Writing In & For Digital Environments

Why Blog in the Classroom?

Emily Burton

The purpose of my research is to shed light on how blogging can be a useful tool in the classroom. Pulling from my personal experience as well as my research, I have come to the conclusion that blogging and microblogging in the classroom can develop literacy and writing skills, promote a sense of community inside and outside the classroom, and a sense of purpose in the students.

In a practical sense, classroom blogging is closely tied with an improved literacy in students. Web writing is a valuable tool for students that can encourage good writing for the 21st century. While some professors tend to shy away from the integration of the internet and scholarly writing, the public format of a blog forces students to make clean, concise, and timely pieces. Web writing is also “fundamentally incorporated with the reading comprehension process” (Zawilinski, p. 652). In the article “Sister Classrooms,” Amanda Hagood and Carmel Price discuss that in a course blog, students have more time to think about class materials and give thoughtful responses to prompted questions, making it a better thinking environment than a class discussion. Blogging enables students to absorb class work on their own time, allowing them to truly engross themselves in the subject at hand (Hagood & Price, para. 5). The time that students have to write on their blog gives them space to enhance their writing and critical thinking abilities for the digital medium.

However, keeping a blog does much more than develop students’ reading and writing abilities. Class blogs break the boundaries that separate in-school literacies, such as classroom skills, and out-of-school literacies that require exposure to the world outside of the classroom. From a class blog project, students are given a sense of purpose and fulfillment as they write for an audience beyond just their professors. When asked, “Why should educators take the time to blog?” Ms. Kreul, a teacher at Richards School in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, replied, “I think the biggest advantage to blogs is that they provide an authentic audience for student writing and work in general…with a blog, student work can be read by classmates, parents, extended family members…anyone around the world who locates the class blog” (Zawilinski, p. 652). The fact that their writing is capable of affecting a larger audience lets students have ability to fulfill a purpose beyond just their letter grade.

The sense of community in the classroom is one of the most remarkable outcomes of a class blog or microblog project. Class blogs give students an opportunity to read their peers’ thoughts concerning material they post and bounce ideas off one another instead of having the professor be their only audience. “Collectively, students work to create meaning and thereby are involved more actively in the learning process” (Pearson, p. 209). Because the blog posts are public and because students are responding to each other’s ideas online, the role of the professor is more holistic. He or she is a facilitator and fellow participator in the students’ conversation, not just the correcting force who stamps grades on their work. One teacher says of her role in a class blog project, “I don’t find myself pulling my hair out over the careless mistakes they make in formal papers” (Lampinen, para. 5).

In the article “Tweet Me a Story,” Leigh Wright assigns multiple microblogging assignments for her class. Microblogging is defined as “blogging done with severe space or size constraints” (Merriam-Webster). The class would live-tweet during events such as basketball games and lectures from guest speakers. Using a common hashtag allowed the class to form their own community and work toward a common goal. The social aspect of blogging keeps students interested and creates a virtual community in which for them to interact. The fact that students are encouraged to bring their own voice and viewpoint to their schoolwork is not only an exciting change of pace, but also improves the class’s social dynamic. “Benefits extend beyond the classroom,” says high school teacher Michelle Lampinem, “introverted students tend to share more online than they do in person; blogging is an invaluable way for me to get to know them better as people and students.” The authors of “Sister Classrooms” agree that a class blog bolsters the social structures that are naturally a part of learning in a classroom setting (Hagood & Price, para. 4).

I know from personal experience that the online community created by a blog has the potential to incredible impact. In December of 2011, my younger brother Charlie was diagnosed with Ewings Sarcoma. This is a rare form of childhood bone cancer, and the doctors had discovered a tumor in Charlie’s right arm. The news was devastating. In the weeks following the diagnosis, I felt lonely and scared, not knowing what to do with myself. I came home from school many days to an empty house while my parents and Charlie were at Children’s Hospital for chemo treatments, and found myself desperately searching for a way to be a part of his journey although I had a jam-packed Junior year to deal with on the side. That’s when I discovered Caring Bridge. Caring Bridge is a website that allows people to set up a free blog for a loved one who is struggling with illness to keep friends and family updated as the patient goes through treatment, and also to receive words of support when the gestures are needed the most (Ojeda-Zapata para. 2). Each blog includes a photo gallery, a guestbook, and an option to make a tribute donation to Caring Bridge in honor of the patient. I delightfully seized the opportunity and became the author of Charlie’s Caring Bridge website.

(http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/charlieburton2)

We shared the site’s link to close friends and family after I made my first post.

Dec 29, 2011:

Hi Everyone,

Charlie’s first day of chemo went well. We expect to have him home later tonight or tomorrow, yay! He is currently on three different types of chemo. One takes only one minute to administer and another only 15 minutes. One is red and makes his tears and sweat red! We now have a better understanding on how the future looks for him at this point. His current schedule will be 2 days of chemo followed by 12 days off, then 5 days of chemo followed by 9 days off. That will continue for 12 weeks. At that time, he will have surgery on his arm to remove the infected bone. After recovery from surgery, he will go back to the chemo schedule for another several months or so. Charlie hopes to go to school next week for at least a few hours depending on how he is feeling. I have really enjoyed reading all the postings in Charlie’s guestbook. Your kind words mean so much! Thank you for all the support!

–        Emily

As Charlie’s site gained more and more of a following, I began to let my guard down and let the blog become a not only a window into my brother’s journey, but a window into my personal journey as a sibling of a cancer patient. I used multi-modal features such as the photo album platform to visually document Charlie’s story. The blog became not only a useful tool for my family and friends who cared about Charlie’s health, but also a necessary outlet in which I could find clarity in the scary and often confusing new chapter of my life.

Dec 31, 2011:

Hi Everybody,

This is Charlie’s second day at home after the chemo. While we are all happy to be out of the hospital, things have been a bit challenging as Charlie adjusts to his chemo drugs. He is tired, nauseous, and can’t eat much. The usual smells of home (candles, Christmas tree, food) make him nauseated. We know that Charlie has been having a little bit of a tough time, but he continues to be brave and face these new challenges with a good attitude. While my parents wouldn’t normally encourage it, playing Call of Duty on the Xbox with his friends (we call this activity “going killing” in our house) is a good distraction for him. It will be a struggle having to adjust to all of Charlie’s new medical needs at home. My parents have to administer his IV antibiotic three times a day. This is given through his central line and takes an hour and a half to run its course. After the hour and a half, the line then needs to be flushed. A visiting nurse came yesterday to teach my parents how to do all this. Needless to say, it will keep them busy. I often come down to the basement in the morning to talk to Charlie about life. This morning, he was telling me about some boys he met in the cancer wing at Children’s who he hopes to befriend. I love how Charlie continues to make the best out of his situation. Despite the difficulties, we are fortunate and happy that we are able to celebrate New Year’s at home and not in the hospital as we originally thought. We know that 2012 will be a year of healing for Charlie, and for that, we celebrate. Thank you for continuing to surround our family with love! Have a very happy New Year!

-Emily

The link to the blog eventually got passed along the grapevine to friends of friends across the country, and even to my Spanish exchange student’s family and friends all the way in Madrid. My little blog project for Charlie had suddenly given my family and I an invaluable support system that practically spanned the globe. From the overwhelming response to my Caring Bridge site, I felt the same sense of accomplishment that students get from their class blogs. Writing for the public eye helped me become a confident author, which is something so special and necessary for college-aged writers who are trapped in the mindset of “will my professor think this is good enough?” After the 36 weeks of chemotherapy and the major surgery to remove Charlie’s cancer site were through, the Caring Bridge garnered just shy of 10,000 total hits, 8 tribute donations, and countless entries in the guestbook. I had no idea that by making a blog I could find confidence in my own life and in my writing, lift up my loved ones, and rally a wider audience around my brother’s cause. My journey with blogging ties together the writing skill, sense of community, and personal accomplishment that students similarly experience while blogging in the classroom.

In a small liberal arts college like Dickinson, I firmly believe that blog projects can be both a useful tool for writing but also a perfect way to get students involved in a community cause. I envision a community service club sponsoring a blog project like the Caring Bridge, where each student is assigned to make a blog for a child who suffers from disease or disability. The students can go out to their homes and spend valuable bonding time with the child, then post on the blog after each meeting. The students would be encouraged to share their blog with their friends so they can generate a community dedicated to their specific child. This blog project can make a suffering young one feel extremely special, and help others support the child and his or her family. A blog post doesn’t have to take up a lot of time in a busy college schedule, yet it can create a powerful impact.

Highlights from Charlie’s Caring Bridge Photo Album:

As I sit here today and write this essay about the importance of digital writing, it seems almost silly to even question. I’m writing on a laptop, while I simultaneously research sources online only to post it online to our class blog at the finish. College students of today, like myself, rely on digital devices for our news, homework, entertainment and communication. It can be overwhelming to think of how reliant we are on screens, but this essay is not a rant on technology. This is a celebration and study on how the integration of technology into classrooms is proven to make connections and engage students in a new way. Before we get ahead of ourselves to a world of digital takeover, let’s look at the evidence that supports pragmatic uses of social media and digital means in the classroom.

The textbook, Web Writing: Why and How for Liberal Arts Teaching and Learning, is the first of its kind to explore this field. The chapters vary in scope and for the purposes of this essay; I have studied chapters “Tweet Me a Story” and “Sister Classrooms: Blogging across Disciplines and Campuses.” “Tweet Me a Story,” describes how the micro-blogging platform of Twitter can be useful in an academic setting. “Sister Classrooms” defines how blogging can be best integrated into classrooms and how this provides a new sphere of class engagement. I have found other peer-reviewed sources that enhance and compliment these chapters. A Swedish teacher noted in his study of social media as a teaching tool that, the “multimodality in social media also brings the possibility of experiencing variation in the learning situation in the school and at home, both in terms of the way you can produce the content and in the way you communicate it” (Akerlund, 4). There is a line between using social media at home and school students must be taught how to use social media in an educational context (Abe and Jordan, 18). This essay will inquire on how to define that line, especially related to the platforms of blogging and Twitter.

First, let’s delve into the world of Twitter. Why is Twitter a helpful learning tool? The textbook I reference theorizes that engaging in Twitter teaches students a new way of voicing their ideas. Because each tweet is limited to 140 characters, it requires thoughtful, short and sweet writing. “You have to focus on the key point for a good tweet,” notes Leigh Wright, the author of “Tweet Me a Story” (Wright, 9).  While long prose and theses are still relevant in academia, tweets are also powerful tools of teaching how to write well. Wright found many successful ways to integrate Twitter into her pedagogy. She instructed her students to set up a Twitter account solely for class purposes and monitored the class’s tweets via hashtags specific to the class. She found that using Twitter was an influential way to engage students in ways she hadn’t before. The article “Integrating Social Media into the Classroom Curriculum” supports her findings. Using social media platforms provides a way for educators to speak to students in a way they are likely to be reached and the majority of student perceptions regarding this integration is positive (17). Now, instead of checking Twitter as a means to escape homework assignments, students utilize it as a part of their learning. This speaks to students on a personal level and shows us that teachers are committed to adapt to changing times. According to Paige and Jordan, we millennials are “tech savvy, have short attention spans, and multitask on everything” (17). Tweeting in the classroom perfectly speaks our language.

