Hicks (2009) emphasizes three key elements for consideration when designing a digital writing workshop: the students, the subject, and the spaces. In this entry, I consider these elements as I reflect upon my observations and interactions with the
digital writing workshops from my two undergraduate student teaching placements.
Hicks (2009) poses the following questions in regards to the students in a digital writing workshop: “Overall, in what ways do you view your students and their uses of technology...Do you see them as capable, naïve, or more advanced than yourself?” (p. 129). In considering these questions, I was reminded of my second student teaching placement, which I completed in a fourth grade classroom at my former elementary school. Attending this school as a PC person, I never had any problems because Macs, while available, were generally the minority. When I returned to this school as a student teacher, however, I noticed that the teacher and student laptops in the classrooms and the desktops in the computer labs were all Macs. With my limited proficiency with using these technological tools, I definitely felt as though my students were more advanced when it came to this use of technology in their digital writing workshop. For instance, there are all sorts of Apple key shortcuts that my students were familiar with and that I still have no clue of. This is an example where I would need to become more proficient with the tools of the digital writing workshop so that I could best support and encourage my students.
Hicks (2009) poses the following questions in regards to the students in a digital writing workshop: “Overall, in what ways do you view your students and their uses of technology...Do you see them as capable, naïve, or more advanced than yourself?” (p. 129). In considering these questions, I was reminded of my second student teaching placement, which I completed in a fourth grade classroom at my former elementary school. Attending this school as a PC person, I never had any problems because Macs, while available, were generally the minority. When I returned to this school as a student teacher, however, I noticed that the teacher and student laptops in the classrooms and the desktops in the computer labs were all Macs. With my limited proficiency with using these technological tools, I definitely felt as though my students were more advanced when it came to this use of technology in their digital writing workshop. For instance, there are all sorts of Apple key shortcuts that my students were familiar with and that I still have no clue of. This is an example where I would need to become more proficient with the tools of the digital writing workshop so that I could best support and encourage my students.
Thinking about the subject of a digital writing workshop, I reflected upon my first student teaching placement, which I completed in a third grade classroom at an Australian elementary school. My students were learning how to attach a Word document to an e-mail in their computer class. After practicing this digital writing skill, they were asked to send an e-mail to their parents with an attached to attend their classroom open house. Hicks (2009) points out that, “The term new literacies encompasses both the technical stuff of new literacies...as well as the ethos stuff, or the general mind-set toward a more open and collaborative process of literacy learning” (p. 16). As I observed my students taking what seemed to be forever to enter into a Word document the open house information that was posted on the wall, and then attach this invitation to an e-mail, I found myself questioning whether this was an authentic/effective use of a digital writing tool or an unnecessary technological “add-on” (Hicks, 2009, p.134).
In
terms of the spaces for a digital writing workshop, one struggle that I had
during this Australian student teaching placement was with limited student access to computers. There were two desktop computers in the classroom, but
only one worked (on a frustrating technology side-note, a SMART Board was installed in the classroom but was never up and running for the entirety of my placement). There was a school computer lab, but my class
only visited this space once a week. The physical layout of this room was not ideal
for student collaboration because the students were either at rows of computers facing the
walls or seated at a central block of computers with their backs
to the rest of the class. One assignment that I had to have the students complete was to use technology to design a restaurant menu. I asked pairs of students to draft
out their menus by hand before publishing them using a
template that I designed for them using Publisher. The limited amount of time spent in the computer lab, and the possibility for
only one pair of students to use the classroom computer at a time definitely made completing this task very difficult.
Hicks'
(2009) critical questions and suggestions combined with
my reflections upon my student teaching experiences help me to paint a picture in my mind of what my
ideal digital writing workshop might look like in my future classroom. I have been enjoying exploring in this course some of Hicks' (2009) suggestions for digital
writing tools, but it is
somewhat overwhelming to think that just as I am becoming familiar
with these tools, there are constantly newer technological options becoming available in this “ever-evolving
digital age” (p. 134). I think that the key for me will be to
maintain an open mindedness for continually trying out new approaches toward the students, subjects, and spaces for digital
writing in my future classroom.
References
Hicks, T. (2009). The digital writing workshop. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
References
Hicks, T. (2009). The digital writing workshop. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
