Digital WritingReimagining Traditional Writing Assignments for the 21st Century in 4th – 12th Grades

Cheryl Beshke & Melissa Page

What is Digital Writing?

“Any writing that requires a computer to access it.” (JodiAnn Stevenson)

“Writing which, at a minimum, would be diminished if it were presented in a non-digital format, and at best, which is effectively untranslatable out of the digital format.” (Dan Waber)

What is Digital Writing?

“Creative writing/participatory writing, hypertext writing, improvisatory „real time‟ writing, new media writing (i.e. multimedia authorship), code poetry and programmatic

writing, online role playing, journal writing/blogging, international community

building E-learning, game playing . . .”

(Tim Wright)

What is Digital Writing?

“Compositions created with, and oftentimes for reading or viewing on, a computer or other device that is connected to the Internet . . . Today‟s networked connectivity allows writers to draw from myriad sources, use a range of media, craft various types of compositions representing a range of tools and genres, and distribute that work almost instantaneously and sometimes globally”

(National Writing Project, DeVoss, Eidman-Aadahl, & Hicks, 2010, p. 6-7).

Why Teach Digital Writing?

Because technology has increased the intensity and complexity of literate environments, the 21st century demands that a literate person possess a wide range of abilities and competencies, many literacies. (NCTE, 2013).

“Simply being able to use technology is no longer enough. Today‟s students need to be able to use technology to analyze, learn and explore. Digital age skills are vital for preparing students to work, live, and contribute to the social and civic fabric of their communities” (International Society for Technology in Education, 2007).

Why Teach Digital Writing?

“We want—or, rather, we need—today‟s students to critically consume information, to create and share across time and space, to cocreate and collaborate to solve problems, to persevere in light of setbacks, and to maintain flexibility. Digital literacies provide opportunities for the inquiries that will develop these skills” (Hicks & Turner, 2010, p. 59).

Why Teach Digital Writing?

“Equipping students to write in only one mode—traditionally, black ink on white paper in scripted genres—will not serve students in their higher education experiences or in the workplaces of the future. Equipping students to work across and within contemporary networked spaces, and to write in a range of genres and a diversity of modes to audiences local and widespread, will serve students in their higher education experiences and in the workplaces of the future” (National Writing Project, DeVoss, Eidman-Aadahl, & Hicks, 2010, p. 5).

Digital Writing & Reading

“In today‟s complex, high-technology world, the importance of writing as a fundamental organizing objective of education is no less valid or practical. Writing, properly understood, is thought on paper. Increasingly, in the information age, it is also thought on screen, a richly elaborated, logically connected amalgam of ideas, words, themes, images, and multimedia designs.”

-Because Digital Writing Matters (2010)National Writing Project

Digital Writing & Reading

“Reading and writing are not isolated skills that can be separated from other social processes; instead, they are interwoven with other representational systems to create meaning.”

(Bahktin 1986, Gee 1996 through Jocius 2013)

Even the Common CoreSpeaking and Listening (SL)

SL.4.5

Add audio recordings and visual displays to presentations when appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas or themes.

SL 5.5

Include multimedia components (e.g., graphics, sound) and visual displays in presentations when appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas or themes.

Even the Common CoreSpeaking and Listening (SL)

SL.6.5

Include multimedia components (e.g., graphics, images, music, sound) and visual displays in presentations to clarify information.

SL 7.5

Include multimedia components and visual displays in presentations to clarify claims and findings and emphasize salient points.

SL 8.5

Integrate multimedia and visual displays into presentations to clarify information, strengthen claims and evidence, and add interest.

Even the Common CoreSpeaking and Listening (SL)

ELACC11-12SL5

Present information, findings, and supporting evidence, conveying a clear and distinct perspective, such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning, alternative or opposing perspectives are addressed, and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, or a range of formal and informal tasks.

ELACC11-12SL5

Make strategic use of digital media (e.g. textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest.

The Best of Digital Writing

According to a recent report co-sponsored by the National Writing Project and the Pew Research Center, there are three beneficial impacts of using digital tools:

“[P]roviding a broader audience for student work, encouraging creativity and personal expression in a multitude of formats, and offering more opportunities for collaboration, interaction and feedback” (Purcell et al, 2013, p. 24).

The WorstTurner and Hicks, in their recent English Journal article on digital writing identify five practices that they say destroy digital literacy:

Counting Slides (or images, links, or any other digital component of a task)

Using a Blog without Blogging

Criticizing Digitalk

Asking (only) Questions That Can Be Answered by a Search Engine

Using “Cool” Technology to Deliver a Planned Lesson

What It Means for Teachers

“This does not mean that teachers must entirely change what they know and do in their

classrooms; rather, teachers must explore how their

strengths transfer to different tools and emerging

genres. Doing so requires that we rethink,

oftentimes, the rhetorical situations that we ask students to write within, the audiences we ask them

to write for, the products that they produce, and the purposes of their writing”

(National Writing Project, DeVoss, Eidman-Aadahl,

& Hicks, 2010, p. 14)

Sources Hicks, T., & Turner, K. H. (2013). No longer a luxury: Digital literacy can‟t wait.

English Journal (102.6), 58-65.

Jocius, R. (2013). Exploring Adolescents‟ Multimodal Responses to The Kite Runner: Understanding how students use digital media for academic purpose. Journal of Media Literacy Education. 5(1), pages 310-325.

International Society for Technology in Education. (2007). ISTE standards for students. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/docs/pdfs/nets-s-standards.pdf?sfvrsn=2

National Council of Teachers of English. (2013). NCTE framework for 21st

century curriculum and assessment. Retrieved from http://www.ncte.org/positions/statements/21stcentframework

National Writing Project, DeVoss, D. N., Eidman-Aadahl, E., & Hicks, T. (2010). Because digital writing matters: Improving student writing in online and multimedia environments. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Purcell, K., Buchanan, J., & Friedrich L. (2013). The impact of digital tools on student writing and how writing is taught in schools. National Writing Project and Pew Research Center. Retrieved from http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Teachers-technology-and-writing