Enhancing the Writing Curriculum with Technology

With the emergence of new technologies the process of writing instruction and composition is beginning to take a new shape in the classroom.  Technology is enhancing the writing curriculum in many ways from making it more meaningful to more practical.  According to the article Writing Re-Launched: Teaching with Digital Tools "Outside of the classroom students most often encounter digital writing—that is, writing created or read on a computer or other Internet-connected device."  In the 21st century classroom it's becoming seemingly more important that students are composing through digital writing in the classroom as well.  Educators and research findings are finding that students are more motivated, collaborative and reflective when it comes to posting their writing for an audience to read through a technology tool.  Technology tools such as class blogs, wikis, email, google docs, and internet penpals spurs student engagement and creativity in ways conventional writing cannot.

Through the process of blogging students are encouraged to collaborate and share their ideas in a public forum.  Teachers can create a class blog where they can organize class information and facilitate class discussions and assignments; class news can be posted; project highlights are detailed; and students can respond to literature prompts.  Teachers can also use class blogs to aid in reading comprehension by having students collectively research an upcoming topic and post on the blog to build background knowledge.

The process of composing and teaching about writing digitally is much different than the traditional hand and pencil method.  The article Beginning to Write with Word Processing: Integrating Writing Process and Technology in a Primary Classroom highlights that students feel that composing through word processing is easier because it is less tedious, rereading occured more frequently when typing and that students tended not to use a web or prewriting strategy before composing.  Teachers have to adjust their teaching practices from the traditional to the digital style of writing as well.  Mini lessons may have to be shorter, a greater degree of interaction may be required and the pacing of the writing sessions may need to be grouped in shorter chunks to allow for students to take short breaks.  
Having students publish their writing on the internet is beneficial because it allows students to feel like their writing has purpose and is authentic.  A negative aspect of publishing writing via the web is that students could become desensitized to the fact that real people will have access to and read their published work.