I have continued to research secondary sources for my ISearch project. One case study I found is titled "Beginning to Write with Word Processing: Integrating Writing Process and Technology in Primary Classroom" by Van Leewun. The second source I came across was an ebook titled "Learning with Technology: The Impact of Laptop use on Student Achievement" by James Gulek.
Gulek believes that laptop use in the classroom is an effective tool to produce better student success. His research has shown that when students have access to technology they "produce writing of higher quality and greater length". The same research also shows that student's critical thinking skills thrive when they are exposed to technology. His research was not just specific to ELA classrooms the students in the study used the laptops to write in all subjects. After one academic year the students that were given the laptops showed significantly higher achievement compared to student who didn't have access to laptops.
Leewun's observed a first grade general education classroom. Students in the class were beginning to learn the basic writing process using both pen and paper and word processing. Leewun does not state whether she is for one or the other when teaching students to write. She rather says that she does not believe that there is one composing tool that serves all the needs of new writers. She does believe that if a teacher does intend to use technology to teach writing, then the teacher must teach the student how to properly use it. I have noticed throughout my secondary source searching that this idea of teachers or students not using the technology correctly is mentioned in almost all of them. I do agree that if we categorize computers or tablets as writing tools then we should treat them as such. It's never advisable to use a power tool without prior instruction. That may be an extreme analogy, students will not get hurt if a teachers hands them a laptop and tell them to start writing, but it's not the most effective practice. Leewun gives good advice on teacher instruction and implementing technology in a classroom.
Hey Leah! These seem like some great sources, and I hope that you have found more like them. They seem to be very helpful towards what you are trying to figure out with technology and writing. These two experiments seem to be very helpful to show that technology can help us learn better, as long as we keep in mind that first we have to teach the students how to use the technology properly. Of course, this means that teachers have to know how to use technology properly, which can be hard! Maybe a facet that you may want to look into could be on teachers keeping up with technology? Is it easy or hard? Teachers have to take a lot of career development classes, so is technology on top of it going to be too much for teachers? You don't have to include this part, just a thought as I'm reading through your work.
ReplyDeleteLeah,
ReplyDeleteI have to say that I am very intrigued by this post. I'm also writing about technology in the classrooms, so I might just use Van Leewuh's article myself! You are absolutely right in stating that if we are going to categorize technology as writing tools, we will definitely need to teach students how to use them effectively. And I say, why not implement them as writing tools? After all, students ARE using tablets, computers, and other sources of technology outside of our classrooms, so I think it is our responsibility to teach writing in a way that is useful to 21st century students.
I loved your analogy about the power tools. You mentioned that you thought it might have been extreme, but I don't think so at all! If we give students these resources and don't teach them how to utilize them in the right way, they will begin to develop poor habits when using technology to write and old habits are hard to break!
Leah,
ReplyDeleteI think you have many good questions to ask your teachers, and planning them out well before hand will help avoid those awkward silences between interviewer and interviewee once the conversation dies down. It would be useful to have more questions with open-ended answers in addition to the “A or B and why?” format. I think it’s a great idea to interview the students themselves, which is something I had overlooked until just now.
Also, I’m glad you’ve had luck finding more secondary sources. They seem to have led you to the interesting dilemma of teaching HOW to use writing tools. I liked the power tools analogy as well. While I’m sure almost every kid OWNS a laptop or tablet device, I’m sure some could benefit from instruction on how to use them. I’m willing to bet most of the students we will teach will be more up-to-date on technology than us old-folk are, but they might just learn about some functionality or resource that they never knew about. Today’s computers are such complex tools that there is ALWAYS something new to learn about their potential uses as writing tools.
Leah,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you are continuing your research on this topic and I think you have found some very promising articles. I really appreciate Van Leewuh's technique for going about teaching the writing process. When you state that she doesn't believe there is "one" technique to teach every writer, is something valuable to pursue. Your interview questions look great, and that will make for an easy discussion between you and the teacher. However, I would like to get the insights of the students. Keep up the great work!!