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10.21.16



 

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 writing students to question, think critically and analyze the role of these technologies in their day-to-day literate lives. Therefore, 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.

How do you plan to teach with technology in your composition class? 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 following four groups...

Groups Members
1 Joshua, Nishat, Will, Christopher
2 Elle, Lin, Prue, Maddie
3 Lynda, Taylor, Casey, Terri
4 Ami, Crystal, Liza

In these groups...

  • Discuss the respective assignment that you plan to design for the Assignment Project. For each group member, discuss the following questions.
    • 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 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.
  • Choose the assignment from one of the members
  • As a group compose a lesson plan (as an outline in Google Drive) for a class in which you are preparing your students to learn, use, and apply a digital technology they will need to know to compose this assignment.
  • The lesson plan should include a brief ~250-word...
    • 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?
  • Likewise, in what ways do you see these technologies shutting down opportuities for some students? How does address this? In what ways can we design assignments and activities to anticipate and minimize these experiences?
  • Based upon these readings, what tips or warnings would you provide to an instructor who decided to use writing technologies in her/his curricula?