Writing with Technology Matters: Five Reasons Why

EducationWorld is pleased to feature a variety of book excerpts in collaboration with Stenhouse Publishers. The following excerpt comes from When Writing with Technology Matters, by Carol Bedard and Charles Fuhrken (2013). The book retails for $20 ($18 e-book) and is available on the Stenhouse Web site.

When Writing with Technology Matters chronicles two classrooms (one elementary and one middle school) that use a tech-infused curriculum to enhance literacy in all its forms (technological, visual, informational and intertextual). Focusing on the elementary school moviemaking project, this article is the first of a two-part “teaser” for the full story the book relates. See Five More Reasons Writing with Technology Matters for the second part of the excerpt from this book.

1. Process matters.

By definition, a project is multistage or multistep, and project-based learning seeks to sustain students’ motivation and thought for a period of time so that they can understand the purposes, rationales, and connections of the steps toward the outcome or end products (Blumenfeld et al., 1991). The integration of the language arts with technology informed these steps. Students engaged in multiple and authentic aspects and levels of literary learning that ultimately combined and contributed to the students’ goal of producing narrative and nonfiction videos.

It was moviemaking, not reading and writing, that was on the minds of elementary students as they began the integrated language arts–technology project. But students soon discovered that just like real Hollywood screenwriters, they had to first put the words on the page that could be turned into images on the big screen. Students began by reading chapter books—these books served as the basis of the story lines students developed through a number of writing activities, which included writing independently, conferring both face-to-face and online, writing collaboratively, and storyboarding. Throughout the process, the students blogged about their daily activities and progress, their frustrations, and their successes, so the blog served as a record of their learning.

The product mattered, certainly, because it was a creation—a real, concrete representation of the students’ efforts. But the process also mattered, and students became keenly aware that the product was made possible as a result of authentic stages of a complex process. And teachers became aware of what students learned by watching closely as students engaged in the process. Consequently, the products, although important, actually represented only a small part of the learning.

2. Engagement matters.

Hard work are the words that teachers and students involved in these projects used to describe what they were doing. So how is it that everyone was so willing to do so much hard work?

That’s what engagement in the process allows. Students showed stick-to-itiveness because they were engaged in their work and viewed it as important (Hobbs, 2007).

When the students learned that they would be moviemakers, the excitement was palpable and audible. They knew what that meant—they could envision sitting in an auditorium crowded with family and friends, viewing a piece of work they had constructed. And when things got rough, students’ desire to produce something great for others to see is what helped them push through. During filming, one student, Alonso, posted on the class blog, We’re practically all over the place doing tons of stuff. I only slept for, like, three hours and no more, because we have a ton of work to do. Fortunately, all the elementary filmmaking groups reached deep to complete their movies for the premiere day.

The fact is, projects such as these allow for students to sustain their focus and attention and become invested in what they are doing. Engagement allows for meaningful, enduring learning.

 

3. Critical thinking matters.

The projects allowed students opportunities to make decisions independently and collaboratively and space to think creatively when solving problems, which in turn allowed teachers insight into their students’ capacities for critical thinking and meaning-making when given environments that encouraged them (Swed, 2001).

The nature of the projects allowed teachers to turn over the reins to the students, placing them in the roles of decision-makers through and through. Many decisions the students made in these projects allowed them to tap into their creative thinking. Elementary student Gabriel re-created a televised press conference, complete with a running ticker tape.

Because the projects were designed so that the students were in charge of their own schedule, their own creations, and their own learning, they acquired many workplace skills including organization, decision making, and attention to detail. Ms. Garcia, a teacher in the elementary project, reflected:

I think they’re shaped as workers. These are intelligent children, but this is the hardest they’ve had to work in their educational careers. It’s a commitment they have to see from the start to the finish.

Critical thinking can occur when students are given the space to make important decisions on their own.

4. Research matters.

Research for the 21st-century learner involves gathering information from multiple formats, including traditional and digital print, audio, photography, and video. It involves viewing and analyzing images—pictures and videos—and listening to music to consider what mood the tune and lyrics evoke. Today, because technology allows students to access a large amount of information almost instantaneously (Smolin and Lawless, 2003), research has become embedded in all phases of the writing process.

As a group of students was designing a set in preparation for filming a scene in their movie, they realized they wanted to include hieroglyphics on a painted backdrop. Without hesitation, one group member, Rose, went to the computer and within minutes had accessed the needed information. “Let’s check that” was a comment we often overheard as groups worked to construct their essays.

Research is no longer what students do for an hour in the library before the writing begins. Research now emerges organically and figures into many stages of the writing process; it is often the answer to students’ inquiries.

5. Collaboration matters.

Collaboration has been named a 21st-century skill that students must acquire during their school experiences because it is a critical skill in the global marketplace (Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2011). Across the projects, we witnessed true, constructive collaboration in which multiple perspectives were offered and considered, "a-ha" moments abounded, and thinking was pushed and deepened as a result of the exchanges.

One collaborative arrangement for the filmmakers was aided by technology because students responded and reflected on a class blog daily. The blog helped students form a community of learners that allowed them to gain access to the goings-on of other groups, give and receive status reports of their progress, and contribute to other groups’ movies by providing suggestions. For example, when one student, Julie, posted that her group made guitars out of paper in order to film a scene, another student offered, Why don’t you use Guitar Hero guitars? Another beneficial collaborative arrangement for these students included working with university students to improve their stories.

What would have been lost had students worked independently throughout the process? An elementary student, Alonso, grimaced at the thought of going it solo, pondering how the quality of his group’s movie would have been affected: “If we hadn’t worked together, the whole story would have fallen apart. It could not have been done alone.”

Why does writing with technology matter? Read 5 more reasons.
 

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