The Writing Process: How Technology Helps Students Take Back What is Theirs
Robert S. Rusert
Lesley University
Abstract
Many language arts teachers today are languishing in the pen and paper era wondering why many of their students are not excited about writing. Although it can be a daunting image, turning the classroom over to the students through technology will inspire and illuminate both students and their teachers. Even more encouraging is the fact that the technological tools currently available fit neatly with the steps of the traditionally effective writing process.
The Writing Process: How Technology Helps Students Take Back What is Theirs
Throughout my eleven years of teaching, I have had students who loved to write and thus were very good writers. I have had students who occasionally enjoyed writing and enjoyed it more when they could see improvement but would rather do something else. I have had students who despised writing and hardly ever did any. ... The latter types of students are uninspired, do not care much to impress the teacher, and may feel that they do not have much to offer in the way of academic ideas. ... As a result, roughly two-thirds of today’s students are being neglected by the teacher-centered, pen and paper instruction that still dominates the language arts classroom.
The very same students who do not care to write much for school can often be found at home detailing their desires, activities, feelings, and thoughts through an instant message service to a trusted friend. An increasing amount of students have created their own web page to reveal themselves to the world. The writing required in these settings is filled with knowledge, efficient, and laden with expression. Can the intimacy of this student writing be transferred into more academic writing via technology? By fostering ownership and critical thinking, technology helps improve student writing through the writing process.
The Fun Factor
Clearly students are more interested in writing on a word processor because of its relative ease when compared to writing by hand. However, technology’s impact on student composition extends much farther than simplification. Programs such as Microsoft Publisher, Paint, and PowerPoint allow students the fun of individualizing compositions with creativity. Technology also allows access to innumerable sources of information in databases and on the Internet. When my students go to the library to do research, they sit down at the computer. ... Students find it more compelling to create and to write with the tools of technology than with a pen and paper because they can control the direction their creations take; the product is a reflection of themselves. This fact plays right into what a writing instructor desires. The more student-centered writing can become, the more we will see students taking ownership of their writing; they will care about what they are writing and how they write.
The Writing Process
The time-tested steps in the writing process fit comfortably with students’ use of technological tools. ... Trupe (2000, The impact of technology on students’ writing processes section, 1) states:
Word processing has sparked a revolution in composing processes.
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