Diane's+homework+for+Monday,+August+8th

Response to a quote from Because Digital Writing Matters

Diane Samuelson Ferndale Elementary dianeesam@gmail.com

Homework: Revisit your readings from pages 1-59 of Because Digital Writing Matters. Identify a quotation you found thought provoking. Write a 250-400 word response to the quote, including the reasons you chose it and any questions or concerns arising from it.

“If we engage students in real writing tasks and we use technology in such a way that it complements their innate need to find purposes for their work, we can have them engaged in the digital writing process that focused first on the writer, then on the writing, and lastly on the technology. As we shift our attention back to the writer, we begin to take the stance of not just integrating computers, or using a particular program and begin to think about how to structure our digital writing workshop.” Tom Hicks

This quote really sums it all up for me. Technology is a tool, but it is not the focus. Writers need to have something to say, a reason to say it, and an audience to say it to, or there's no reason to write. While technology drastically changes the way writers can write and interact with their audience, they need to have something to say.

This quote reminds me of my days in the art department. Ellen Land-Weber, my photography professor who had the greatest impact on me, stressed that you can have a technically perfect, beautiful photograph that is still empty and boring. The most important element is the vision and the idea. Technique can be learned, but the focus needs to be on developing an eye.

With writing the same is true. You can incorporate all the slick, cutting edge technology that exists, but without a strong idea, there is no reason to share it with your digital audience. For this reason, the focus need to remain to be the writer.

Our jobs as educators is to guide our students to discover what is is they want to say. Once they have figured that out, we can help them decide which platform best fulfills their need by enabling them to reach their target audience. We can also help them with revision by connecting them to technologies that allow this occur in ways that truly enhance the process.