integrating multimedia have become new sites for potential research.