Social media in the classroom excites students and lights a spark of creativity in us. Showing blogs, twitter feeds, and videos can really spice up and elevate a lecture to stir our attention. Wright assigned her to students to live-tweet a school basketball game and found that they took the assignment in all different directions. Some focused on the game itself; the score, the key players etc., while others ended up tweeting about the fashion of the students in attendance. The unexpected freedom of the assignment created a colorful class twitter feed (Wright, 18). Personally speaking, I know that many students feel restrained by academic essays: a Twitter handle is one way to quell this restraint. Wright has developed other Twitter assignments and used it as a cornerstone of her teaching methods. Wright’s examples show that Twitter is a new tool to encourage peer feedback and interaction, like how she asked her scriptwriting class to write dialogue back and forth on Twitter (38). This not only fosters community in the classroom, but also helps student think on their feet, an important skill in today’s instantaneous society.

Lastly, Twitter helps writers to hone in their craft. Because of the limited characters, you have to develop a unique style and tone. Twitter is a fresh way to find one’s voice as a writer. One could develop a sassier tone, a la the Twitter of Lena Dunham, or a journalistic tone like that of Anderson Cooper.

Twitter is a way to keep the teaching of writing fresh and relevant to the tools of society. “By using tools such as Twitter and Storify, we can embrace the twist of technology by giving students the tools to develop their voice, tone, and unique writing style” (Wright,44). Twitter is a new way to teach writing through writing.

Next, let’s turn to the world of blogging. “Blogging across Sister Classrooms” describes a unique approach to utilizing the blogosphere in college classes. First, it considers why blogs are powerful teaching tools. Hagood and Price argue that asking a student to blog is a way that “invites students to learn through writing” (Hagood & Price, 3). When a student writes a blog, they feel less pressure to be entirely perfect. The authors note that “the relative freedom of a blog post may also encourage students to take intellectual risks that feel less possible in the high-stakes, rigorously evaluated context of a formal paper” (5).  Blogs are spaces where students develop their digital writing style and articulate ideas. I believe this happens more fluidly on a blog because blogging is fun. We students associate blogs with leisurely reading and it therefore produces a different type of writing than we would normally produce in an academic setting. Blogs are a format where students can bring in other sources like websites and tweets and comment directly on them. Additionally, asking a student to blog gives them more time to formulate a response to something than in during a class discussion (5).

Blogs are also a new form of collaboration. Class blogs are collaborative documents. In our class, I have really benefitted from the feedback and comments I receive from my peers. Some courses come and go without ever engaging peers to give feedback on others’ work, but a class blog ensures that will never occur. A recent study found that using blogs in a classroom setting “allows students to gain a sense of empowerment and personal identity while learning how to interact with other’s online” (Courts, Bari, and Tucker, 124). The practice of blogging resonates with today’s students because it is instantaneous, like much of social media. Blogs create a space for students to give and receive peer feedback and affirmation of ideas immediately.

Now, let’s back this up with some real-world examples. Our class is fortunate to be one of the first on our campus to solely focus on digital writing and the integration of the digital world into our classroom. Personally, I have some amateur experience with tweeting and blogging for an audience other than myself. Over the summer, I worked as a student tour guide and was asked to also tweet for the Dickinson admissions office to offer a behind the scenes look at my life here. I have had a personal Twitter account for a few years, which as of late is overrun by an obscene amount of Parks and Rec references.

Creating my Dickinson “professional” (ha) twitter account provided some challenges at first. My tweets read as boring to me. I haven’t yet found the balance between informative and witty.

The Chronicle of Higher Education created a list of Ten Twitter Commandments that all tweeters should abide by. It’s a good list that all should read, especially those tweeting in an academic setting. It provides advice like “it’s okay to crack jokes” and “don’t just make statements, ask questions too.” These are good things to keep in mind as I continue to strive to find my Twitter voice.

Although this hasn’t quite taken shape on my Twitter account, it has helped me be more critical and conscience of the web content I read. Every morning I check Instagram, Facebook and Twitter before I even get out of bed. However, after studying these platforms, I have found myself a little bored by what I’m reading. This class has opened my eyes to not only what I want to sound like on the web, but honed in what I like to read online as well. Creating a distinct online voice can take time; it’s like a fine wine. Takes practice and time to refine.

Like most students at Dickinson, I have the opportunity to go abroad as a student here. I have just recently been accepted to study in Yaoundé, Cameroon for five months. Now I have never been to Africa (yet), but I have heard from friends who also studied there, that the best way to keep in touch with friends and family is through a blog. I will have to severe my ties with my iPhone and morning ritual because chances are my host family’s home will not have Internet. I see this as a golden opportunity. Instead of constant updates, I will have the chance to carefully reflect on my experience and craft thoughtful blog posts. I plan on taking as many pictures as possible and include those on my blog. This class has taught me the power of editing of posts, previewing how they look on a page and helped me develop a more distinct and consistent voice. I look forward to see how that carries over into my Cameroon blog and the feedback I will get from my family and friends. Who knows, maybe friends from this class will read it as well (right, guys?). This blog will not only be a fantastic way to keep in touch with back home but is also a way for me to synthesize and look back on my time there. Blogs take diaries to a whole new level. I can’t predict the future of the Internet but I am assuming that blogs will be longevous. These writings will be a way for me to look back on my time abroad for years to come.

Much like going abroad, Dickinson students have a myriad of opportunities at our fingertips. No student here can be pigeonholed as one way or another. We can be farmers, debaters, athletes, Fulbright scholars, actors and the list goes on. Students with interests as vast as those I’ve met at Dickinson go on to have extremely diverse careers. In this day and age, having experience with digital writing will get us ahead in the job market. It’s imperative that we have this skillset as we go out into the “real world.” We have to know how to tweet, how to blog, how to gain recognition and “likes” on Facebook accounts. These know-hows are expected of our generation. Like it or not, it makes absolute sense that these platforms are now integrated directly into the classroom and woven in with our research of books and writing of papers. After researching this topic and seen how successful it can be to teach writing and communication firsthand, it seems crazy to me that there aren’t more classes at Dickinson that focus on digital writing. I hope in the future to take part of, and to see, a stronger focus on these skills in the liberal arts world. It is the way of the future.

Dear Reader,

Click on the tweets to expand read. Not sure why they showed up so small.

Works Cited:

Abe, Paige, and Nickolas A. Jordan. “Integrating Social Media into the Classroom Curriculum.” About Campus 18.1 (2013): 16-20. ERIC. Web. 30 Sept. 2013.

Akerlund, Dan. “Social Media In the Classrom.” . Karlstads universitet, n.d. Web. 13 Oct 2013. <http://klassbloggarna.se/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Åkerlund-Dan-2011-Social-media-in-the-classroom-Tönsberg.pdf>.

Courts, Bari, and Jan Tucker. “Using Technology To Create A Dynamic Classroom Experience.” Journal Of College Teaching & Learning 9.2 (2012): 121-127. Education Research Complete. Web. 30 Sept. 2013.

Gulliver, Katrina. “10 Commandments of Twitter for Academics.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 09 May 2012. Web. 13 Oct 2013. <http://chronicle.com/article/10-Commandments-of-Twitter-for/131813/>.

Hagood, Amanda, and Carmel Price. “Sister Classrooms: Blogging Across Disciplines and Campuses.” Web Writing: Why and How for Liberal Arts Teaching and Learning. Michigan Publishing, 15 Sep 2013. Web. 13 Oct 2013. <http://webwriting.trincoll.edu/communities/hagood-price-2013/>.

Wright, Leigh. “Tweet Me a Story .” Web Writing: Why and How for Liberal Arts Teaching and Learning. Michigan Publishing, 15 Sepember 2013. Web. 13 Oct 2013. <http://webwriting.trincoll.edu/engagement/wright-2013/>.

Navigating the 21^st Century: An Exploration of Self and Audience

            As we have learned from class in the past few weeks, we must pay attention to numerous details when writing online. To look further into these details and concepts I read two chapters from Web Writing: Why & How for Liberal Arts Teaching & Learning and analyzed the type of writing styles they used as students and how the keywords are connected to more web writing with larger populations. The two chapters I read were titled: “Tweet Me a Story” and “Getting Uncomfortable: Identity Exploration in a Multi-class Blog”. Both chapters discuss the importance of finding your identity on the web and connecting to audience with that particular identity. A liberal arts education allows students to explore these identities in daily life and portray them online to attract specific readers and share their thoughts and ideas to audiences of all different types.

“Tweet Me a Story” in Web Writing was especially interesting because it took a somewhat new concept in the web writing world, Twitter, and explained how students used it for a class project. When students are asked to write blog posts, usually a length is required or students write more than a few short sentences. One interesting point I got from the article was that although tweeting is a microblogging experience and many people associate it with short remarks, which are often silly facts, this resource for online writing is much like writing a paper or a blog. When tweeting about an event, students met with a professor about the lead tweet to catch readers’ attention; this is similar to a title or the first line of a paper that sparks interest. Then, the following tweets vary in information much like paragraphs.

At first people may think that Twitter is easy and thoughtless, but in reality one must take into consideration many things when tweeting to a public audience. That being said, audience is key; many followers can feel a connection to someone who is tweeting about topics they are interested in, and present a tone that they enjoy and think reflects themselves. This is not to say that someone should tweet to please people with a tone that is not their one, but they should come across with a tone that has a purpose. If you want to tweet like a comedian and are looking for followers who enjoy humor, a tone without humor or sarcasm may be one to steer clear of. Twitter also allows you to take a tone that you normally would not and present yourself with a different identity if you wish to do so. The number of followers may provide some information to the Tweeter about the impact that their tweets have on people, and what type of people are attracted to their style of writing taking into consideration both content and tone. Tweets that attract a specific group of followers are what Twitter bases success off of; if you tweet and have 0 followers, you fail to create conversation and connect with readers using an agreeable tone.

“An Exploration of Social Identity” written by Herdagdelen, Zuo, Gard-Murray, Bar-Yam is an article that focuses on the characteristics of spontaneous social groups that are formed through Twitter based on self-identification, social priorities and a collective social response. Herdagdelen et al. states that, “The study of social media can reveal how individual actions combine to become the collective dynamics of society. Characterizing the groups that form spontaneously may reveal both how individuals self-identify and how they will act together.” In society today, we have so many options of the kinds of people we want to connect with that are interested in the same topics as us. Students may connect with students in Spain doing a similar project as them, or tweet about a current sports game with someone across the country. Herdagdelen et al. observed how people on twitter flock to a particular news article tweeted about whether it was local, global, or about the US. In the past, before technology, people grouped themselves based on geographic location and interest. People found their identities through social interactions with people around them, but that is not the case anymore. Twitter allows you to connect to almost anyone in the world with an account and,  “research has confirmed that twitter users with similar interests tend to connect to each other”.

