Virtual Digital Conference - Day 3

     It is time to Control, Alt, Delete! This has been my favorite session of the Virtual Digital Writing Conference. I watched Developing Digital Literacies: Teachers in Transition, and the middle/high school teachers that were sharing were honest, easy to follow, and offered great applicable examples of how other educators can incorporate digital writing intro their classrooms as early as tomorrow! Each teacher presented/discussed their early experiences with digital literacies. They began by identifying their fears and hesitations, explained what their writing classroom looked like before using technology, went over how they first started, and closed with students reflections and the benefits they now see when students write digitally.

         I found the first presenter rather engaging, as she was very open and honest. Her initial fears with incorporating digital literacy where that she had too much other material to cover in the curriculum and that her students may be inappropriate online. She found out that 100% of her students actually did have access to the Internet in some fashion. As soon as they were engaged in the writing project, and wanted to continue working on it at home, they had the access to do so. Interesting how a little engagement goes a long way. She didn’t share at all that her students were being inappropriate when working in online platforms as again they were engaged with the task at hand. Before the “Control, Alt, Delete” reboot of her classroom, she always saw writing as having two forms, the narrative and the essay. The audience was the teacher, and all students went through the same writing process: brainstorming, drafting, conferencing, revising, editing, and publishing. That sounded all too familiar to me. The presenter also made mention of how all students’ work always looked the same: Graphic organizer to outline to draft to final draft paper. Again, ringing a very familiar bell.

         After experimenting with various digital writing forms, both the presenter and her students realized that digital writing can look like:

- podcasts

- videos

- slideshows

- emails

- texts

- picture narratives

- animation

- word walls

- scripts

- short stores

- the traditional essays

- the list goes on and go!

Writing will not always follow the same form, nor does good writing always have the same audience!

          The last three weeks have been a digital writing pilgrimage for both my students and me. We have been working with Google Classroom, and my students have been submitting homework assignments and weekly journal responses in a digital fashion. My goal is to expand the use of digital writing into collaborative writing assignments through Google Docs. We may not be there yet, but I am truly amazed at how well my students are doing using the Google Classroom platform. I am learning from them each and every day, and they are so very engaged in their new digital writing world.