Students encounter text in a variety of forms, print is no longer the dominant form of text, and text is not encountered in just a school setting. Teachers need to use digital media to support writing instruction because that is the primary form of text students encounter today, particularly outside of school. Students must be literate in these new forms - "As young children grow into adolescents, the interactive webspaces they encounter require much higher degrees of user input and content creation."
What are the differences between writing online and writing in school?
One major difference in writing online vs. writing in school is the social interaction and sharing that takes place in writing online. "In stark contrast to digital immigrants, digital natives readily report and share their ideas"(Adlington & Hansford, 2008). Writing in school is primarily writing for an audience of one - the teacher. However, students write online for many audiences - primarily their peers - and are adept at communicating for this purpose. I wonder if students who write in schools just don't understand the reason for their writing - and I wonder if this is because the it doesn't have any resonance in their real world experience.
Another difference is the level of control a teenager has over online writing vs. in school writing. Online the teenager has complete control of the writing, in school the writing is focused on what Adlington and Hansford call "endorsement of linguistic and cultural masteries."
How should teachers use digital spaces to support writing instruction in school?
Blogs (if used the right way) are one way students can integrate many forms of digital text (written words, images, video, hyperlinks, animations, interactive elements) to provide a more complex, nuanced thinking about a subject. Teachers can also use digital spaces to compare/contrast the differences between online writing and other types of writing (such as academic and business), which further develops critical thinking skills.
What are some of the challenges to using digital spaces for writing instruction in school?
Three criteria are identified in this paper for effective blogs in schools:
- strong, clear sense of purpose
- well-informed point of view
- quality of presentation
In my experience teaching students digital media, it has been crucial to ask students the "why did you make this choice" question. If a student can't answer that in a meaningful way then I ask them to change it or dig deeper for the why. I think this is an example of the challenge of online writing spaces too - and can be overcome by explicit instruction. For example, if a student chooses to use SMS-based language in their writing, I want to know what the purpose for it is... if they tell me its the way their friends talk, then I'm okay with that, as long as the audience is their peer group.
The authors of the reading provided some excellent examples of how teachers used the social purposes of new texts to support learning in school. Please find another example (Lesson plan or student created product) that provides a good example of how a teacher kept true to the social purpose of a new digital text to support learning in the classroom. Please provide explanation for you example.
Exploring The Prologue to The Canterbury Tales using Wikis
Why: This lesson plan uses a collaborative wiki to introduce the prologue and characters of the Canterbury Tales. The students work together in small groups, each taking a character. They are encouraged to add images, hyperlinks and other multimodal elements to the wiki. At the end of the lesson, the class has collaboratively created a wikipage about Canterbury tales for their reference.
Resources:
Adlington, R., & Hansford, D. (2008, July). Digital spaces and young people’s online authoring: Challenges for teachers. Refereed Conference Paper National conference for teachers of english and literacy, Adelaide, AU. Retrieved from http://www.englishliteracyconference.com.au/files/documents/AdlingtonHansford-Digital%20spaces.pdf
I agree with you on the quality of the directions for the assignment. I have had many assignments that I had no idea what to do because the assignment was not clear enough for me.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you said about online writing vs. writing in school. often, when they are writing in school it isn't authentic. The only person who will read the paper is the teacher, and the purpose of the assignment is to get a grade. However, with online writing, the students can get feedback from their peers. I think this is motivating because, often, kids care more about what their peers think.
ReplyDeleteThe qualilty of the directions for the assignment is important. If the directions are not clear, then how are the kids expected to do it.
ReplyDeleteI like that you recognize students need to be able to justify their choice of language representation to match their own purposes for writing! I think this is great writers are created! It is the kind of writing instruction that has long been advocated for by NCTE!
ReplyDeleteYour are right! The lesson plan for the use of Wiki's to teach the Canterbury Tales supports new and digital literacies because students are collaborating to create a multimodal text!
I love to write. It wasn't until after high school and college that I even wrote a book. I didn't like the creative writing course I took in high school because it was always about subjects that I didn't want to write about. I was taught to write what you know. I like the idea of giving students choice in what they write.
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