As talked about in “Tweet Me a Story”, the content and tone is important to the audience reading what you are writing. Connections and conversation are not just made through small personal talk anymore, but through the Internet and blogging. A good blog post, or tweet, invites readers in with something that is on their comfort level of reading difficulty, is able to create conversation, and includes media to engage readers. An Exploration of Social Identity saw that this was happening simply by looking at one newspaper source being tweeted by many users. Followers felt a connection with the type of article tweeted about, the area it covered, and most likely because they felt they could contribute to a conversation.

The chapter “Getting Uncomfortable: Identity Exploration in a Multi-class Blog” in the Web Writing book addressed the gap that is present between students of different backgrounds in the classroom and how they can tackle this feeling (Wright, 2013). The chapter talks about colorblindness today and how student’s reactions to race in the classroom. Through writing blogs and commenting on others, students developed their own identity and perspective on issues relating to race and other topics. Writing on the web allows for a continuous exploration of identity that engages an audience to respond and create discussion. Someone responding to a blog does not need to have identical interests as the person writing it; controversial questioning and conversation allows both the reader and responder to express their identity even more through taking a side on their particular opinion.

Students in this classroom took part in the “Identity Exploration Assignment” where they wrote on the web and engaged with texts about identity development and reflecting on their own identity position and membership to a particular group. Students were encouraged to respond and were especially encouraged to “write to learn” rather than “learning to write” (Wright, 2013). The teachers hoped that through this assignment students would, “become aware of their own identity development, and [to] understand that developmental growth can be accomplished by feeling of anger guilty, and discomfort.” (Wright, 2013) Activities including web writing help create conversation and to encourage students to write in a public space so that they know that their work is not only public, but also serious. When it is known that an audience is present and listening, work seems more serious and the author knows they must come across clearly with a point to their writing.

“An Exploration of the Relationships Between Blogging Practices, Blogging Motives and Identity Exploration” by Williamson and Knowles review a very interesting topic of identity exploration through blogging and blogging motives of emerging adults with a hypothesis that, “bloggers in the emerging adulthood stage of life would be more likely to have self-focused motives and engage in identity exploration than bloggers who had reached adulthood. Additional research has stated that, “The rapid emergence and widespread use of the Internet has prompted numerous studies investigating topics such as the effect of the Internet on individual well-being, online relationship formation, and the exploration or creation of the self identity online” (Williamson & Knowles, 2007). The authors propose that the Internet plays a significant role in an emerging adult’s life, and such an online environment can push an emerging adult into adulthood through identity exploration and then can be seen my an audience. Through tasks of writing about self-identity and well-being, people everywhere are encouraged to explore their thoughts and feelings by consistently posting on blogs. Two categories were identified for social interaction on the web: self-concerns and self-motivations (Williamson & Knowles, 2007).

Bloggers in this particular study wrote about a variety of topics as seen in Figure 1. The authors comment that, “Taken together with the blogging topic findings, this implied that while blogs have a personal focus, limits are imposed on the personal information revealed” (Williamson & Knowles, 2007). In the end, research showed that although many people did not find blogging to help with self-identity exploration, many (95%) felt that a sense of self was represented through their blogs (Williamson & Knowles, 2007). With results like this many people may ask, “what’s the difference between a sense of self and self-identity?” I feel that self-identity takes more than blog writing, and the students who participated in the Identity Project in Web Writing did exercises in self-exploration and observing others identity. I think that reflecting just on your own identity creates a sense of self, but to admit to completing an adventure of self-identity formation is a large achievement to say you have completed. A blog is a continuous project; it does not have a one date where it is complete and the author can no longer add more. Like a blog, identity is continuous as well. As bloggers we choose what is published, what we talk about, and about the information revealed through our posts which all reflect some part of our identity.

Web writing is a great place to start to learn about yourself, but it can not end there. Why are blogs a continuous project? The answer is simply because we are on a constant journey to find ourselves. Web writing can be an immediate source of self-identification for some, but just a notification of self in writing topics for others. As seen in Figure 1, there are many topics that someone can write about. If we were to write in depth about each of these on a blog we may only begin our journey of self-identity. At a college with a Liberal Arts education, I have found myself writing for a variety of classes on different topics. As I get ready to graduate in May I can not say that I have found myself, but by writing and learning about a plethora of topics rather than focusing on one I have seen that we can not be one dimensional and find our identities, we must take part in multi-dimensional learning and interacting to form a sense of self.

“Identity in Twitter’s Hashtag Culture: A Sport-Media-consumption Case Study” is an article that talks about Twitter as a medium that allows sport consumers to connect in instant conversation and interact over the course of sporting events (Smith and Smith, 2012). People follow sports teams and take part in conversation during games over devices such as Twitter, and through that fans portray a sense of identity based on the team they are rooting for and representing. The author suggests that Twitter helps create new relationships and conversation between fans that would not otherwise be possible (Smith & Smith, 2012). Many people feel that when they identify with a sports team that it is reflective of their character and they become personally invested in “their” team. Twitter may be like wearing a team jersey, you support and root for your team for others to see and make it known to your audience who you cheer for. Writing online during sports events not only helps with identity, but instead of an audience cheering with you at a game, an audience online can state opinions and facts about the current sporting event that in turn creates conversation, whether someone agrees or not. Conversation such as this may create opposing sides to interact more than usual and reflect more about themselves by stating strong personal opinions against a contrasting opinion.

Classes about digital writing can offer an endless amount of benefits to students participating in the new phenomenon. Positive benefits could be due to the continuous exploration of identity and non-stop writing possibilities of the Internet; it encourages conversation, self-exploration, web surfing, idea formation, and opinion configuration, to name a few. As stated before hand, self-identity and exploration used to be formed through geographical set groups so ideas and conversation were limited to what was going on in a particular area. Now the web creates many conversation opportunities, encouraging people of all ages to share thoughts, opinions, and feelings.

President Roseman stated in her inauguration speech, “Today, our mission is to prepare young people so they can successfully navigate the mid-21st century” showing the importance that students keep up to date with writing in the 21^st century.  Web writing has become more popular recently through social networking, microblogging, and blogging. Our class benefits from discussing these types of contributions to web writing, but also by participating in them. A conversation is happening everywhere online, and to be informed and part of these conversations we must speak our voices. If we want to engage the world we have to start with ourselves through the self-identity exploration and creating conversation with others. By participating in various events, traveling, and talking to people unlike ourselves we get a sense of who we are through others. One may never start the process of self-exploration if they do not talk to others. If we want to contact the world in the most effective and influential way at the moment we must use the Internet.

At Dickinson I have taken a wide variety of classes, majored in Psychology, been a member and captain of the swim team, have participated in multi cultural events both abroad and in Carlisle, and have been a leader in clubs. A liberal arts education is more than just taking a few classes outside of your major, but it is engaging the world and campus. It is about writing about each topic if Figure 1 rather than just exploring one. Engaging the world may mean all of these things, but what we must address is that the world is our audience and through our own exploration we need an audience that too is ready to engage the world and respond positively or negatively to our opinions and thoughts. Web writing is the next big step to engaging the world because of convenience and the potential it has to reach more than our demographic area. As students in the 21^st century we must take part in this conversation and use such a broad audience to help continue our exploration of self.

Sources

Herdagdelen, A., Zuo, W., Gard-Murray, A., Bar-Yam. Y., (2012). An Exploration of Social Identity: The Geography and Politics of News-Sharing Communities in Twitter.

Smith, L., & Smith, K. D. (2012). Identity in Twitter’s Hashtag Culture: A Sport-Media-Consumption Case Study. International Journal of Sport Communication, 5(4), 539-557.

Moore, T. (2013, Sept 28). Historic Inauguration. Retrieved from: Dickinson.edu/about/28thpresident/Inauguration.

Williamson, D., & Knowles, A. (2007). An exploration of the relationships between blogging practices, blogging motives and identity exploration. InRecord of the Communications Policy & Research Forum 2007 Retrieved from http://www.networkinsight.org/verve/_resources/CPRF07record.pdf

Wright, Leigh. “Getting Uncomfortable: Identity Exploration in a Multi-class Blog.” Web Writing. Web Writing, 15 Sep 2013. Web. 13 Oct 2013. <http://webwriting.trincoll.edu/engagement/wright-2013/>.

Wright, Leigh. “Tweet Me A Story.” Web Writing. Web Writing, 15 Sep 2013. Web. 13 Oct 2013. <http://webwriting.trincoll.edu/engagement/wright-2013/>.

Today, professors are integrating web writing into college curriculums as a means of increasing student engagement within the classroom. Twitter, and other online sources like Google Docs, Wiki’s, and blogs are some of major tools professors are using to introduce web writing into their college classrooms. Professors who have seen success with these tools have praised them for their accessibility, their ability to create collaboration, and for their ability to push students to write concisely. Others have however criticized social networks and online tools arguing that they distract students, are too informal, and that they create issues surrounding student privacy. While it is important to understand both sides of this debated topic, I ultimately believe that web writing not only enhances student engagement but also enhances student learning as a whole.

One of the most common tools I have found to be used within the classroom is Twitter, a micro blogging service that has attracted more than 140 million users (Dhir 673). These users include: musicians, reality television stars, actors, athletes, huge corporations, restaurants, newspapers, young children, and adults. All of whom use this service for a variety of different purposes. This platform is often used by people who want to write informally about their day, tweeting thoughts to friends such as:

News sources like The New York Times use it to give readers quick updates and links to their articles:

Celebrities use it to reach out to their fans:

Essentially, Twitter is used by a wide variety of people, and for an even wider variety of reasons, and now, Twitter is being successfully integrated into classrooms as a tool to increase student engagement, and to teach students to write concisely.

Paige Abe and Nickolas A. Jordan authors of “Integrating Social Media into the Classroom” claim that social media can provide professors with a means of speaking to students in a way they are likely to be reached (Abe 17). In 2007 the Higher Education Institute found that 94% of first year college students spent time on social networking sites during an average week (Abe 16). Because of the time that students spend on social media, administrators and other members of college faculty are beginning to argue that these sites may prove to be useful tools to integrate into college curriculums (Abe 16).

But how exactly is twitter being used in classrooms in an academic way? A growing number of college professors are utilizing twitter to keep students engaged in large lecture halls (Kinzie). In large classes it can be difficult to give each student individual attention, but online comments or tweets result in students supporting and challenging one another (Kinzie).  Students are, for example, asked to respond to different aspects of a lecture during class in order to foster an online dialogue among fellow students and to keep students engaged with the lecture (Kinzie). Leigh Wright, a professor and author of “Tweet Me A Story” demonstrates one way in which this “live tweeting” strategy can be used effectively to educate students. In her online article “Tweet Me A Story” she explains an exercise she has students complete that requires them to go on a scavenger hunt around their college campus (Wright). During this scavenger hunt students are challenged to ask people questions and to tweet about their experience while doing so. Wright claims that this exercise allows her to combine learning how to use online technology while also emphasizing the importance of interpersonal communication skills (Wright). In this way Twitter can be used as a tool to keep students on their toes during class projects and it ensure that all students remain active and engaged during lectures, or class activities.

