Diane's+response+to+Pages+61-114.

These chapters had much food for thought. Chapter three explored what a healthy digital ecology would look like. It didn't lay out one scenario, but what characteristics are needed for digital ecological health. It also delved into the purpose. Renee Webster, a first grade teacher from Michigan stated that the importance of making her young students aware of the larger purposes of writing; "I want to have them know that part of the writing process is communicating, and we want to share our stories with other people." She views digital writing as a way for young students to be able to express their stories and ideas before they are able to get these ideas down with pencil and paper. She also emphasized the importance of engaging ALL her students when she said "If I can't engage them, I can't teach them no matter hoe good the tools and strategies are that I have. Having the option of digital media helps me better engage all of the kids." When she describes her classroom, technology is integrated into all areas of the curriculum. At present, I use very little technology with my students. The reasons are varied, but at the moment my classroom has on computer that is hooked to the internet, and taking kindergarten students to the lab, if a time became available, is a bit like herding cats. i've done it in the past, not with writing, but for science curriculum exploration, but it was challenging logistically.

This chapter also explored the ethical components of digital writing, and the shift of writing as a lone activity to far more of a collaboration when done digitally. As teachers, our role is perceived as **stewards** of the process, guiding our students as to what is ethical when remixing content that was derived from other sources. At present, these are not really issues that arise in kindergarten, but many important questions were raised. The issue of fair use was also explored, and the necessity to keep students informed of the legal and moral implications that can arise.

The approach to plagiarism that I found especially powerful was to treat it for a topic for the students to learn about. It gave a variety for activities to conduct in class that provided students with many ways to explore what it meant to plagiarizer.

The element of risk, when allowing students access to the web with fewer filters was also discussed. The point was made that many of the filters used in education also limit what students can access and produce. Paul Allison eloquently stated "You recognize that what you are doing [allowing students to participate in a social network] is a chance, but you show the student work and say that there is value in taking this chance, and if something goes wrong,we'll manage it." The process of posting reading and reviewing contributes to the students' growth as writers, and is perceived as worth the risk.