Reflection

Part of the reason I took this class is because I was a complete neophyte at digital writing technology. After finishing this course, I would no longer say I am a complete beginner and I am excited about using what I've learned with my classes. I did not really know what vlogs were and I would like to incorporate those in my classroom. I also liked learning about podcasts and how to actually make them. This is a great way to get students writing scripts. Digital poetry is also exciting to me. Students either love or hate poetry and I think incorporating digital poetry would get more students to love poetry.

Because of this class, I've been reminded that there are multiple ways to teach writing besides just the essay format. Sometimes I get too focused on the curriculum I'm supposed to teach and the standards I'm supposed to follow that I forget there are other ways of meeting these standards. I think that's what I took away most from this class. I've been so influenced by various teachers over the years that the essay is the end all in the English class and that is just not true any more. Of course it's important and actually digital writing can help with writing essays as well, but there is so much more out there for students (and teachers) to experience and experiment with. Ultimately I want my students to be engaged in what they're learning and digital writing really does this. I know I've been engaged this semester with all I've been learning.

In students' portfolios I would have them include multiple drafts of their writing. I think it's important for students to see their first stages of writing up to the finished product. Portfolios can be extremely beneficial for students to see that they have made progress in their writing. When I have students look back at their writing from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, they are amazed at what they had written and how they've improved. Even if they haven't improved that much, I think often they forget about their writing once it's turned in. When they look back on it, they can pick out more mistakes and skills they still need to work on.

I think wikis can be helpful with editing and reflecting on writing. Students can look back on the specific changes they've made to their writing. Also, blogs can be helpful as well. It gives them a place to post their writing and see how they've progressed throughout a semester or a school year.

Website Readability

I decided to look at aol.com versus yahoo.com. The reason I chose these were because I must view these two websites dozens of times a day. For some reason AOL is my homepage. I've tried changing it before but it always seems to come back to aol.com. I'm embarrassed because I should be a little bit more computer savvy with this than I am. I use yahoo as my primary email address.

I think aol.com is designed very effectively, at least it is for me. I never intend to go to aol.com except to open my internet. However, almost every time I do go to the site, one of the revolving stories with pictures captures my interest and I end up clicking on that story. The revolving story idea is very effective. It changes about every 5-10 seconds and so I exposed to multiple stories while I'm just trying to connect to the internet. Also, aol.com separates their news stories in an effective way. I just need to scroll down to read "Top News" or "Entertainment News" etc.

I am not a fan of yahoo.com. I only use the site for email. Yahoo rarely catches my attention with stories. There is no revolving news story with graphics. There is only one main story with a graphic. Also, the webiste is very cluttered with headings that are difficult to pick out at first glance.

I do think aol.com is very cluttered as well but it has more prominent headings and graphics that change continuously. But as far as grabbing my attention when I have no intention of looking at the website, aol is much more effective.

Online Feedback

Giving students feedback on their writing is an area where I really need to improve. It takes me awhile to grade essays thoroughly and so often my feedback is not immediate. I like that with digital writing I can give feedback more quickly.

Since it's difficult to edit for mechanics, grammar, spelling mistakes without a paper copy, I think the best way to give online feedback is to focus solely on content. Which I need to work on anyway. Sometimes I focus too much on minor details in students' essays.

I think the best way to give feedback is to ask questions. This is what I usually do when reading drafts of students' essays anyway. I think this is very helpful for students peer editing writing as well. They need a guide and need to know what to look for. Answering the questions allows for them to look at their peers' writing critically.

With other disciplines it's more important that students answer a specific question or set of questions in writing. With language arts, there are multiple components that I look for in students' writing. For example, I try to work on developing students' voices in their writing. This is something that I assume math and science writing is not as concerned about.