Other professors argue that Twitter allows for a shift away from professor’s simply lecturing students to a much more collaborative learning environment (Kinzie). Twitter and other web writing tools allow discussions to continue after class is over, and it gives students an opportunity to share research with one another, pose questions, and gather more information outside the classroom (Kinzie). Students who might not usually share their opinions in class are given an outlet to communicate with not only their professors, but with classmates they may not have gotten a chance to share ideas with inside the classroom. Amandeep Dhir author of “Tweeters on Campus: Twitter a Learning Tool in Classroom?” supports this claim as she writes that micro blogging sites allow for continuous and transparent communication among teachers and students (Dhir 673). Twitter allows students to get immediate feedback from professors, and it enables professors who teach large classes to quickly and easily respond to students they may not usually have time to give individual attention in class (Dhir 679). Twitter essentially has the ability to connect individuals within the classroom and it provides classrooms with the unique opportunity to bridge the gap between students and professors, allowing professors to engage with students efficiently and easily.

Professor Michael O’Donnel, author of “Science Writing, Wikis, and Collaborative Learning” also emphasizes the benefits of collaborative learning and the ways in which the web can allow for professors to create this kind of democratic learning environment. In O’Donnel’s article he writes about collaborative learning in relation to science education. O’Donnel criticizes the current teaching styles used by most science professors, arguing that it forces students to begin projects in class through collaboration and then finish them independently outside of class. O’Donnel believes that this causes students to believe that the whole purpose of lab reports is to summarize their experiment, report the “right answer”, and receive a grade. O’Donnel emphasizes that students need to instead understand that lab reports and science writing are collaborative processes that are intended to help students engage with the material they are learning (O’Donnel). Science writing is not simply about repeating answers and spitting back information; it is about understanding the whole scientific process, and working with peers. To support this claim O’Donnel states that: “Collaborative writing provides opportunities for peer instruction that promote critical thinking, enhance decision-making skills, and deepen understanding of the scientific concepts being studied” (O’Donnel).

While, Wright used Twitter to create collaborative learning in her classroom, O’Donnel advocates for the use of Google Docs and Wiki’s to successfully integrate this learning style. Wiki’s for example allow multiple people to work together on a document and they are able to store every version of an edited document. This allows instructors to compare document versions and evaluate how each student is contributing to a given assignment. It additionally allows students that have a solid understanding of the assignment to aid less successful students in their writing and understanding of concepts (O’Donnel). In fact, O’Donnel was able to report that students found that this collaborative learning style helped students to understand concepts presented, improve their scientific writing, thinking about their strengths and weaknesses in writing, and increase their confidence in their ability to write scientifically (O’Donnel).

Beyond the collaborative aspects of web writing, professors are also seeing other practical benefits of utilizing social media in the classroom, such as enabling students who are physically, financially, or geographically unable to travel to a classroom to still participate in academic discussions (Abe 18). Professors can hold lectures when they’re out of town, and students can participate in class discussions even when they can’t physically appear in class. Web writing has the unique ability to connect people who in previous decades would not have been able to communicate, or share their ideas in an academic setting.

Furthermore, twitter is also being used as a learning tool for graduate students at Johns Hopkins University; with a restriction of 140 characters writing students are being asked to use this platform to learn to write concisely. One professors states that the, “limited number of characters allowed is a useful way to remember to choose words carefully, cut clutter and realize how much can be said in a small space, like a haiku” (Kinzie). Wright in “Tweet Me A Story” explains that when students complain about the 140 character restriction she tells them: “That’s exactly why I want you to use it…you have to focus on the key point for a good tweet” (Wright). Twitter’s character restriction is thus able to force writers to select their words very carefully and reflect on exactly what kind of argument they want to make. Articles such as Wrights demonstrate that in an increasingly digital world, writing concisely is an invaluable skill that provides students with the ability to clearly, and effectively convey messages to people who are bombarded with information.

There are however still many people that are critical of the use of Twitter and other social media platforms in the classroom, and not all professors are eager to integrate it into their curriculums. A professor of Media Studies and Law at University of Virginia for examples states that, “Twitter is really about instantaneous notification. Class is supposed to be about deliberation and depth….It’s beyond me to imagine a valuable use for it in the classroom” (Kinzie). Others are concerned about privacy arguing that students should be able to express their ideas without a public record of it being displayed online (Kinzie). Some professors also worry that the abbreviations people use to meet the word count restriction of tweets will negatively affect students’ ability to spell and punctuate properly (Kinzie).

Educators have additionally reported that the use of Twitter and other social media websites has made them feel as if they were invading the territory of the younger generation and replacing real relationships with electronic ones (Abe 19). This concern has led educators to worry that social media could lead to misinterpretation of content because students and professors miss out on the nonverbal aspect of communication such as facial expressions, and body language when they communicate solely through online mediums (Abe 19).

Professors also fear that having access to different social media websites during class may over stimulate students (Abe 17). The presence of social media and online resources in classrooms create the risk of student disengagement and many professors believe it risks drawing student’s attention away from lecture content (Abe 17).

While there are many educators that still have reservations about the use of social media, and other online resources in academic settings, the incorporation of digital writing into college classroom can only enhance student learning. We are living in an increasingly digital world, and students need to have an understanding of digital environments if they wish to succeed in the workplace after graduation. As stated in, Keeping the Promise of the 21st Century: Bringing Classroom Teaching into the Digital Age, conducting research, evaluating sources of information, displaying data, solving problems, working collaboratively on written and oral presentations, web writing, and understanding social media–are the new “basic skills” of the 21st century”.  If students do not learn skills such as how to use digital platforms to accomplish tasks beyond just communicating with friends, or meeting other social needs, then they will be put at a disadvantage for lacking what is now considered “basic skills” of the 21^st century.

Furthermore, on a smaller scale, digital writing can help to create more conversation within the classroom and a better academic experience for students. For example, digital writing provides students who have trouble speaking in front of classmates an opportunity to share their opinions and demonstrate that they have an understanding of course material. It also allows for discussion to continue after class has ended. Especially in college when classes only meet a couple times a week, this can be a useful way or making sure people have an opportunity to elaborate on class discussions when physical class time does not allow for it. Digital writing essentially gives professors and students the opportunity to hear more voices within the classroom and an opportunity to enhance class discussions.

Additionally, digital writing forces students to think more creatively about the writing process. When students are forced to use social platforms such as Twitter, or Facebook, or a blogging site like WordPress, they must learn to adapt their writing styles to fit these mediums. This means that when using Twitter students must learn how to shorten their writing and get their ideas across in concise sentences. If a student is challenged to use Facebook to share their ideas they must take into account the visual presentation of their post and they must consider their audience. For example, instead of adhering to a rigid style guide like one would usually do for a college paper students would have to consider how to format their posts with pictures, links, or text to make them visually appealing. Also, instead of simply emailing a paper or handing an essay in to a professor students would have to consider an audience beyond just their professor. Students would have to contemplate what times their audience would be active on social media and what kind of content would interest a broad range of people.

Web writing additionally forces students to consider the difference between public and private writing. It is in fact likely to motivate students to write pieces they are proud of if they realize their work will be posted for a variety of people to see. When I was assigned to be a student blogger for the communications department at the school I studied abroad at in Denmark this was something I had to take into consideration on a daily basis. When you are writing content to be posted on a public domain you need to think about how you are representing yourself, and often how you are representing the institution that you are writing for. In short, web writing allows students to approach the writing process in different and challenging ways, forcing them to consider new writing styles, visual presentations, and aspects of audience they are not accustomed to considering.  This kind of creative thinking can only better individual’s abilities to get their ideas across verbally, and in written form.

Lastly, web writing provides people with the opportunity to learn without having to travel or enroll full-time in a higher learning institution. For example, my mom is currently taking a course through Dickinson about former President Lincoln and without web writing and the ability to submit work online she would not have the opportunity to have this learning experience from her home. So while there are still critics of web writing and of the use of social media within the classroom, it is obvious that the potential benefits of web writing outweigh any potential setbacks. At least when used correctly, web writing has the potential to teach students how to write in ways that challenge them and that make them engage more deeply in class discussions and projects. Web writing is an invaluable tool that with continued exploration will vastly improve writing and engagement in classrooms across disciplines.

Works Cited.

Abe, Paige, and Nickolas A. Jordan. “Integrating Social Media Into The Classroom Curriculum.” About Campus 18.1 (2013): 16-20. ERIC. Web. 1 Oct. 2013.

Dhir, Amandeep. “Tweeters on Campus: Twitter a Learning Tool in Classroom?” Journal of Universal Computer Science. 19.5 (2013). Web. 10. Oct. 2013.

O’Donnel, Michael. “Science Writing, Wikis, and Collaborative Learning.” Web Writing: Why & How for Liberal Arts Teaching & Learning, Michigan Publishing. (2013). Web. 10 Oct. 2013.

Inverness, Research. “Keeping The Promise Of The 21St Century: Bringing Classroom Teaching Into The Digital Age. Policy Brief.” Inverness Research (2009): ERIC. Web. 3 Oct. 2013.

Kinzie, Susan. “Some Professors’ Jitters Over Twitter Are Easing: Discussions Expand In and Out of Class.” The Washington Post 2009: Academic OneFile. Web. 1 Oct. 2013.

Wright, Leigh. “Tweet Me A Story.” Web Writing: Why & How for Liberal Arts Teaching & Learning, Michigan Publishing (2013). Web. 10 Oct. 2013.

Welcome to the Digital Era

            The first Printing press was first form of social media. The invention of the printing press burgeoned the first forms of writings such as books and the earliest form of newspapers. Despite this advancement in technology, social media was limited due to the lack of up to date news. As the social media industry progresses through history accurate information is produced more rapidly. However, the social media industry does not just stop with attaining information and producing it faster for their readers. Eventually the industries began to grow larger. Instead of gathering news on just a state or national scale they began gathering information about current events occurring all over the world. These advancements eventually brought on the formation of popular companies such as The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and USA Today.

In the beginning of the early 20^th century the social media industry’s labile characteristics rapidly adapted to the digital world. Now information is updated faster then ever, almost making newspapers obsolete. This advancement not only allowed newspaper companies to put up their own web pages but it also introduced readers to blogging and other social medias. Blogging specifically has become very popular, allowing individuals to write and express their own ideologies on a myriad of topics.

Today blogging, and other forms of social media, are being used in classrooms allowing students to gain experience by learning and writing in the digital environment. Classes offered in the digital writing fields have proven to influence quickness and authoritativeness in students writing allowing them to focus on “the big picture” (Carr 29-32). The ability to focus on key points and be concise is an important aspect of a good writer. Digital writing courses have helped students do just that. This is why teachers, over the past decade, have implemented an active blog as a popular assignment (Yang & Chang 126-135).

