February 19th 2008
Chapter 4: Supporting writing with technology


Textbook questions

1. What types of writing activities would make best use of technology in your classroom?
I believe that concept mapping is a great tool to use in the classroom. `These tools enable learners to identify the important ideas or concepts in a knowledge domain and interrelate those ideas` (Jonassen et al., p. 63). We have already used Inspiration in the class and I have found it to be great because I would be able to use it in many different ways: to start writing activity students would write their ideas or it would even help students to study visually for an exam if the notes would be in a structure map.

2. Would the act of ‘publishing’ student’s work (on the Internet for instance) be motivating to your students? How can you leverage this potential for motivation in your classroom?
I think that publishing students` work on the internet would alone be very motivating. I don’t even think that I have to leverage the motivation. Students like to know that their work will be on the INTERNET. This way they would be proud to show their work to family and friends and know that anyone in the world can see it if they want too.

3. Collaborative activities have many potential benefits, but students don’t automatically know how to collaborate successfully. What strategies can you or have you put in place to make collaborative teams effective in terms of both completing the intended task and helping students learn to be good collaborators.
The strategies that need to be used obviously come from the teacher. I need to let the students know what their assigned role is. For example: editor, reporter, or leader. This way the roles wont be confusing to the students and each child will know what to do. Students can learn how to be good collaborators through different activities not necessarily being related to the computer lab. I know an activity that works amazingly with young children and that can work for older students as well. I give one stencil sheet and one pen to a group of four students. Each student is supposed to have a turn to answer or draw the answer. They have to finish the assigned sheet by working collaboratively. It’s not easy at first but students learn to share their tasks.

Journal Entry

I thought that the lopArt and Puzzlemaker are great sites to use for my classroom. LopArt is great for my students and it reminded me of the paint program that we used to use in my elementary classroom but in a much better version. I like that it can show artistic talents. Students can use it to send postcards just like we did to family and friends. As for puzzlemaker, it’s great for the teacher. It’s nice to know that there is such a tool out there. I wanted to make a puzzle when I was on stage but I realized how hard it was. Now I just need to plug the words in and it makes my puzzle on its own! It’s amazing!!
Jonassen discusses presentation writing such as Power Point. I think that this type of program is great for any grade. I find that it brings the stress level of oral presentations a great deal! I was only exposed to the option of using such a program in college and university. I think that students would benefit from this tool starting in elementary school. Students who get nervous and fear of losing their strain of thought will have `each set structured with an outline of the content that should be included in a presentation with the general goal for the presentation type selected` (Jonassen et al., p. 68). The student will only need to change slides.

Collaborative work among students is very important. We as teachers need to promote a community of learners in our classroom and what better way than having students work on collaborative projects. However, teachers need to have set rules and ` hot links which direct students to specific material to the assignment- in other words no surfing` will be allowed (deal, p.93) is a great way to insure that students stay on track.
I learned that Writely is a great program to promote collaborative writing with technology. 12 collaborators and 50 people can share their work on this program. This way students can help each other with editing, revising and commenting on each other’s work. Writing isn’t always easy and it’s hard to see one’s own mistakes. Having others look at your work is a great way to improve writing skills (Jonassen et al., p. 74). According to Kajder and Glen Bull `student writers need to get the point from the start` (p.106). The teacher can explain the writing assignment’s criteria, and explain what the role of each student is. This way the students will be on the right track from the start.