ABOUT DIGITAL WRITING
Digital writing is a technique that is becoming increasingly more popular as technology advances. New technologies are commonly being incorporated into education as a way for students to create better understandings and to relay their knowledge in an electronic format. WHAT STUDENTS CAN DO Formats for digital writing can include e-mail, instant messaging, social networking tools, blogging, audio and visual editing, podcasting and gaming (Curwood and Cowell, 2011, p. 111). An article for Council for Exceptional Children, “The Digital Media Writing Project: Connecting to the Common Core” (2013), describes digital writing as a way to incorporate collaboration, interpretation, problem solving, self-expression, investigation, analysis, evaluation, and critical thinking into multi-modal technology projects (p.7). This means that students will have the capability of producing projects that range across a spectrum of mediums (i.e., visual, audio, and electronic media) that integrate writing. The article also states that this is an “opportunity for students to share their voice by telling a story that matters to them, and by designing and sharing the story in a way that truly makes it their own” (Butler et al., 2013, p. 8). There are new ways of writing in the classroom. Digital writing matters because it challenges students to see how writing works in the real world; it gives teachers the task of creating innovative ways to teach writing (Grabill, 2013). Grabill argues that the distinguishing factor in digital writing is that it is networked, meaning that students have the opportunity to collaborate on different writing projects. This means that in addition to learning more about the content area and the technology, students are also gaining intra- and inter-communication skills. THE CURRENT ISSUE Technology is increasingly changing the way that people write, and it is important to figure out how people can be innovative in integrating technology with learning (Grabill, 2013). Grabill said, “We are living through a period of particularly rapid changes in how we write. Digital writing matters, and our challenge is to figure out how to be useful to those interested in leveraging these new writing platforms with thoughtfulness and power” (2013). This means that people need to be aware of how we can use technology in order to advance our own knowledge and skill sets. Digital writing can change the way students typically view a traditional writing project since they are allowed to think beyond paper and pencil and think in different visual and auditory ways. WHY IT IS IMPORTANT The issue of digital writing in schools is important because technology is changing the way that students learn. Students can learn more about themselves and others through collaboration, reflection, and problem-solving by using these technologies in a multi-modal fashion. Technology is taking the learning out of the physical classroom, and students can share their writing in a digital space. There are many resources available for making digital writing accessible in the classroom; the National Writing Project has created a website, “Digital Is,” that provides ideas for teaching reading and writing literacies in a technology-savvy way in the traditional classroom. |