The digital environment has also promoted free writing. The advantage of using digital media in classrooms provides students with a lot of flexibility in their written works. This provides students with the pleasure of writing, and at the same time expands their knowledge and skills in writing more efficiently. Juxtaposed to blogging, Twitter has also been implemented in the classroom.  Twitter has been around for seven years now and is referred to as a micro blogging site. What makes Twitter so different to blogging is the complex thought process users have to implement in every tweet. The 140-character limit Twitter sets per tweet further encourages student to be concise and to think on their feet. Leigh Write implemented this tactic with her class, she promoted exercises such as live tweeting to help build her students confidence to take notes quickly and accurately (Wright). However, some argue that twitter inhibits the complex thought process as a result of its 140-charcter limit (Ebner, Lienhardt, Rohs, and Meyer 94). Respectfully I would disagree with this claim, the limitation promotes complex thought processes by focusing on saying less and still getting your point across. Being an avid Twitter user, I catch myself on many occasions having to acquit what I want to say using fewer words.

As previously stated, digital writing is about the flexibility of creating a network of texts on the web. This flexibility students are provided allows them to write about topics that interest them, experiment with different tones, writing styles, and portray different voices within their writing. However, when a student is deciding on their motives they have to consider the audience they are writing to. As Fitzpatrick delineated, “through our writing we engage in performance by articulating the role of rhetoric, the position of speaker, and the effect on the audience (Rajchel, Fitzpatrick)”. This might possibly be the hardest concept students could face when it comes to digital writing. However, this can also be the most helpful tool for a student as well.

Whether readers agree or disagree with the blogger’s posts, reader feedback provides the writer with an engagement in discussions. Through discussions students acquire a utile quality to synthesize information, read quickly and deeply, and engage in discussions; qualities that will prove to be useful throughout their lives (Rajchel). The ability to synthesize arguments quickly also encourages the student to be skeptical to influence further discussions. This skill is acquired through multiple experiences and encounters with other individuals. Additionally, over time these experiences allow students to aggregate the ability to think and provide rational responses.

Thus far it has been discussed that digital media in the classroom has proven to be a useful means of education. However, as useful as it can be in the classroom it has also proven to be just as useful in the real world. In the article “Microblogs in Higher Education”, a case study took place were students enrolled in a course to gain practice in using communication, collaboration and documentation during the course (Ebner, Lienhardt, Rohs, and Meyer 93). The course was devised to use the website known as MBlog and Mediawiki for students in grad school working towards success in the real world. Students were required to maintain a proper blog where they would practice communication within their field of interest. Overall results exhibited that the experience students gained from this course helped them in their careers of interest within communication. This demonstrated that microblogs, such as twitter, allow people to explore the world and reach out to their followers sharing their experiences (Ebner, Lienhardt, Rohs, and Meyer 99).

Prior to now, everything stated was a rendition of scholarly articles that support the use of web blogs in an educational setting. Each article also provided case studies where social media had been implemented in a class curriculum of different levels. While all the case studies supported that social media is beneficial to use in the classroom nothing beats personal experience in becoming a good communicator through social use.

Online social media started to become popular in the late 90’s and being a part of that generation I still remember how fast it became popular. To this day I still remember the blogging site “Xanga”. Xanga allowed its users to write about whatever they wanted and was a lot like an online journal entry. Also on the site you had followers and they would read each others posts. Xanga was a popular trend, however, one of many to follow. Shortly after MySpace became popular and everyone had a profile, then came Facebook followed by Twitter. These are just some of the popular examples of social media through its “evolution”.

There is a myriad amount of social media sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter. All of these sites had many different attributes that were appealing to so many people. However, despite the differences in characteristics, all of these sites had one thing in common. Each site provided their users with connection to other users. This connection provided users the chance to experiment by taking advantage of all resources these sites offered. MySpace allowed you to change your layout and the music that would play on your page. Facebook allowed you to make albums, statuses, and a layout behind your profile picture. Lastly, Twitter provides users with the ability to favorite or retweet a text that is appealing to share with other followers. All of these resources, along with consistent use, allowed users to experiment with what would draw their follower’s attention. This was the whole point of having any of these sites; this is also the whole point of writing blogs or any other social media.

As I just demonstrated, even outside of the classroom, people still benefited from the use of blogging sites. Like the scholars that wrote the articles presented before, I also find implementing social media in the classroom as a valuable teaching method.

I found the most effective aspect about this teaching method is its application of learning through repetition and interaction. As prosaic of an aspect as it seems, this was the common attribute all of the case studies I presented earlier shared. This is also an attribute that can be used in any situation, not just in school. A pitcher can watch as many YouTube videos on how to throw a curveball, as he would like. However, knowing how to do something and actually doing the action are different things all together. This is why incorporating social media into the classroom proved to be a beneficial learning experience. Like the case studies that implemented active twitter accounts into their teachings, the students enjoyed the course and benefited from it. All the methods included having followers serving as the writer’s positive or negative feedback, this was the student’s source of learning through social interactions. When both of these aspects are amalgamated together its like the students are really teaching themselves. Even if this is the case, all of the articles results showed that the students took away a lot from the courses.

I still stick to my opinion that social media is a valuable asset that should be implemented, or offered as a course. The courses suggested in the articles improved student’s understandings of how to maintain blogs and other social sites. At the same time this teaching methods influenced creativity and considerably improved the writing skills of the students.

Work cited

1. Ebner , Martin , Conrad Lienhardt, Matthias Rohs, and Iris Meyer. “Microblogs in Higher Education – A chance to facilitate informal and process-oriented learning?.” Computer & Education . n. page. Print. <http://www.cblt.soton.ac.uk/multimedia/PDFs10/micriblogs in higher education process orientated learning.pdf>.

1. Wright, Leigh. “Tweet Me A Story.” Web Writing. Web Writing, 15 Sep 2013. Web. 13 Oct 2013. <http://webwriting.trincoll.edu/engagement/wright-2013/>.

1. Rajchel, Jennifer. “Consider the Audience.” Web Writing. Web Writing , 15 Setember 2013. Web. 13 Oct 2013. <http://webwriting.trincoll.edu/engagement/rajchel-2013/>.

1. Carr, Nora. “Using Blogs to Humanize Our School Leaders.” Education Digest. 74.4 (2007): 29-32. Print. <http://ehis.ebscohost.com/eds/detail?sid=90bb3f63-d869-4f3c-82e8-42d165e72785@sessionmgr12&vid=1&hid=16&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU=

1. Yang, C., and YS Chang. “Assessing the effects of interactive blogging on student attitudes towards peer interaction, learning motivation, and academic achievements.” WILEY-BLACKWELL . (2012): 126-135. Print. <http://ehis.ebscohost.com/eds/detail?vid=2&sid=47e90791-22d2-4308-8b16-e823d3a944ed@sessionmgr113&hid=105&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU=

Writing is an attraction. You can’t assume that readers will be interested in what you’re going to be talking about if your lead in sentence is bland and not intriguing. Writing in the digital age is more of an art. It’s a different approach to writing, and for many, can be more relatable. There’s more of a creative license to the content being stated, because no one’s going to spend their time reading an article that doesn’t draw their attention in right away. There are thousands of other blog posts waiting to be read out there, so the writers must make their blog post, or other forms of social media worth the read. The social media world is fast paced and the style and content being shown must be up to date. Through the works of Jen Rajchel’s “Consider the Audience”, Leigh Writer’s “Tweet Me A Story”, Gayle S. Stever and Kevin Lawson’s “Twitter as a Way for Celebrities to Communicate with Fans”, Onook Oh, Maish Agrawal, H. Raghav Rao’s “Community Intelligence and Social Media Services”, and Patti Neumann’s “Strategy Is Part of Social”, all of these authors and researchers expressed the importance of how the use of social media can enhance success through finding your voice in concise, compact writing through social media such as Twitter.

For Jen Rajchel, she goes into exploring what’s appropriate to be put out on the web. She expresses her opinion on how writing through the web is risky, especially if you’re a less established writer. You never know who’s reading your blog, and as Stephanie Cawley, a recent Re: Humanities presenter stated, “The more responsibility to the audience and the increased investment that students have, the less that the work becomes about grades and more it becomes about shaping their scholarship” (Paragraph 12). This statement is true to the idea that writing through social media is more laid back. There are more options, such as Facebook, Twitter, and WordPress. Twitter is one form of social media in which it allows users to find their voice in 140-characters or less.

With the idea of Twitter, Leigh Wright breaks down the many aspects in how beneficial Twitter is for our writing skills. Leigh Wright, the professor of a college course on social media created assignments for her student to participate in. “At the beginning of the semester in the 200-level class, I distribute a scavenger hunt list of questions and ask them to look for clues on campus and ask people questions as they tweet about the experience. To facilitate the discussion, I set up a class hashtag (#wright294) and asked them to include it on every tweet.” (Paragraph 15) The exercise forced students to find their own voice and be limited in how much they could write. This tactic allowed them to break down a story and tweet only the important aspects of it. Through this, the assignment impacted students in the real world and helped them when it came to writing concise, to the point essays.

Similarly, Twitter is a way to connect with others. There’s a sense of community involved in following others on Twitter and having the ability to retweet and favorite tweets. As Gayle S. Stever and Kevin Lawson both communicated in a research paper based on the relationship between celebrities, twitter, and your average person or fan. Twitter is a form of social media that puts everyone on a leveled playing field. As the Stever and Lawson mentioned, “Most importantly, fans can send the celebrity personal messages without the celebrity needing to grant access to a personal page or site. The celebrity can reply in kind, again without having to join the fan’s page or without forming any kind of formal connection with the fan” (340). Twitter makes it personal enough where both the fan and celebrity can feel a sense of connection between each other. This also brings forth the point in how Twitter creates a world where average people and celebrities are on the same level. It’s not only Twitter in which this is the case. Fashion blogs and other websites can be competitions to large news sources such as Vogue, in the fashion sense.

Yet Twitter is also a news source in itself. Oh, Agrawal, and Rao write in detail about how social media, such as Twitter can be very useful for getting information on social crises. With increase in social media, those who are active on Twitter can access news right at the scene of the crisis. These three authors take on a different rout and explain that users of social media must be careful in the validity of what they’re reading. This is extremely relevant to social crises that occur around the world. “A recent examination of some of Google’s real-time search results for Tweeter [sic] and blogs reveals that real-time information was mostly ‘fabricated content, unverified events, lies and misinterpretation’ (Metaxas and Mustafaraj 2010, p.1). This relates back to Jen Rajchel’s blog post on audience and how you never know who’s reading your posts on the Internet. Many believe that a larger audience isn’t viewing their posts on social media, but any false accusation on a certain topic can leak out and cause a rumor to occur. The three researchers proposed this idea in that although social media websites are beneficial to many, there are risks attached to it.

