The New Writing Pedagogy By Angela Pascopella and Will Richardson November 2009

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That collaborative aspect is another important shift to consider, as the Web continues to facilitate more and more opportunities for people to create together. Tools such as AppJet’s EtherPad, a Web-based word processor that allows people to work together in real time, Diigo, a research tool and knowledge-sharing community, and wikis provide spaces for students to roll up their writing sleeves and create together—an act that, again, adds another layer of complexity to the writing process but one that most see as an important skill moving forward. That has implications for every teacher.

“How can a math teacher ignore the collaborative potentials of having kids work in a Google spreadsheet?” Hicks asks. “That’s writing too. Collaboration on almost every level is just a part of the equation today.”

So what are the risks to moving students to these networked, online writing spaces and allowing them to share their work with global audiences? As with any interaction online, there is always a chance for an inappropriate response or a connection with someone who may not be who he seems.

But the research has shown that these occurrences are rare and manageable, especially with a well-prepared plan for the use of these technologies and with teachers who understand the potentials as well as the pitfalls of working online. As Klein says, you need to be prepared. “Social media, as with all things public, present risks,” he says. “School leaders need to not only understand these risks but also to have a plan to mitigate them.” In Klein’s case, that means providing teachers with the tools necessary to maintain complete oversight of what’s occurring online, a “necessary step” for younger students who are being prepared to move into more public spaces online. It also means counseling teachers about the legal implications of inappropriate use and having a clear policy, which parents sign off on, that covers both in-school and out-of-school use of social tools.

Still, is this shift in pedagogy and policy worth the effort? Will sound, traditional writing instruction still suffice, or do we need to reframe the way we teach students to write due to the global, online spaces they will frequent more in their lives?

In an August 2009 Wired article, Andrea Lunsford, professor of writing and rhetoric at Stanford University, offered her own research to suggest that students are writing in environments far removed from those from even a generation ago. “I think we’re in the midst of a literacy revolution the likes of which we haven’t seen since Greek civilization,” she says. According to her five-year study of student writing, technology is pushing writing literacy in new directions that educators must begin to make sense of.

“What we do is not for everybody,” says Allison in New York. “And it’s essential that teachers are not asking questions and getting kids to respond. It’s about getting kids to come up with their own questions and doing their own research and posting questions and having students respond to them. It’s a kind of curriculum and approach to curriculum that if you’re ready for it, you get excited about it.”

Allison says using social networking to write is not a “silver bullet,” and students who normally struggle to write are still struggling. Still, these students try harder, because they know it is going public and others are watching. “I think it’s a good challenge and one they should face,” Allison says.

Hicks believes that “inviting students to create, share, and respond to digital writing” such as blog posts, wiki pages, electronic portfolios, podcasts, and more means they are learning how to compose various texts, with different media, for audiences and purposes within and beyond classrooms. “Teaching with social media can help them learn more than just how to use technology,” Hicks says. “It can help them develop into critical and creative readers and writers as they learn how to communicate with other students, teachers, experts and outside audiences.”

Angela Pascopella is senior editor, and Will Richardson is an author and educator who also blogs about teaching and learning at weblogg-ed.com.

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