Inspired Writing and Inquiry: How does the tool shape the production and product?

http://www.fno.org/dec05/writing.html

Summary:

This article first points out that student writing at a national level is below standard. The author explains that while schools are “dumping” money into new technology, the writing isn’t improving because writing is more than just the recording of sentences. It is about the processing and relaying of ideas. The author then outlines the important elements of writing and makes the point that classes should focus more on ideas than conventions, and that writing should be a way for students to explore their own reasoning skills and opinions. Next, the author asks, now what is the difference between handwriting, typewriting, and word processing? How does the word processing effect the idea processing? The author concludes that with technology come many possibilities for exploring and recording ideas, such as various graphic organizers for brainstorming and outlining. tunless the teacher knows how to use the programs and gives adequate instruction and support to the students, a computer is just a glorified type writer and loses its potential.

Response:

This article makes a valid point, that technology in classrooms has potential to help students develop as writers so long as the teacher provides adequate support. But this seems obvious to me. Technology isn’t necessarily intuitive (though I would argue that it is becoming more and more so, and students becoming more and more fluent by the time they reach secondary education), and writing is hardly about the actual act of putting words to paper, so why would one assume that new computers alone will improve test scores? Beyond the technology there is a list of factors effecting test scores, such as the actual teaching, curricula, the student’s experiences, the community, and socio-economic welfare of the school, student, and community.