Lastly, Patti Neumann briefly wraps up the benefits of social media in her article in the Baltimore Jewish Times. She discusses the importance of social media from a business point of view. Neuman goes on to explain how you must strategically plan out every move on social media. Whether it is a tweet that’s going out to your followers or gathering a fan base to help improve your business, “Like it or not,” Neumann states, “Social media is irreversibly changing how we market and interact with our consumers. Making a very successful plan in using social media is serious business. It can make your business more productive, improve sales and increase your bottom line” (10). The community you build is the most important aspect of using social media. Without a following or fan base, your part in the media world is nothing. Community is key to being successful.

I for one believe that social media in general is key to being successful in this day and age. There are many beneficial factors to using social media, and especially Twitter. As stated before, the 140-character word limit allows users to find their voice. Through the use of Twitter, I’ve found that my voice comes off as very sarcastic and witty. Others may find that their voice is more serious and news oriented. Along with finding your voice, the word limit forces you to get your point across in a shorter manner. This can benefit when writing a paper, allowing the writer to eliminate any unnecessary wording that does not need to be there. Along with the idea that Twitter can help with essay writing, being a first year student at Dickinson, I’m still working on my writing skills. Twitter allows me to learn to not use fill-in words and to get straight to the point.

Not only is Twitter a valuable resource to help writers find their voice, but it can also be a pathway to inform others of events that are going on. For college students, Twitter is definitely a good resource, whether it is to spread the word out about a sporting or club event, or send a message along to another person on campus. Through retweeting one another and following Twitter pages, communities begin to form and word about this certain event can be spread throughout campus. The communication that goes into the use of Twitter can only enhance one’s success in life, including in present day, social media is a prime resource to be successful in business oriented jobs.

I interned at a start up social media group this past summer called NowThis News. The use of Twitter in this start up was key to their website spreading and having more publicity. NowThis News is a website that has current events shown in 1-2 minute long videos.

The social team at this start up used Twitter to follow mass amounts of people who liked other Twitters that were linked back to NowThis News, such as Buzzfeed. By following mass amounts of people on Twitter allows this start up to gain attraction towards their Twitter account, which would then lead to more traffic going to the official site. When those who were followed by NowThis News on Twitter will then follow their Twitter page and through retweeting and hitting the favorite button on tweets, word begins to get out about this new website. The techniques to gain attraction towards websites and blogs can be very influential on knowing how to gain viewers to a new blog or even start up.

There can be downsides to the use of Twitter though. Although some may care about their friend eating a slice of pizza, many do not. On occasions it can be used for the use of mindless and witty thoughts, so tweeting about eating pizza is only acceptable on occasions, but Twitter should be a form of social media where people can express their thoughts in a witty and intellectual way. It can be a great source of sharing links and expressing opinions on current events occurring in the world around us.

Through using Twitter as a way to express opinions and ideas with others, Dickinson College is a liberal arts college that allows students to experience and find what they’re interested in. Once finding that interest, what better way to form a community with those who are interested in the same topic then through social media? These communities can be formed through Twitter as a way to share ideas and thoughts through links to websites as well as their own personal blog. A liberal arts education is very similar to web writing and the usage of social media itself. The web is very open minded to anything and everything, just as a liberal arts education allows students to experience a broad number of classes before deciding on a set major. There’s more creativity behind both ends of the spectrum, which is education and social media. Through the use of Twitter and social media, it can enhance the learning community that Dickinson has to offer.

Bibliography (MLA):

Neumann, Patti. “Strategy Is Part of Social.” Baltimore Jewish Times [Baltimore] 15 Mar. 2013: 10-11. Print.

Oh, Onook, Manish Agrawal, and H. Raghav Rao. Community Intelligence and Social Media Services: A Rumor Theoretic Analysis of Tweets During Social Crises. MIS Quarterly & The Society for Information Management, June 2013. Web. 2 Oct. 2013.

Rajchel, Jen. “Consider the Audience.” Weblog post. Web Writing Why and How for Liberal Arts Teaching and Learning. Jack Dougherty, 15 Sept. 2013. Web. 02 Oct. 2013.

Stever, Gayle S., and Kevin Lawson. Twitter as a Way for Celebrities to Communicate with Fans: Implications for the Study of Parasocial Interaction. North American Journal of Psychology, n.d. Web. 02 Oct. 2013.

Wright, Leigh. “Tweet Me A Story.” Web Writing Why and How for Liberal Arts Teaching and Learning. Jack Dougherty, Fall 2013. Web. 02 Oct. 2013.

The Internet is arguably the largest single source of information ever created by humans.  This incredible bank of information has grown since the rise in popularity of digital humanities and web writing, which both contribute large banks of primary and secondary information, respectively, to the databases and pages of the Web.  Current literature on the subject of online writing and information sharing reflects the growing importance of these practices on the educational and societal levels, allowing for greater conclusions to be drawn about the effectiveness and integrity of different modes of internet publication.

Secondary Sources in the Digital Age – The Free (Online) Encyclopedia

The Internet, in much the same way as printed media, most often focuses on secondary source information, in such forms as research pieces, magazine articles, and newspaper features.  One of the most popular websites, Wikipedia, is effectively a massive community-authored encyclopedia, and provides one of the major sources of secondary information on the Web.  This has garnered the attention of many educators, who use the site as a vehicle for student writing and experience in a real-world setting.

Siobhan Senier, a professor at the University of New Hampshire, exemplifies one method used by educators to incorporate Wikipedia into their curricula.  Senier, for a class on 21^st Century Native American Literature, required student to write a Wikipedia article on a living indigenous author, conforming to “both the author’s and Wikipedia’s standards” (para. 1).  Finding Wikipedia’s criterions more rigorous than those required by most professors (para. 9), Senier concludes that the editing structure and conversation ultimately increased the quality of student work and organic motivation, forcing pupils to converse and write within an informed and critical framework (para. 1).  Senier also illustrates the effectiveness of Wikipedia as a writing tool by highlighting projects similar in scope or type to his own (paras. 5-7).  His essay in Web Writing thus argues for the effectiveness of Wikipedia post creation as a pedagogical tool.

Another, more uncommon, method for education using Wikipedia involves the fabrication of information or context to explore community response and connection.  This style of pedagogy came under fire when it was made know that Professor T. Mills Kelly of George Mason University formulated class assignments around manufacturing false Wikipedia entries (Appelbaum, para. 5).  Kelly later changed his assignments, instead requiring students to falsify backstories – including fake documents and new, truthful Wikipedia pages – that were then launched on the social media site Reddit (para. 3).

Appelbaum explores the differences in the results of Kelly’s two classes, asserting that the strong community nature of Reddit, focused on information exchange, contributed to the project’s failure (para. 10).  Comparatively, Wikipedia suffers from a weak community, insulating users from editors and inhibiting crowdsourcing (para. 12).  Appelbaum also looks at the importance of trust in web writing, explaining the influence of the sources of evidence – new versus experienced Wikipedia users – on how information is accepted, treated, and utilized on the Internet (para. 13).  He states that an audience judges the legitimacy of sources, “by accessing those who made them,” (para. 14), which is why Kelly’s first project was able to succeed in fooling a large portion of the population: by using Wikipedia as a guise of legitimacy.  Appelbaum ultimately asserts that the make-up of online sources affects their susceptibility to informational hoaxes, and only touches the greater controversy regarding the falsification of data, addressed later in this narrative.

Primary Sources in the Classroom – Old Information in a New Form

The rise of the Web has also brought about the availability of primary sources on the Internet.  Content management systems have allowed students to experience first-hand the challenges of emerging technology, and given the opportunity for students of all levels to learn how to evaluate original documents.  Current literature addresses both the issues and results of these new primary source trends.

Professors in many disciplines are embracing the emerging trend of student involvement in document-driven digital humanities projects, focusing on the digitization and analysis of primary sources on the Web.  Alisea Williams McLeod and Allison C. Marsh have both written articles extolling the values of such digital projects, including the difficulties they bring and the growth they provide.  McLeod, by allowing her pupils to work on the transcription of the Register of Freedom, found that students gained a greater understanding of history and politics because of the project (paras. 11, 16).  Despite this progress, she posited that the project suffered from students’ “hesitance to buy into the idea of membership in the… site, reluctance that has translated into most of them not uploading” their work (para. 6).  McLeod concluded that this stemmed from a feeling of discomfort with the notion of their work being published online, even anonymously (para. 11).

Allison Marsh was faced with similar difficulties with her students, who created “disastrous” (280) online exhibits using a database of digitized objects.  Marsh found a distinct lack of interest in digital technologies, with students complaining about their desire to be a “regular historian” instead (279).  Marsh, throughout her article, retorts that such a path is “no longer an option” (279), citing the rise of the digital humanities and the increasing importance of computer technologies.  She asserts that her students lacked skills in basic technology and digital writing, which were challenged by her project (280).  Marsh ultimately argues that digital humanities projects help improve these lackluster skills, and challenge students to experience the new struggles and benefits inherent in a technologically growing world.

The second side of digital humanities projects is the user side – those who access such project sites for primary sources and analysis.  These sources can be used by anyone with access to the Internet, and are used on the primary, secondary, and post-secondary levels for various purposes.  Ultimately, the use of such project sites teaches users more about primary source use and analysis, and gives greater access to original documents than was ever before possible.

Carol A. Brown, a professor at East Carolina University, and Kaye Dotson, a doctoral student at the university, provide a case study performed at a high school to illustrate the benefits of digital humanities projects in secondary education.  They assert that students of all levels need greater instruction in the standards and methods of modern research (30) and the evaluation of sources (31), areas of vital importance for digital writing.  They also conclude that students can learn a lot from analysis of primary sources from a digital humanities project, especially relating to bias and methods of modern research and source location (34-35).  This improvement of information literacy, although important, was a secondary goal compared to the study of “teaching methods that enhanced ICT [Information and Communication Technology] skills for critical analysis of documents,” (37).

New Views on Digital Writing

My experiences in the classroom, as well as my forays into digital writing, have convinced me that digital content is and will continue to be a major part of the American lifestyle.  This can be seen in the popularity of social media and message-board sites, and well as the continuous expansion and use of sites such as Wikipedia and Urban Dictionary.  As a result, I believe that the academic world will be best served by increasing the availability of secondary and primary sources online.  This major format change necessitates comment on the integrity and usefulness of Internet sources.

Although Wikipedia is a useful reference tool, the academic community has a long-standing wariness of the site’s content, based on the concept that any page can be edited by any person.  Even though Senier points out that Wikipedia uses a strict editing framework, the work of the students of T. Mills Kelly shows the potential for intellectual abuse on the Internet.  Events such as this hurt the reputation of such sites, and forces scholars to be on constant alert for falsified information on the Web.

Manipulation of a Wikipedia page, classifying the band Nickelback as a form of torture.

