Ch. 4 Supporting Writing with Technology

When I began reading this chapter I was thinking to myself, how can technology really help students with writing? I was thinking that using a computer for writing and having spell check and things help. But I never thought of using an online concept map to organize my thoughts before. It makes sense because I have seen the ones that I have made on paper and a computer based map would be much neater and organized better. In turn would probably mean that I could see what I was thinking more clearly to be able to use what I have recorded. Another tool for writing was teaching students to use power point presentations. My son was making one of these earlier this year. He needed pictures of himself and he created a story based on himself-basically and autobiography. I know that he enjoyed making his presentation because he would come home and tell me about what he was doing. I do agree with the book that sometimes people can get carried away with creating power points and make far too many slides in their presentations. I like how in this class we have been asked not to use this program and explore other presentation options. The site that I found for my meaningful learning website had a place that was for kids to post their own writing on. I like this idea because students will have more pride in their writing. The class we took last semester about teaching us how to teach writing was a lot of work, but we worked so long on a book project that we did that I have tremendous pride in mine that I made. I also agree with the chapter that peer feedback helps make your writing better. Everytime I read my story in class someone would have something that I could add to make my story even better. I also liked the way that we “published” them in a book form. As a future teacher I want to use technology to my advantage when having students write. I want to introduce them to different tools that can help them get their creativity flowing. This is a great way for students to learn about different technology tools and enjoy writing at the same time.