EDTC 6433 TEACHING WITH TECHNOLOGY: USING TECHNOLOGY TO DESIGN, DEVELOP, & EVALUATE AUTHENTIC LEARNING EXPERIENCES IN WRITING

Autumn Quarter 2017

Writing skills are difficult to teach for a variety of reasons. First, writing is subjective. Despite the most careful rubric, it is difficult to assess subjective written work across students, time, and type of writing. Second, in order to produce a quality piece of writing, many components must be considered, including appropriateness of claim, presence of relevant evidence, logical reasoning, organization, sentence structure, grammar, conventions, and revision. Trying to juggle all of these can be overwhelming for students. Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, students are not motivated to write: “Of all the challenges faced by college and high school students, few inspire as much angst, profanity, procrastination and caffeine consumption as the academic paper” (Richtel, 2012). Indeed, in today’s technological age, it is difficult to convince students of the importance of writing, something they may consider “old-fashioned.” Instead of engaging in this debate, perhaps the solution is to combine technology and writing in a way that still teaches the necessary skills, but also engages student interest, demonstrates the relevance and importance of writing as a communication tool, and provides authentic learning experiences.

The most authentic learning experience associated with writing is publication, which gives writers the ability to share their ideas with a larger audience. For so many students, the only audience they have is their English teacher. With technology today, though, authentic publication platforms are available for students in ways that allow them to share their ideas with a larger audience while still maintaining online privacy. ePortfolios with GoogleApps is a free online platform that can operate as a workspace, creating a chronological record of artifacts such as “writing samples, photos, videos, research projects, observations by mentors and peers, and reflective thinking” (Barrett, n.d.) that demonstrate learning and growth and can serve as a formative and/or summative assessment. It can also be used as a way to showcase student work in the form of an online publication such as a blog, presentation, video, or other multimedia product. In one case study, “parents related that the e-portfolios improved their child’s ability to articulate their thoughts and narrate their learning process, while teachers reported increased student engagement” (Johnson, 2015, p. 23). The site has a healthy list of resources for how-tos and ePortfolio examples for ideas and steps to take in creating them. A GoogleApps for Education domain can be created that allows access only to students, and because the ePortfolios are also teacher-accessible, feedback to and assessment of both works in progress and final products are possible. ePortfolios can also be shared with sister schools or a sister classroom in another country, leading to a broader audience and further engagement with written work.

Creating a blog is a great way to generate student interest in writing without sacrificing attention to writing skills, and I like Professor Lunsford’s format for incorporating blogging and thus publication into the curriculum:

Now, the students start by writing a 15-page paper on a particular subject in the first few weeks. Once that’s done, they use the ideas in it to build blogs, Web sites, and PowerPoint and audio and oral presentations. The students often find their ideas much more crystallized after expressing them with new media, she says, and then, most startling, they plead to revise their essays.” (Richtel, 2012)

This is for a college course, but it can easily be modified to accommodate high school learners. Professor Lunsford has noticed that her “students feel much more impassioned by the new literacy. They love writing for an audience, engaging with it” (Richtel, 2012). Because students know their work will be seen by others, I think it would be incredibly motivating for students to do their best. Also, “many teachers report that students who get to be creative and use high-tech tools to augment their writing actually work harder, are more willing to revise, and want to create something that will be truly great, not just please the teacher” (TeachThought Staff, n.d.)

           Another method of online publication is  Book Creator. This fee-based site allows students of all ages to create their own books using text, images, photos, and audio, and its use is not limited to writing; science reports, instruction manuals, and comics can also be created. Students can design their own book cover, illustrate and narrate their writing—a work of fiction, a collection of poetry, a persuasive essay, a book review—and publish it on the site, allowing for an international audience. It can be used as a way to assess student learning:

They can create a new page in a Book Creator reading journal every day that documents their response to reading. Some students can respond using video reflections, others can use text, and some might record their voice or draw a picture. As a teacher you might provide a prompt like, “Choose one character trait of your main character and describe a moment in the book that supports your choice” or “Using evidence from the text, share two facts you learned about mako sharks.” (Burns, 2017)

and as a way to differentiate learning:

With Book Creator students can respond in ways they simply couldn’t with pencil and paper. From audio and video responses, the use of voice-to-text on an iPad keyboard, to the option for OpenDyslexic font, you can use Book Creator to take your checks for understanding to the next level. (Burns, 2017)

            ePortfolios, blogs, and Book Creator can all be used as “practice runs” to the ultimate authentic writing experience: submission to a literary journal, such as Teen Ink and Canvas,  or a writing contest, such as my colleague-recommended Write the World, which offers free entry and feedback before final submission, as well as an educator platform for a private group (classroom) for writing and revision, including accompanying rubrics.
           Technology is typically thought of in conjunction with math and the sciences, but there are ample opportunities for using it as a tool to improve student writing skills and engagement. Online platforms such as ePortfolios, blogs, and Book Creator allow for publication and interaction with a wider audience. Certainly this is a student motivator in presenting their best work, but the ability to incorporate multimedia such as photos, images, audio, PowerPoint presentations, and illustrations also engages creativity and spurs revision. These technological resources can be used in conjunction with traditional essay and research writings, further defining student ideas into blogs, presentations, or “books.” In addition, because all of these can be designed with teacher access, critical feedback can be given and formative assessments made along the way, while the final product can serve as the summative assessment. Most importantly, though, I hope using technology will instill interest in, value of, and relevance for writing in students.

Barrett, H. (n.d.) ePortfolios with GoogleApps. Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/site/eportfolioapps/overview

Burns, M. (2017, March 13). Formative assessment with Book Creator - a #FormativeTech spotlight. Retrieved from https://bookcreator.com/2017/03/formative-assessment-with-book-creator-a-formativetech-spotlight/

Johnson, L., Adams Becker, S., Estrada, V., and Freeman, A. (2015), NMC Horizon Report: 2015 K-12 Edition. Austin, TX: The New Media Consortium.

Richtel, M. (2012, January 20). Blogs vs. Term Papers. Retrieved from http://www.mytimes.com/2-12/01/22/education/edlife/muscling-in-on-the-term-paper-tradition.html

TeachThought Staff. (n.d.) 10 Ideas For Using Technology To Teach Writing. Retrieved from https://teachthought.com/literacy/10-ideas-for-using-technology-to-teach-writing/