Professor Kelly’s assignments, while engaging his students is digital writing, violated moral and academic ethics regarding informational integrity.  In his first version of the assignment especially, information was strictly falsified on a public website with a reputation based on the truth of its content.  This issue links to a greater conversation regarding standards of writing on the Internet, which are necessarily higher because of the ease of access and manipulation.  Unlike printed information, the global editing capabilities inherent in digital writing lead to big risks for students and scholars.  As a result, students of all disciplines must be cautious when using born-digital material.  Students, therefore, should be better instructed on methods of cross-checking digital information using scholarly sources, as well as ways of identifying trustworthy sources.

The expansion of digital humanities projects, such as Dickinson College’s Carlisle Industrial Indian School project, has allowed students much greater access to primary source documents.  Such projects allow students to work with original documents in new ways, aiding experiential learning while posing roadblocks to complete understanding.

Students growing up in today’s world have an innate understanding of certain formats of information architecture.  However, this does not always lend itself to the kinds of searching traditionally supported on academic websites.  Hashtags, for example, allow students to sort tweets, Facebook posts, and the like, based on common themes and threads.  It is my belief that the use of tags should be emphasized more in the creation of digital writing websites, as this will allow students native to the Internet to find pertinent information more easily.  Contrastingly, if the information architecture of digital content sites becomes dissimilar from that of more popular sites, students will not be able to find needed information as efficiently, thus putting obstacles in the way of learning.

Similar to what should be done in regards to secondary sources, students must be instructed on the methods of finding and interpreting primary sources found online.  This can be challenging, depending on the nature of student research.  Size, for instance, is easily distorted and misrepresented online.  This can be problematic in studies of size or proportion in artwork or historiography.  Content, unfortunately, can also be manipulated because of the power of the Web and computer technology.  Software such as Adobe Photoshop has propagated the tampering of documents, hence the commonality of conspiracies about forged information.  This, again, calls for student instruction on how to judge the legitimacy of a source, as well as an emphasis on cross-contextual fact-checking.

Ultimately, digital writing and the expansion of the Internet has brought some powerful tools to today’s students.  However, students must be instructed on the issues and problems that plague Web content as a result of its ability to be edited by anyone.  If students are able to truly learn these lessons, the academic community as a whole will see an increase in scholarship on the whole.  This will come about because of the simple fact that anyone with an Internet connection will be able to participate in a global intellectual conversation.  However, if lessons of web integrity and information ethics are not adopted by native Internet users, their scholastic abilities will be severely hampered.  Echoing Marsh’s assertion, I believe that academic work without the use of Web content and digital writing is simply not a possibility anymore.

Consulted Works

Appelbaum, Yoni. “How the Professor Who Fooled Wikipedia Got Caught by Reddit.” The Atlantic. 15 May 2012. Web. 30 Sept. 2013.

Brown, Carol A., and Kaye Dotson. “Writing Your Own History: A Case Study Using Digital Primary Source Documents.” TechTrends: Linking Research and Practice to Improve Learning 51.3 (2007): 30–37. Print.

Marsh, Allison C.1. “Omeka in the Classroom: The Challenges of Teaching Material Culture in a Digital World.” Literary & Linguistic Computing 28.2 (2013): 279–282. Print.

Senier, Siobhan. “Indigenizing Wikipedia: Student Accountability to Native American Authors on the World’s Largest Encyclopedia.” Web Writing: Why and How for Liberal Arts Teaching and Learning. 15 Sept. 2013. Web. 29 Sept. 2013.

Williams McLeod, Alisea. “Student Digital Research and Writing on Slavery: Problems and Possibilities.” Web Writing: Why and How for Liberal Arts Teaching and Learning. 15 Sept. 2013. Web. 29 Sept. 2013.

My quest: learning how not to hate Twitter. By exploring this social site and other social media in a classroom setting, I hope to understand a working relationship (if there is one) between new media and learning. Currently, social media is the most cost-effective way to expand learning outside the four walls of a classroom (Heatley and Lattimer, 8). In many instances, using social media channels like Google Moderator, Twitter and Facebook even the classroom playing field and allow for learning in completely new ways. Social media not only enables teachers and students to connect with one another, but it also allows for continued learning outside traditional classroom learning hours (and on a schedule that fits more with student lifestyle). Because technology continues to demand a larger presence in our everyday lives, social media will become a necessity for classroom engagement (Heatley and Lattimer, 9). As a student of a liberal arts institution, this is an idea that I agree with and hope to explore. Maybe, just maybe, Twitter is more than just an innocent blue bird.

Students using Twitter in School: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/23/technology/in-some-schools-students-bring-their-own-technology.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 

Twitter in the Classroom

Twitter is today’s most popular micro blogging site which gives free service to users. As of 2011 Twitter had 300 million users generating 300 million tweets per day (Alhomod and Shafi, 608). Twitter’s rapid popularity and expansive following only speak to how strong it can be as a learning platform especially in the creation of an inclusive and modern learning environment. Finding connections and projects that combine users with others that can help, inspire and create new communities seems effortless because Twitter users span all age groups and interests. Especially in regards to education, Twitter can work as a helpful tool to engage students in a more informal way and create new opportunities to become better writers, web users and students. For example, some teachers encourage their students to “live tweet” the class on Twitter. This exercise challenges them to take notes electronically and write tweets on deadline, sending updates every few minutes (Wright, 14). By doing this, students who may be shy or hesitant to speak out in class contribute their ideas in a different medium and just as quickly as those who speak in class (Heatley and Lattimer, 8 ). Because Twitter is also considered an informal construction, students may feel more comfortable interacting with a teacher or professor through this space instead of more formally in class.

Twitter also helps in the formation of groups. According to Junco, Heiberger & Loken, scientists who studied Twitter’s impact on classrooms, it’s easy to organize students into groups via Twitter. A teacher can ask students about their interests and thus form groups based on students with similar interests (Alhomod and Shafi, 611). This not only makes it easier for teachers to create functional groups, but also allows for stronger group cohesion and interaction on a familiar and easy platform for students. Especially in the vein of group interaction,Twitter also acts as a debate starter. A teacher can post a topic on a Twitter page and ask teams about their thoughts on the topic. Teams debate back and forth arguing the pros and cons of their topic. This can be helpful in any class format and inspires out of class learning, specifically when teams discuss the topic over Twitter before or after the topic is actually addressed in class (Alhomod and Shafi, 611).

Twitter and Writing

Not only can Twitter serve as an educational tool to engage students and faculty in an informal setting and help in the formation and cohesiveness of groups, but it also encourages writing, especially in one’s own voice. In this aspect, Twitter significantly and interestingly helps student writing. Twitter encourages clear and concise composition and publication from elementary to the undergraduate level. For an elementary school teacher, the character limit provides a real and powerful way to teach word choice, ideas, and punctuation; these young students learn the real purpose and power of literacy: communication (Kurtz, 2). If students are learning language and technology this way in first and second grade, then the capacity for learning and growth seem exponential. In an undergraduate level classroom, Twitter teaches journalism students how to quickly engage a reader with strong tag lines and concise summary. Also at an University level, Twitter, in general, teaches students how to write concisely, how to think quickly and how to take the social media conversation, weave it with their own narration and craft a social media story on a digital platform (Wright, 14). However, Twitter, in all cases and levels, creates a need to consider the interests and background of an audience in a way that most students don’t have to confront in creative writing, math,science, or other writing (Kurtz, 1). Tweeting throughout the day means that writing has become an integral part of whatever students’ do, rather than a separate subject that is given some attention and then put away to be forgotten until the next day. It has also taught students to see their lives and activities as worth sharing(Kurtz, 2). Ultimately, social media allows students to develop their voices and refine their writing and learning styles while bringing traditional classroom discussions to a more inviting and familiar platform.

Watch a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OxIz_3o3O0

Social Media and Classroom Discussions of Identity

While Twitter works as great source for discovering and displaying one’s voice , regardless of race, ethnicity, age, sexuality etc., many conversations question whether media forums can actually provide an outlet for discussions on sensitive topics (like identity) within the classroom.“We are all wounded by racism, but for some of us those wounds are anesthetized. When we begin to feel it, we’re awake”. Toi Derricotte’s suggestion of teaching contradicts the “safe place” environment many teachers hope to foster in their classrooms (Schmidt, 29).Teachers frequently report student resistance to discussing or writing about race. Many students deny race as an important factor in their lives and see racism as a problem of the past. As a result, many students develop a colorblind perspective that suggests: because race should not matter; it does not matter (Rodrigo and Kidd, 18). Therefore, assessing students’ discussions in relation to topics like race and ethnicity require consideration of the utility and challenge of social media for individual and collective discomfort. Online writing can be writing that “translates listening into language.” In a classroom, a student hears the comments of others and responds accordingly (mostly in the idea of “safe space” promoted by teachers); whereas online, a student reads, watches and/or hears their peers’ comments and can work through their own responses in a variety of mediums like videos, photos and narrative. Moreover, a student works on these responses and reactions out of face-to-face classroom pressures and norms. In this sense, listening and responding transforms into its own language told through the unique voices of each student. Engaging in reflective writing and thinking, exploring personal histories, acknowledging membership in different groups, and learning about the lives and experiences of other groups are specific activities that if done online can positively encourage conversations about race, ethnicity, class etc., even when uncomfortable (Rodrigo and Kidd, 18).

Some students, however, like many teachers, feel more comfortable with the familiar structure of a classroom discussion, seeing it as more authentic than online conversation (Schmidt, 39). But many teachers and students feel that using media outlets can refresh conversations around sensitive issues and even normalize the idea of being uncomfortable if or when they are discussed. For many professors, online discussion boards and media, if linked to off-line assignments, provide critical spaces for teachers and students to interact without the pressure of face-to-face commenting (especially white educators working with students who are members of an expansive range of racial and ethnic communities) (Schmidt, 37). One particular professor, Tyler Schmidt, created three spaces on a Blackboard site where students could write and interact—a collective reading journal focused on student-generated questions about ethnicity, writing groups, and a more open-ended discussion board intended to be a substitute for the unpredictable comments in the classroom (Schmidt, 38). Like with other social media, especially in regards to media like Twitter, these discussion boards can generate a different kind of classroom dialogue. As mentioned before, and especially in relation to topics like race, online media outlets allow some students more time for reflection before entering the conversation with a post or allow immediacy for those students eager to correct or challenge ideas that have been raised (Schmidt, 42). As a result, students feel a freedom in an online classroom or outlet where physical appearance in a classroom can make discussions more uncomfortable.

Social Media and Learning: Can I (We) actually hate Twitter?

Exploring how social media can energize a learning environment helped me realize I don’t actually hate Twitter- especially when this medium encourages group interaction as well as develops individual voice, in situations both comfortable and uncomfortable.Before I began this exploration of social media, I carried a strong dislike for the social media platform which seemed to encourage vanity and irrelevance. After examining how teachers and individuals were using these same platforms to connect students, encourage involvement and create communities, I admit that my perception was narrow and in some cases incorrect. I now understand that these social media outlets can be modern ways to carry on a conversation, ask questions and invite the world into a learning setting in ways that never existed before. As a member of the Millenials, technology grows increasingly important in every aspect of our lives, and we should expect no less from our learning environments.

