One More Thought: Changing The Writing Process

One more thought about that 21st century article. It makes the point that technology changes the writing process. This is striking to me as I'm talking about the writing process this week. I admit I always feel disingenuous talking about this because it's one of those times I'm teaching the kids to do something I don't do.

I very rarely "prewrite." Usually I just start typing.

So I like the idea of looking at blogging as prewriting/publishing. But that sort of crushes our traditional notion of the writing process, doesn't it then.

We're supposed to, when we grade writing and include it in the portfolio, represent "all stages of the writing process," which is supposed to mean prewriting, outlines/graphic organizers, first draft, revised copy, and then final draft. It's a good point to make that if we're doing all our writing online and revising within a Word document, the draft/revising/editing part of the process looks very different and leaves a different artifact trail. Not that I really have to worry about this right now since I do not have enough computers in my room to have every kid working through the writing process on a computer.

That's something to think about.

On a kind of side note, I got this year's class blog up (www.kidblog.com - great classroom tool) and running. The kids loved blogging last year and I'm excited to have a whole year to work on it with my kids (as opposed to 3 months last year.)

Where This is Going...

Obviously, this blog started as a class assignment and grew into something else.  I think I'm going to broaden the focus beyond educational technology into the bigger world of education - so that I can touch on all my interests in education - technology, literature, history, etc - but especially educational policy. Then I won't wonder how many non-ed-tech posts I can get away with on a blog with this title. 

So.  Those changes to come.

The Benefits of Online Writing

I've been thinking about online habits of students and as such reflecting on my own, and I had the rather obvious realization that being online, entering the world of blogs and Web 2.0 has once again made me a writer.  Yes, I would write the occasional paper or reflection for school, but I'm actually writing again, thanks to this blog and other online places, in the same way we want to teach and have our students writing.  They write every day, list things they want to write about, and keep practicing.  In the past, outside of the classroom, writing was often something I would do in utter privacy, in the locked pages of a journal or saved in some deep dark folder on my hard drive.  

Something about the casual nature of blogging allows me to just write, less concerned about what people are thinking.  Blogging can be almost like a stream of consciousness, perhaps on one specific field (like educational technology) or on your whole life.  It gives us a sort of freedom that is lost in an endless stream of assigned topics and required papers.  And maybe too, something about the anonymity of the Internet, even when people I know are reading it as well, is freeing.  

But the best thing about blogging, I think, is that it is not just a platform for writing, but one for discussion, with the comment sections often becoming the most interesting aspect of the entire thread.  Personally, I put more thought into written word than in conversation, the slower pace allowing me to check a citation or fact, or even at times going into several layers of research before composing an answer.  Never before in our history has there been a platform for discussion like that (pre-Internet) - handwritten letters are slow, in-person and telephone conversations are quick, leaving less time for reflection and thought.  Even emails are generally between two or a small group of people and generally have a different purpose.

It's nice to write again.  Maybe I'll get to that book someday. ;)