His primary area of research and teaching is rhetorical theory and composition, with specializations in technical and professional communication, new media, and public rhetoric. As a teacher, Nathaniel works to foster student engagement-with themselves, each other, and the world at large. With respect to teaching with technology, he assumes that technology in the classroom is nothing new. Desks, textbooks, quizzes and tests, lecterns and lectures, and even classrooms themselves are all pedagogical technologies. He attempts, then, to productively pair course goals with a particular tool or suite of tools (some old, some new).