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The Pew Internet & American Life Project released a report last week which documents their findings on teens’ writing and technology habits.

The report explores writing skills, frequency, and attitude as they relate to student’s access to technology, including cell phones, the internet, and computer availability.

There were many findings that will not surprise most readers, particularly when considering the impact of gender and socio-economic factors, but some helpful factors to include when developing instructional activities for these age groups.

“Teens said they are motivated to write when the can select topics that are relevant to their lives and interests, and report greater enjoyment of school writing when they have the opportunity to write creatively. Having teachers or other adults who challenge them, present then with interesting curricula, and give them detailed feedback also serves as a motivator for teens. Teens also report writing for an audience motivates them to write and write well.” (emphasis mine)

Also from the report, “Summary of Findings at a Glance”

“Even though teens are heavily embedded in a tech-rich world, they do not believe that
communication over the internet or text messaging is writing. [The report later suggests that students hold writing in higher regard than typical communication.]

“The impact of technology on writing is hardly a frivolous issue because most believe that good writing is important to teens’ future success.

“Teens are motivated to write by relevant topics, high expectations, an interested audience and opportunities to write creatively.

“Writing for school is a nearly every-day activity for teens, but most assignments are short.

“Teens believe that the writing instruction they receive in school could be improved.

“Non-school writing, while less common than school writing, is still widespread among teens.

“Multi-channel teens and gadget owners do not write any more — or less — than their counterparts, but bloggers are more prolific.

“Teens more often write by hand for both out-of-school writing and school work.

“As tech-savvy as they are, teens do not believe that writing with computers makes a big difference in the quality of their writing.

“Parents are generally more positive than their teen children about the effect of computers and text-based communication tools on their child’s writing.

“Teens enjoy non-school writing, and to a lesser extent, the writing they do for school.”
Source: Lenhart, Amanda; Arafeh, Sousan; Smith, Aaron and Rankin Macgill, Alexandra. Writing, Technology and Teens, Washington, DC: Pew Internet & American Life Project, April 24, 2008.

Although the report weighs in at about 83 pages, the Summary of Findings captures the essence of their findings in about 7 quick pages.

And speaking of writing, I want to point you to this innovative use of volunteers in teaching student writing skills. The video is part of a series known as the TED Talks (Technology, Education, and Design), which have featured some of the most remarkable contemporary speakers around. [Thanks, Chris, for passing on the link.]

[Video missing? Visit the link above to go to a more filter-friendly option.]

There are two questions that are helpful when considering authoring a blog:

1. What would I write about?
2. Am I able to keep up with it?

There are a handful of models that could work well for you professionally, depending on your personality, classroom, and writing style. Think about how any of these might fit you. They range from individual professional, to classroom professional/student, to individual student.

Professional Discourse

An aspect of being a master learner is the reflection and revision process. The use of a professional blog can be a good outlet for discussing professional experiences and learning. Beyond simply writing for the journaling and refinement of your own thoughts, this process can open up the door for opportunities to connect with others who have similar interests, concerns, challenges, and victories. Allowing for comments of others can invite outside insights into what might have otherwise been a one-way conversation. Reading the professional comments of others can be a good way to connect with the real professional experiences of other educators in shoes a lot like yours. This is especially beneficial if you’re only specialist in your field in your building or district.

Remember, of course, that what you write online should never be considered private or anonymous. Instead think of this as an informal addendum to your resume. Be professional. (See also: Professional Safety Online)

Related reading: “Reluctant Bloggers”

Community/Student Communication (Newsletter)

As an educator, you have two audiences with a vested interest in what’s happening in your classroom: students and community/parents.

A blog for students might include homework and class notes, study guides, and extended reflection and dialogue on subject materials. Comments can be used to offer students a chance to respond to any of the above topics. Keep in mind that most blogging tools have the ability to moderate comments to various degrees, so you can retain control of what appears on your blog.

Community and parents are your second potential audience. Your blog can be a means to better communicate with those outside your school on a regular basis through updates on projects, information on what’s being taught, and highlights on school successes. Since the expectations for substance are different for a blog post versus a newsletter, it is easy to quickly post information as it comes available, while still retaining the option to include longer, more detailed articles about your classroom when the occasion arises.

Student blogging

In just the same manner that you can become the author/owner of a blog, your students can also become authors. I’m a big fan of mediums that allow students to produce work for a real audience instead of a red pen. Blogging allows the student to write for a potentially unlimited audience as well as receiving feedback from readers. Just like any writing activity, students will produce their best work when writing about topics of personal interest.

This is, admittedly, one of the more difficult blogging undertakings in that there’s a fair amount of work in moderating and supervising student blogging projects. I would suggest that any school-sanctioned blogging activity be structured such that there are requirements and guidelines for publishing. Again, more in the next post.

Be sure that you have clearance (i.e., student release forms) and that reasonable safety precautions are taken before getting started with such a project.

Student-contributed newsletter (shared blog)

A hybrid model of authorship may work best in many classrooms. This model would feature a single class blog where the teacher invites individual students to submit postings for publication. Possible topics could include:

• a daily report of classroom activities;
• commentary on current content matter;
• links to current events that tie-in to classwork; and
• share student work sample, etc.

The downside is that there is slightly less student ownership than the “Student Blogger” approach mentioned above, while the upside is that the management needs are significantly reduced.

The process here could simply involve the student typing their post in Notepad where the teacher will later review the post and copy it to the classroom blog (I recommend Notepad here because programs like Word tend to bring a lot of extra back-end garbage with it when copied and pasted).

I think this is what I would be most likely to use if I were still in the classroom.

Which fit is best for you? EduBlogs, which I’ll discuss in my next post, has a nice list of “10 Ways to Use Your EduBlog to Teach” that might give you a few more ideas related to this and the other models.

Tomorrow: Two blogging tools worth a look

Image citation: Orbitgal, “bulletin board” Orbitgal’s Photostream. 5 Oct 2007. 9 Apr 2008 <http://flickr.com/photos/orbitgal/1492216791/>.

Doug Johnson at Blue Skunk Blog highlights a good example of the importance of teaching students responsible use of the internet, rather than steering clear of it. A case that arose in his district out of the use of school-sponsored email provided a meaningful teaching opportunity.

“It is because of incidents like this that I am glad we have always given our students school sponsored e-mail addresses. It allows kids to make “safe mistakes.” The girl and probably her classmates got a real-life lesson in protecting one’s password and about identity theft without anyone getting hurt.”

Read the full article on his blog.

Student communication tools are a frightening topic to cover in school, but where will our students learn responsible use otherwise?

In case you’re interested, email is first introduced in the Ohio Tech Content Standards at 2nd grade.