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last.updated 10.22.12

 

Technology & Writing

Purpose

Technology in general, and digital technologies related to the web specifically, are becoming increasingly central to our lives and the lives of our students. As this happens, it is imperative for us to cultivate epistemologies that ask students to question, think critically and analyze the role of these technologies in their day-to-day lives and their existing composing practices. Then, we must seek ways to expand their existing literacies using and applying this knowledge. Integrating technology into the composition class can assume a range of different frames within this context. In today’s class, we will analyze one approach for accomplishing this and discuss other viable ways to incorporate technology in support of the overall learning goals for the course.

Before Class

FreeWrite

Answer the following questions so that you can contribute to the class discussion. You have the first ten minutes of class.

Do you plan to teach with technology in your composition class? If not, why not? If so, what will you be doing and why? How do you justify your use of the technology?

Activity – Using Technology in the Writing Classroom

You will be divided into the four groups as last week.

In these groups...

  • Discuss the assignment that you have developed.
  • Does it already include a technological component?
    • If so, what purpose does the technology serve in this assignment? what affordances are you taking advantage of with this technology? why? is there another technology that offers similar affordances? Should you redesign this with a different technology? If you think so, do so.
    • If not, think about what your goals are for the assignment are and decide whether the assignment should be redesigned to include a technological component for the final product. Then think about the questions in the previous bullet.
      • If you think the final product does not need a technological component, how can you use a digital technology to facilitate the process of composing this text? Again think about the questions in the first bullet.
  • As a group compose the lesson plan (as an outline in Google Drive) for a class activity that uses a digital technological component to help the students work towards or compose a piece of the final product
  • The lesson plan should include a brief 250-word-ish...
    • explanation of the activity's goals and what the students have learned previous to this class that will prepare them for this activity
    • justification of the lesson based upon what you have have read for this class, including for your blog posts

After 45 minutes, your group will exchange your lessons with another group. Each group will examine the lesson plan thinking whether they would be able to teach this lesson, as well as how they might respond as a student asked to do this. Note what the writers of this lesson plan did well and what you think they should revise. You have 15 minutes to accomplish this.

As a class, we will discuss each group's lessons and their respective critiques.

Discussion: Teaching with Technology

As a class, we will discuss the following questions:

  • What questions or comments do you have about these articles?
  • Go back to the goals you had articulated at the beginning of the class, which writing technologies do you think can facilitate achieving these goals? How?
  • What opportunities do you think these technologies create for students learning how to write? How does one design these opportunities?
  • Based upon these readings, what tips or warnings would you provide to an instructor who decided to use writing technologies in her/his curricula?