Purcell, K., Buchanan, J., & Friedrich, L. (2013, July 16). The Impact of Digital Tools on Student Writing and How Writing is Taught in Schools. Pew Research Centers Internet American Life Project RSS. Retrieved July 20, 2014, from http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/07/16/the-impact-of-digital-tools-on-student-writing-and-how-writing-is-taught-in-schools/
For this article, some thousands of Advanced Placement and National Writing Project educators were surveyed. For the most part they believe that digital technologies make writing better, however there are a few trouble spots. I'd like to focus on some of the negatives, and maybe through writing this, I can come up with a plan of attack.
These educators rated their students lowest in two area, first, navigating issues of fair use and copyright in composition, and second, reading and digesting long or complicated texts.
Could the second of these issues be because students are reading short blurbs online, from texts, to twitter, to facebook updates, they're all relatively short? Students are not performing well when it comes to citing work. I'm not sure what the reason for this could be, other than it's a time consuming formula that you have to take a break writing to complete.
According to these educators 58% have students write short essays or responses on a weekly basis, 77% assigned at least one research paper during the school year, 41% have students write weekly journal entries, and 78% have students create a multimedia or mixed media piece in the year. So students are getting plenty of writing exposure right? What's the deal? They spend so much time in the classroom, that their online habits at home shouldn't affect their school work right?
Many of the educators surveyed said that in this day and age, students have much more opportunity to write and express themselves than ever before. They are creatively writing in texts, tweets, and blogs. In my opinion, blogging could be the great bridge to connect informal writing with structured academic writing. Blogging gives the time, space, and audience that teachers could only hope for for their students. They can write a real argumentative or persuasive piece and see it's impact. Before, they've written for a grade, and that's it, but if we can transfer their blogging into the classroom with formal writing. I think we'd have a real game changer.
If you look at the chart on the right, you'll see, just as I saw, that educators hearts are in the right place. We know what's important, we know what our students need to be able to do, but there's a gap, getting most of our students to reach those goals. I'm not trying to be critical, I lump myself right in there with everyone else. There needs to be a shift in the classroom, in the way we teach writing, in the way we grade writing, in the way we think about writing.
We'll get there, don't worry. I only hope it won't take us too long. And I hope the technology slows down just a tad, to let us catch up.
These educators rated their students lowest in two area, first, navigating issues of fair use and copyright in composition, and second, reading and digesting long or complicated texts.
Could the second of these issues be because students are reading short blurbs online, from texts, to twitter, to facebook updates, they're all relatively short? Students are not performing well when it comes to citing work. I'm not sure what the reason for this could be, other than it's a time consuming formula that you have to take a break writing to complete.
According to these educators 58% have students write short essays or responses on a weekly basis, 77% assigned at least one research paper during the school year, 41% have students write weekly journal entries, and 78% have students create a multimedia or mixed media piece in the year. So students are getting plenty of writing exposure right? What's the deal? They spend so much time in the classroom, that their online habits at home shouldn't affect their school work right?
Many of the educators surveyed said that in this day and age, students have much more opportunity to write and express themselves than ever before. They are creatively writing in texts, tweets, and blogs. In my opinion, blogging could be the great bridge to connect informal writing with structured academic writing. Blogging gives the time, space, and audience that teachers could only hope for for their students. They can write a real argumentative or persuasive piece and see it's impact. Before, they've written for a grade, and that's it, but if we can transfer their blogging into the classroom with formal writing. I think we'd have a real game changer.
If you look at the chart on the right, you'll see, just as I saw, that educators hearts are in the right place. We know what's important, we know what our students need to be able to do, but there's a gap, getting most of our students to reach those goals. I'm not trying to be critical, I lump myself right in there with everyone else. There needs to be a shift in the classroom, in the way we teach writing, in the way we grade writing, in the way we think about writing.
We'll get there, don't worry. I only hope it won't take us too long. And I hope the technology slows down just a tad, to let us catch up.
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