45 Matching Annotations
  1. Oct 2017
    1. digital natives

    2. In our academic lives, we have books and articles that we regularly return to. The dog-eared pages of these treasured readings contain lines of text etched with questions or reflections. It's difficult to imagine a similar level of engagement with a digital text. There should probably always be a place for print in students' academic lives -- no matter how technologically savvy they become.

      I agree, but know more and more folks may start to argue against this.

    3. What distinguished this atypical group was that they actually read slower when the text was on the computer than when it was in a book.

      I'd be curious to know what the digital text looked like -- did it have media embedded in it? Links? Distractions?

    4. Teachers could make students aware that their ability to comprehend the assignment may be influenced by the medium they choose.

      So, a self-reflection activity might be helpful and then providing choice for students ...

    5. In other words, there's no "one medium fits all" approach.

      Good point. I suspect that even in schools where one-to-one and iPad distribution has happened, print is still often being used as an anchor text format (or so I hope)

    6. But when it came to specific questions, comprehension was significantly better when participants read printed texts.

      I wonder if the marking up of text, and how it was done, matters. Did they know about search functions on a page of digital text? Did they use highlighters and marks on paper? I think there is some visual memory cues that come into play on paper (remembering the general location of an idea or fact, as if the paper were a map and your memory a sort of compass) as opposed to a digital page that has no real anchors. Interesting.

    7. This appears to be related to the disruptive effect that scrolling has on comprehension.

      This is interesting ... I want to know more ... I would think it would be more the media and hyperlinks that would lead to less comprehension, not the act of scrolling through text on the digital page.

    8. Given this trend, teachers, students, parents and policymakers might assume that students' familiarity and preference for technology translates into better learning outcomes. But we've found that's not necessarily true.

      See note about how you started this piece ...

  2. Nov 2016
    1. The ironies abound

      Indeed. Yet. Yet I am more apt to read a book by Troy (and just about anyone, really) away from the technology. I don't think I am Old Skool, like that, but the seamlessness of an ebook connecting to media beyond the book have not yet captivated me as a reader (for the most part). Am I not a digital reader?

    2. he uses the computer as a key actor in the text, but it is all controlled by him.

      This is an interesting observation. "using the computer as a key actor" -- and yet, not losing the human agency behind the technology that creates the piece of "writing" (text,composition) that might transform it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g

    3. "Teach the writer, then the writing, then the technology."
    4. Troy Hicks frequently uses the words "intentional" and "deliberate" to highlight the need for writers to conscientiously think through composing digital texts.

      I think these two words -- intentional and deliberate -- guide how we should be teaching digital writing yet part of me, the one who identifies as a "digital writer," also wonders if "chance" and "experimentation" aren't key elements of how we discover what digital writing is. Is this the tension between the teacher (Students should know this .. and this ...) and the writer (I have something to say but I don't quite know how to say it ... yet ... so let me try this ... and this ...)

    5. Troy Hicks

      I just wanted to point folks to Troy's blog

    6. Hello everyone .. as part of the CLMOOC/DigiWriMo Pop-Up Make Cycle, we thought it might be interesting to dive into this interview with Troy Hicks about the nature of Digital Writing. Troy may join us in the margins, too.

  3. Sep 2016
    1. Hmm .. page notes? I guess I would note that this page is a post about digital writing. Or not. It's a debate playing out in the margins of the post. Karen kindly represented some interesting criticisms of digital writing.

    2. How on earth can we talk about this in the field?

      Like this, perhaps? And maybe we say, writing is just writing. But ten years ago? Five? Writing digitally was very different. Probably the label remains from a time when we (you, me, us) were trying to explain how technology was changing the way we wrote and interacted and read. Maybe it is no longer different. (Although, I don't think we are there yet)

    3. Full disclosure: if it seems this question comes out of left field, my dissertation takes up ideas of  literature as a power mechanism for the social elite, one mechanism that is challenged by cultures of the Web

      Thanks. Interesting dissertation idea.

    4. 4TDW Conference
    5. This post is dangerous.

      I am here, in the margins of your writing, writing alongside with you. We are two. The digital aspect of our world allows you to write one day, send it into the world, and then I read it, and write with you another day. Is that one aspect of Digital Writing?

    6. And the difference between reading with kids and studying literature.

      You take a turn here, from Writing into Literature. I wonder how you perceive the bridge from one to the other. Is Digital Reading a thing?

    7. What are the implications for English teachers of what  Mr. TW, Mr SA, and Ms SE have said? Should they be thinking about “digital writing?”

      Yes, but critically. Their arguments are valid and worth viewing and making sure we have some answers. I don't have all the answers. I keep exploring.

    8. Is the only real “digital writing” writing in computer languages?

      No, I don't think so. Do you suggest that writing code is the only form of pure digital writing?

    9. “What is the desired outcome for ‘digital writing’ and how is it different from other, regular, writing?” she wanted to know. She couldn’t see a difference.

