Teaching Writing with Web 2.0 Media
I'm working on a doctorate in education, and my research focuses on potential uses of digital communication media (online discussions, blogs, wikis, etc.) in teaching writing. In particular, I am interested in how teachers of English language arts, humanities, or social studies might incorporate digital interactive writing into the writing process, such that online discussions might serve as a sort of pre-writing activity for essays, stories, or other written compositions to help students develop and articulate their ideas.
For example, students might use discussion forums to discuss debatable issues in preparation for persuasive essays on the same topics (which could potentially be published on blogs or wikis). Or they might use a blog post as a seed for an essay, inviting comments from other students to help them develop their ideas. Or they might begin to develop a story idea through an online chat in which they role-play characters in dialogue. Or they might use instant messaging to brainstorm subtopics for a class wiki involving collaborative research.
Has anyone used Web 2.0 media in this way with their students? If so, I'd be very interested to hear some of the details. If not, what do you think about such an approach? Many thanks in advance!
(For more on this topic, I invite you to check out my blog, Authorship 2.0.)
For example, students might use discussion forums to discuss debatable issues in preparation for persuasive essays on the same topics (which could potentially be published on blogs or wikis). Or they might use a blog post as a seed for an essay, inviting comments from other students to help them develop their ideas. Or they might begin to develop a story idea through an online chat in which they role-play characters in dialogue. Or they might use instant messaging to brainstorm subtopics for a class wiki involving collaborative research.
Has anyone used Web 2.0 media in this way with their students? If so, I'd be very interested to hear some of the details. If not, what do you think about such an approach? Many thanks in advance!
(For more on this topic, I invite you to check out my blog, Authorship 2.0.)
Tags: blogging, discussions, english, instantmessaging, socialstudies, wikis, writing
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Nicole Welding on
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Hi Amy,
Thank you for sharing your blog from last year--wow, it looks great, and it is a joy to read your students' responses... Yes, I totally agree, the objective is to get students writing; your blog is a wonderful example of this! I'm excited to spend a little more time reading your students' work when I have a few more minutes at once... Thanks --Nicole
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Permalink Reply by Govinda Prasad Panthy on
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Hello there, i'm a school teacher/founder from Nepal. I run an elementary school for poor family rural children. I'm Govinda by my name. if u find me like minded person plz mail me at gopisu@gmail.com
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Permalink Reply by Marielle Palombo on
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Indeed! Thanks, Nicole. These are wonderful examples to support your points, and they are very helpful in "making learning visible" (another advantage of using digital communication media for academic purposes, in my view). You make a very interesting observation about the first student's appeal to others to react to her interpretation, which beautifully illustrates some of the points I raised in my latest blog post, Blogging to Learn. And the response of one student to another's writing is a lovely example of a thoughtful, probing comment that demonstrates a careful reading of a peer's original text. I think it's so helpful to bring such examples to light to provide alternatives to generic, nonspecific comments such as "I like your description" or "Good job!"
Thanks so much for sharing these, Nicole!
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Permalink Reply by Amy Cobb on
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Great insight, Nicole! Can you tell me what grade you teach? How do you manage/control the 90 blogs? You say you don't read them all, how do you check to see if the kids are staying on task, or talking about things that are inappropriate? While I would love for my 70 seventh graders to have their own blogs, it would be a management nightmare to make sure everything is on the up and up, and that they are staying focused. Please share you experiences with this.
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Permalink Reply by Nancy Bosch on
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Don't start with all the kids, recruit good writers from each class and then bring people on slowly. I've always run a "formal writing" blog, no personal info, no chat, no IM, must use correct spelling, grammar, conventions, etc. You set up the rules---and delete anybody who chooses not to follow them. Our bloggers are 4-6th graders, you can see there blogs here. Mine is on the front, student blogs can be found on the left column and in recent posts. Let me know if you need more info, I think I've blogged here about setting up the blog.
Do me a favor and don't have the kids blog as "extra credit".
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I have the same guidelines as you do for my class blog, but the kids respond to blog prompts I post. My objectives and the end result is still the same, for them to write quality, meaningful responses. My students are required to blog as part of their trimester writing grade, so there is no such thing as extra credit. Thanks for sharing your blog, it's wonderful!
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OriginaIly thought I would have to post a "thought provoking" question to get the bloggers to respond. Most of the time they ignore me and write about what's on their mind! haha
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Permalink Reply by Anne Mirtschin on
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I do the same Nancy, but have often reverted back to post prompts that I think they would like to answer. However, it is great when they write posts of their own as if gives you a real insight into your students.
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I guess I come from a different direction. I am an info tech teacher and am responsible for approx 140 student blogs. Many of our students come from lower income families so there literacy skills are not strong. Therefore I encourage them to simply blog. Many will ask me to correct their spelling but time is against me, so up they go warts and all. Initially sms came in especially through comments but I find that has got less now. So ours is 'encouragement writing' and connecting blogs that we are also trying to extend into digital portfolios.
Each week I try to comment on the student blogs so they know someone is watching them. Many of our other staff do as well.
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Permalink Reply by Cathy on
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I have worked with bringing student writing to the web for many many years prior to web 2.0. However, with blogs/wikis being as easy as they are to create and edit, I think we take for granted how much review is necessary. I find that in a few minutes on just about any student blog, I can find something that I would consider inappropriate for the grade level. I looked at Nancy's and though it has wonderful entries, it took me about 2 minutes to find a voki (http://areallydifferentplace.org/blog/13) within your blog that has advertising on it going to "BridzillaMe" that has a knife wielding bride on it. A click from that page took me to ""Secret Lives of Women:" An unapologetic look at females who conceal behaviors and professions that push the boundaries of "normal" society. "
Is this ever a concern to your district or parents?
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Oh great---creating the Vokis was a one shot deal and I decided that they were not something we needed or will do again. I think that we are going to find the advertized links an issue for a lot of these cutesy tools and I am usually hyper-vigilant--- I'll delete this Voki and check others. Thanks for the heads up, N.
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On further checking the link is to We Channel's shows Bridezilla and Secret Lives of Women. Kids could easily see commercials for these shows while flipping channels on their home TVs. I don't know if this is as bad as the links get but I'm not throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I will continue to keep an eye on my kids. Our parents and kids all sign an AUP and some parents blog with their kids on the site. I will continue to instruct students as to what to do when they come upon "not for kids" sites but won't panic. I'm way tooooo old for that, N.
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