Sunday, October 18, 2009

Digital writing in a summer tutorial

I really enjoyed reading the article, True Adventures of Mummies, Vampires and Schnauzers assigned for this week. Ms Solomon got to know her students at a more intimate level due to the small group situation; the digital writing gave the students an audience for composition other than 'just the teacher' and she used it to everyone's advantage. She really learned about 4 C's, however; Copyright was an important issue along with Composing, Computers, and Commotion. I also wonder how Murray or Donald Graves (see my first post) would feel about the "Commotion" aspect of digital writing. Digital writing involves active collaboration as well as individual creativity. That is different from traditional narrative or expository writing or even memoir, all of which can be done without direct input from other sources (people, videos, etc.)

Of course, the success which Ms Solomon felt and the reflection she was able to achieve were possible because she had only three students plus time after summer school to do her reflection without planning her next unit. Can you imagine negotiating this kind of activity with a classroom of 24 second or third graders without other adults and crash-proof technology? I am happy to read about this experience but feel caution about its widespread implementation.

2 comments:

  1. When I read this chapter I had very similar thoughts :) How great would it be to have some time with students every day to work in a similar capacity, exploring ideas in digital literacy without also trying to balance classroom assignments and time away from the regular ed setting? I thought it sounded like a tranquil (as tranquil as teaching spirited students can be!) setting to really explore students' ideas and interests. I'm jealous of that right now.

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  2. JoAnn, you make a great point about the challenges of implementing this idea with a full class. Perhaps it is best to try out implementation in waves, rather than all at once.

    Or perhaps we embrace the "C" of commotion and dive in head first. Either way, I think we benefit from learning along with out students.

    Thanks for your thoughtful comments on the reading. I would have liked to have talked more about it in class but am happy to see people discussing it in the blogosphere.

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