      This is the kernal of the question. And we have asked it before. Can we just drop "digital" and call it "writing"? I prefer the term "composing" because it has larger arcs and possibilities.

    10. Discussions of audience. “When teaching kids to write in school, who are you teaching them to write for?” she demanded.

      She's a smart one. Critical question. How we write, and what we use to compose, depends on whom the audience is, and what the writer/composer is trying to convey.

    11. In other words, written language is more and more only part of the communication scenario.

      Hmm. But this seems to back the point of digital writing ... that writing is no longer just words on the page, but something much larger. Visuals and charts, yes, but also composing with video and with audio and with interactive elements.

    12. He also believes it is much more important to discuss the issue of what he called “sociality,” that is,  of managing one’s identities across the different spaces one inhabits on the web, and thus the varied purposes for which one writes.

      This is different, though. Important, and worth noting, but not the same as thinking of how the use of digital platforms might alter the ways in which we write. What does it mean when we embed links to associative information? How does a video thread extend the written word? Does voice of the writer inserted right into a written text change the notion of how the reader's interaction with the piece? This is more with the inquiry of the question, in my opinion.

    13.  Is there a unified and cohesive set of characteristics that make digital writing identifiably distinct? Can it be defined in a way that works across multiple or varied contexts?

      I bet some researcher has, in fact, done this. It might be along the lines of "Communication across digital mediums in which elements of writing and media (audio, video, etc) intersect with connectivity of content." - That sounds rather gibberish. Maybe he has a point.

    14. And they thought “digital writing” was, basically,  hogwash.

      I love this sentence. It's good to hear from others and to dissect the terminology of the profession.

    15. (4TDW)

      Which makes it a perfect time to wonder, critique and question the whole notion ... (notice I am using the hashtag for Digital Writing Month .. ha!)

  4. Jul 2016
    1. Teachers ought to seek out ways to engage students by finding educative uses for both spaces, especially when those spaces can converge on a single project and then expand to share that experience with a broad audience. If we want authenticity from our students, we need to take authentic risks that allow student voices to prevail.
    2. Watching and listening and reading gave me some insights into my students that I may have missed otherwise. The quieter students wrote more than I expected, and the students who seemed disinterested in class seemed to open up in this creative space. I didn’t have to tell any students to be respectful of ideas or their peers; students governed themselves in a surprisingly egalitarian way.
    3. A second Google Doc contained the story as it emerged without commentary or multiple voices.

      Concurrent docs? Hmmm.

    4. paper storyboard

      I love this storyboard! Funny, right? The paper planning process notes are something I want to dig into almost as much as the collaborative story itself ...

    5. The comments section buzzed with ideas and then some brave souls started brainstorming on the document itself.

      I am curious to know how many waited for the first words to appear before jumping in ....

    6. I used the comments feature of Google Docs to ask questions.

      This is where the margins are important -- sort of like here, I guess, we comment. Having two texts (and now three?) running concurrently is an intriguing thought, made more accessible with digital (but of course, you can do the sam with paper)

  5. Dec 2015
    1. Our team has also found important gaps in access and participation, but the differences are quite nuanced and aren’t about a straightforward “digital divide.”
    2. I feel like in different ways, we have each taken on the challenge of adding some texture to blanket proclamations about “kids these days.”

      I appreciate adding texture and nuance to these conversations, and know I need to do a better job avoiding generalizations.

    3. Everyone can be a maker, but not many are. The vast majority of children’s engagement with media consists of consuming media, with only a small portion devoted to creating content

      Terry, this is what I referenced in a blog post some time ago and which you had some thoughts about the word choices being used, if I remember correctly.

    4. enthusiastically received

      Well, a friend, so not really a neutral reviewer ...

    5. brainjamming

      I like this word: brainjamming. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcBCh2tulkA

    6. we did so, we solicited questions through various social media, and we made sure to address as many of them as we could. And then, we worked through the transcripts, again and again, clarifying our concepts, refining our arguments, shuffling the pieces to insure greater clarity and accessibility

      I appreciate this "explaining how we did this" as a process statement.

  6. Nov 2015
    1. What’s not there can at times be even more helpful than what is. Embrace the silence and let it speak for you.

      Nice way to round out the feels here - and cool to have a space between this and the final quote. Nice work @chris_friend

    1. The moral moment is when the text calls on the reader–on me–just as the patient calls on those who offer care. The here-I-am of the writing is a generous offering of self as witness. The generosity calls for a response of here-I-am from the reader. … The dialogue of author and reader is the beginning of other dialogues; in the multiple sites where medicine is offered and received, where care is given, and where healing occurs.

      Great Arthur Frank quote

    2. When was the last time that you held in your hands a piece of writing that was dear to you because of the hand that touched the paper before you?

      too seldom

    3. digital writing comes to you apparently weightless, placeless and cleaned of time

      beautiful framing