Week One
“Why Use Digital Writing to Engage Students?” From Teaching Writing Using Blogs, Wikis, and other Digital Tools
The “Ahas” in the preface and this chapter is the actual change in the nature of writing. In the last years as digital writing has entered my professional and personal life I’ve struggled not only with what it means as a teacher but also what writing means; it’s role, the purpose, the importance for students, for society, for me. This writing journey began with curriculum work but has expanded into life work. Therefore reading that digital writing is about personal learning networks and that the learner acquires knowledge and build social connections adds a great deal of clarity(Preface vii).

Second “Aha” is that more writing doesn’t result in better writing (page 5). Rather writing improves through self-assessment, reader response and feedback. While that seems obvious and I even feel a bit silly writing it here, the truth of it is that often as teachers we believe practice makes better. It does only when it is the right kind of practice paired with meta cognitive reflection and feedback.

Digital writing increases student engagement as it often has a purpose and the writer is read and receives feedback immediately. Given this the quality of the experience is vital and the NCTE's
Examining Writing in a Time of Change: An Interview with Anne Ruggles Gere about NCTE’s “Writing Now” Policy Research Brief demonstrates how writing has expanded and changed in a Web 2.0 world. The call for a change in what writing conceptually means, looks like, and teaching writing is clear in this pod cast.

Last spring at the Minneapolis International Reading Association Spring Conference my focus for sessions was 21st Century Literacy; some interesting presentation on story boarding, writing, etc were shared. I'm hoping this class will build on, expand and clarify some of the learning from that week.

Students are out on the front of Web 2.0. and my hope for this class is that I will become more knowledgeable, comfortable and confident as I journey with them. My second hope is that I learn a new digital writing tool and have fun getting skilled using it.