Blogs Help Struggling Writers Write

When I started this blog, I began to see possible applications for classroom use almost immediately. In a literature discussion, how simple would it be to post the reading for an assignment and then ask that every student comment before the next class? What a simple way to provide the beginnings of a class discussion without the usual silence and closed looks. (Not to mention the motivation for students to actually do the reading.) A teacher could come to class with an idea of what students thought about the reading or problems they had with the work and be prepared to focus in those areas.

In a writing class, students could post work and receive feedback not only from peers in the classroom, but anywhere in the world. A professor could then use class time to allow students to work on specific issues brought up on the blog. Not only that, but students and professors would have an organized, easily accessed record of all revisions and comments. No more lost drafts and portfolios missing peer revision work.

The opportunities are endless!

Obviously, I’m not the first person to notice the wonderful world of blogging. Nether am I the first person to realize the many classroom applications. Sara Kajder and Glen Bull wrote an interesting article about just that called Scaffolding for Struggling Students: Reading and Writing with Blogs for the ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) journal Learning and Leading with Technology. In it they discuss students that fall behind in writing and reading and some of the reasons that blogging can help. Not only that, but they offer a list of ways to use blogging in the classroom. The article was written with K-12 grade in mind, but the suggestions they make could easily be adapted for use in the college classroom.

Scaffolding for Struggling Students: Reading and Writing with Blogs is located at http://www.people.virginia.edu/~sbk8q/31232k.pdf. It was published in the ISTE journal Learning and Leading with Technology volume 31 number 2 in October 2003. The ISTE web page can be found at this address: http://www.iste.org.

Super Spell Check?

This link will take you to a web site advertising the Co Writer Solo, a computer program that the site promises will help struggling writers create better papers of any genre. From the description, it seems to be a sort of super spell-check. As students type, it will help them figure out how to spell words, use words correctly, and even write grammatical sentences. By choosing a topic in the “eWordBank,” the program will display a list of words that match that particular topic. The program also has “flexspell” and word prediction capabilities that help the student spell correctly the words they want to use. The company, Don Jonston Inc., promises that students using this program will increase their vocabulary and write with more detail and "richness."

I am not sure what to think about this program. It does seem that it would improve vocabulary. However, I am forced to wonder if a program that does as much as this one claims to do would really help a student in the long run. Besides all the handholding, do we really want students consumed with worries about basic spelling and grammar errors while writing? Isn’t that part of the revision process? Also, I have to ask - at what point is the software limiting the child’s writing instead of expanding it? If a child picks a topic and then is given a list of words that encompass that topic, where is the creativity or critical thinking that writing should be teaching? Wouldn’t students be tempted to use the words from the list even if some of the words provided do not fit their particular paper? What is the likelihood that a child will use many words outside of the provided list? Where is the motivation to do so?

Finally, there is the cost question. This program retails for the starting price of $325.00 per computer (1 – 4 computers). More than 50 computers will give you a bargain price as low as $89.00 per computer. This isn’t cheap. Even if this was the greatest writing aid ever, how many public schools could afford such expensive help? The students that statistically need the most help (those in poverty) are unlikely to get it.

Again, this is in response to an ad found here: http://www.donjohonston.com/catalog/cow4000d.htm. Please feel free to check it out.

"Technologically Literate"

The NCLB (No Child Left Behind Act) establishes the expectation that American students will be "technologically literate" by the time they graduate from eigth grade. However, according to Vol.5 Issue 1 of the Educational Technology News, the NCLB does not specify what, exactly, this literacy is or what a student should be able to do in order to be considered "technologically literate." The SETDA (State Education Technology Directors Association) is one organization that has come up with a definition that it hopes will help states in determining if they are producing students with an appropriate level of literacy:

"Technology literacy is the abilty to responsibly use appropriate technology to communicate, solve problems, and access, manage, integrate, evaluate, and create information to improve learning in all subject areas and to aquire lifelong knowledge and skills in the 21st century."

What does that mean exactly? I had a few questions myself when reading it. What do they mean by "appropriate technology?" Is some technology inappropriate or "bad?" Or do they simply want children to be able to choose the best technology for the job at hand? Knowing that computers are obsolete before you buy them, how is a school to teach "lifelong knowledge and skills" in connection with technology? What kind of "technology literacy" will "improve learning in all subject areas" and how on earth is a school to teach it?

While it still doesn't really spell anything out, it goes a step further then the NCLB did. Several organizations are working together to come up with specific expectations for each grade through eigth grade. This includes rubrics and tests, and if you are interested in this, check out the web site for the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory. http://www.ncrel.org/

Haas post from class

As I was typing up a post for a class discussion, I realized that it fit with what I was thinking about for this blog. So, with a few changes, I've posted it here. I've responded to a book by Christina Haas. Check the bottom of the post for full info.

I've been thinking about how quickly computers became an expected part of education. When I was in elementary school, our whole school had one computer lab and the computers there were probably much like the ones Haas uses in her studies. Only the "rich" kids had a computer at home. In middle school, I was assigned a research paper that included directions for both hand-written and typed versions. By the time I graduated high school, it was expected that an assignment of any length would to be typed. In the space of a few years, computers went from something I used maybe once a month (if our class was lucky!) to a machine that I used everyday in college.

Perhaps, in some ways technology like the computer is more transparent than Haas thinks. Maybe we've used it long enough that it begins to feel as natural as the pen once did. I don't usually even think about the computer anymore. When a professor in another class assigned a short page-long response to the reading, no one bothered to ask if it needed to be typed.

I don't like to write with pencil and paper anymore. I can't write quickly enough to get my thoughts down on paper and my hand cramps up too fast. Like the people that Haas' interviews, I used to kill thousands of trees every time I revised a paper. I didn’t feel comfortable without the actual paper in my hands. Now, shifting through multiple pages to find something annoys me when I can just scroll down. When I wonder if I'd like the text to go in a different direction, I just open up another window and try it. If I like what I write there better, it's a simple task to copy and paste it in to the original.

I wonder if Haas were to go back and ask those writers about their writing habits if the answers would have changed. I bet that they too would print less copies and find themselves more comfortable with the computer.

I don't just write differently with the computer, I think about what I'm doing differently. One of the studies Haas describes shows that writers do less planning when writing with a computer. I've seen that trend with my own writing. But, I don't think that it's definitely a bad thing. When I sit down to write, I probably have a topic in mind. In the days of handwriting, I used to do a great deal of pre-writing in the form of lists, maps, doodles, and other general stuff. Now, I just sit down and get started. Because I can physically type a paper pretty quickly, I have the time and freedom to let my mind sort of wander. I can let the words flow and if it doesn’t go as planned, I still feel free to follow my line of thought. Some of the papers I’ve felt best about have gone in directions I’d never have allowed had I done all the pre-writing I used to do.

*****The book used is: Haas, Christina. Writing Technology: Studies on the materiality of literacy. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1996. ISBN: 0-8058-1994-0*****