Overlap and discovery of a range of interests is encouraged for students of liberal-arts institutions. As a political science major, I can take classes in creative writing (and classes like this one: Writing for Digital Environments) at any time. Fortunately, I began taking many creative writing classes and discovered my passion. Writing, especially creatively, is what I wanted to do all along. Being a political scientist, for many students in colleges and universities, means intense analysis of history, political theory, and systems. Often we (as students and perpetual learners) forget that politics and the study of it continues every day, all over the world and with many different voices. In many instances, these events and voices gain life if realized and shared, especially if injected into our courses through social media .Furthermore, we often forget our writing. We often forget (or do not learn) how to write for the many different media sources or audiences. Why not Skype a political science class in another university? Why not start a class Twitter about elections and voting? Why not start a school blog that asks about the surrounding community’s political views? Why not incorporate more media(writing) into the study of political science and other disciplines on this and all college campuses? Because of the emphasis on the diverse and cooperative nature of a liberal-arts institution, incorporating media and media writing into class conversations and expectations can only create a positive change, especially when our current societal norms seem to require us to be able to navigate technology in anything from our cell phones to our bank accounts.

In little ways ( and in maybe big ways) every individual contributes to a variety of digital environments: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, Flikr, Pinterest, Tumblr, WordPress, Spotify, online banking, online shopping, dating sites, online journals, newspapers, text messages, email and so many other outlets that aren’t even realized. If we all can navigate and contribute to these social staples, why shouldn’t we learn how some of these platforms factor into a positive and even formal education (and maybe even use them). In finally coming to the conclusion that I want to be writer or maybe a professor (or all the other dreams of being a successful columnist or novelist or just fabulously famous) I asked for advice from a professional writer I know. She only gave me eight words. It’s now extremely ironic that a writer, who of course is known for her command of words, only answered in eight (it was just irritatingly cryptic at the time). She said, “learn how to write for the web. Period.” Without even knowing what her advice about writing would be, I was already enrolled in this writing course because learning how to write for such mediums is not only important but logical, and maybe even fun. Knowing how much we all participate in digital environments can only help us understand the expansive web audience and why learning to navigate and contribute to it successfully only improves other elements like our writing, interaction, efficiency and awareness– all of which prove extremely useful in formal education from Kindergarten to Doctorate level and spark further learning outside of the classroom. Therefore, in thinking of myself as a student, a writer, a political scientist, a young adult, a Marylander, a lefty, a Dallas Cowboys’ fan, a sister, and all the dimensions in between, I know digital media plays a major part in how I associate and experience these things. Why not use these mediums in classrooms to become more creative, more experienced, more knowledgeable versions of ourselves? The way I see it, it’s inevitable. Twitter taught me so.

Sources:

Alhomod, Sami M.1, and Mohd Mudasir1 Shafi. “Twitter Assisted Team Based Learning: Providing A New Way Of Communication In Classroom.” International Journal of Computer Science Issues (DCSI) 10.1 (2013): 608-613. Applied Science &Technology Source. Web. 27 Sept. 2013

Heatley, Elizabeth R., and Talana R. Lattimer. “Using Social Media To Enhance Student Learning. (Classroom Connection).”Techniques 1 (2013): 8. Academic OneFile. Web. 27 Sept. 2013.

Kurtz, Jeff. “Twittering About Learning: Using Twitter In An Elementary School Classroom.” Horace 25.1 (2009): ERIC. Web. 27 Sept. 2013.

Schmidt, Tyler T. ““Subjectivities In-Process:” Writing Race And The Online Discussion Board.” Radical Teacher 90 (2011): 36-46. OmniFile Full Text Mega (H.W. Wilson). Web. 29 Sept. 2013

Rodrigo, Rochelle, and Jennifer Kidd. “Getting Uncomfortable: Identity Exploration in a Multi-Class Blog.” Web Writing: Why and How for Liberal Arts Teaching and Writing. Michigan Publisher, Fall 2013. Web. 6 Oct. 2013.

<http://webwriting.trincoll.edu/crossing-boundaries/rodrigo-kidd-2013/ >.

Wright, Leigh. “Tweet Me a Story.”Web Writing: Why and How for Liberal Arts Teaching and Writing. Michigan Publisher, Fall 2013. Web. 6 Oct 2013.

<http://webwriting.trincoll.edu/engagement/wright-2013/ >.

Don’t Beat Them. Just Join Them

One of the most important facets of writing well, is being able to write appropriately for different audiences.  The best author would be equally able to write children’s books, research papers, and web blogs. This is why it is extremely important to consider your audience when writing, and match your voice accordingly.  One of the newest realms of writing, digital writing, is also the one with the most potential.  An entire generation has now grown up with this technology at their hands, and as they develop so do the possibilities of the digital world. Writing online requires its own toolsets and training, and this generation of “digital natives” is more versed in it than anyone else. As digital media permeates every corner of modern society it becomes more imperative that college students utilize this advantage to its full potential.  Classes across all disciplines can benefit from digital writing, since good writing is writing that can transcend media platforms.  The trend of incorporating digital media into multidisciplinary curriculums will see a meteoric rise as more jobs and opportunities use these technologies.

In Shawn Graham’s chapter “Learning to Write at a Distance” he denounces the idea that the entirety of the post 80’s generation are digital natives. He writes that, “Unless you can build and program an iPad from scratch, it is magic. Unless you can build the algorithms that populate your browser (indeed, even the browser, the OS itself) with content, the web and associated technologies are again: magic” (Graham, 2). It is true that I have never programmed an app, and have only the most limited grasp on how the Internet actually works, but my experiences growing up with the web still put me leaps and bounds ahead of the majority of the population.  Unlike my Dad I don’t plan on being a software engineer, so I will never understand the coding behind digital technologies.  However, in contrast to my Dad, I have been versed in many digital technologies and their application to modern culture.

Libraries have always been the realms of books, but now digital media is working its way into all aspects of the library.  In Jenny Emanuel’s article “Digital Native Librarians, Technology Skills, and Their Relationship with Technology” she talks about how the new generation of librarians who have been raised around technology will alter their field.  A survey of 315 participants born between 1982 and 1990 who or are working towards their MLS degree proved that digital media is becoming a major part of their domain (Emanuel, 22).  Librarians remarked that their library school education has made them more proficient in all types of digital programs, and were far more adept at digital resources and writing skills.  Emanuel also uses the term “digital native”, and most librarians believed “that there were differences in technology use and attitudes between librarians who were younger versus older librarians” (Emanuel, 26). Younger librarians were more willing to adopt new technologies, and also demonstrated that they used digital media in their personal lives on a greater level.  The participants in Emanuel’s study were asked if there were any technologies they still wanted to learn. The responses were compiled into this word cloud.

Many of these terms are phrases that didn’t exist when the previous generations of librarians were in school; clearly the career is changing.  Here at Dickinson the librarians strive to teach these digital technologies even though the majority, were born before Emanuel’s participants.  Librarians are skilled in both finding physical texts and using online databases for research.  For computer and Internet troubles students go to the library to fix them. Our class, Writing In and For Digital Environments, has utilized the digital skills of Dickinson’s librarians to develop our blogs, and correctly cite sources.  These are both key skills in our technological day and age.

Librarians are just one of the jobs where digital media and writing is becoming more integral. Journalism has always relied on strong writing to convey messages day after day.  Strong writers were valued for their ability to clearly articulate events to the public. Journalism has also been quick to adopt digital writing, both from convenience and necessity.   Digital writing allows for the public to immediately access your writing.  Live blogging has turned the news from something that wound up on your doorstep every morning, to a continuous feed of information any time of the day.  Journalists also make their own blogs so they can express thoughts that would otherwise be excluded from their employer’s news due to limited space and diverging opinions.

Leigh Wright documents how for one of her classes students became competent in using twitter, a micro blogging service, as a professional journalism tool, and a method of practicing concise writing.  Working with a limited space, students were forced to make leads that were less than 35 words. Upon tweeting to a class hashtag, the class could comment and discuss what worked and what did not. Another exercise involved students live tweeting events such as scavenger hunts and sports games.  Students each had their own unique style of writing, and their tweets received attention from sources outside of class.  The popularity of twitter means this is a great method for sharing information.  The more people see your writing the more you pay attention to what and how your write.  Good digital writing has the potential to be seen by the majority of the world, and also to make the leap out of the digital world onto print.  This class is one of the many examples of how digital writing is becoming more commonplace in school curriculums, and across different media platforms.  As more jobs require and utilize digital media, classes like this are becoming a necessary tool.

As liberal arts professors strive to connect with small groups of students, the web can serve as an important link.  A study by a United Kingdom University on how the web makes young people aged 13-19 found that the effects were primarily positive.  They reported, “in this study, we found that that, overall, the web makes youth feel positive, with over 56% (80) of emotional responses expressed classified as positive, 32% (46) as neutral, and only 12% (17) as negative (Table 1). This finding supports the position that, on average, youth feel that the web makes them feel positive” (Page, 1352).  Evidently digital media is an effective tool to engage students.  I feel that this course has far more relevance than many of the writing classes I have taken in the past primarily because the online medium is so pertinent to my life, and I do feel positive emotions seeing my work on the web.

Web Writing, the textbook where “Tweet me a Story” and “Learning to Write at a Distance” are from, is still in its revision phase.  However Professor Kersh’s Writing In and For Digital Media class, of which I am a part of, were asked to participate in the open peer review due to the marked similarities between its content and our class. Web writing, and blogging, which I once dismissed as petty, has proven to be an incredibly valuable tool as a writer.  I have only written half of my first post and already I can hear a consistent voice coming through.  The words flow much easier as I wrote about what I enjoy: my experiences exploring Cumberland County.  Everyone has something to say and I believe that my blog serves an important and unfilled niche. It is beneficial to the greater community, and I am extremely interested in receiving feedback.  Other blogs our class has created also show the value of digital writing.  The multidisciplinary aspect of Dickinson College means students in Writing In and For Digital Media can incorporate ideas from other classes into their blogs. Food blogs can talk about experiences in chemistry in the kitchen, or the responsibility that comes with living off campus. Popular culture blogs can review the latest Trout Gallery showing, or theater production.

While good writing is an indelible skill, another very important skill digital media classes like, Writing In and For Digital Media, can teach, is the ability to work on the web. Training Magazine recently published an article about blogging, saying that, “the average midsize or large company (1,000 employees or more) has 178 “social media assets,” according to the Business2Community Website. That means that, on average, 178 individuals are tweeting, blogging, or posting on behalf of their organizations on company social media outlets”(Post, 56).  Nowhere has blogging for business, been more apparent to me than my dad’s own blog. When he was undergoing the process of licensing, building, and managing an ice cream store he started Cheerful Musings to build a community, let the town know his progress, and as a means to gather his thoughts.  Now that he works constantly he no longer updates it, but is considering paying a scooper extra to work on the store’s blog. This type of job never used to exist but the advent of digital media has created it’s own field.

My best experience with digital writing came in my first year seminar.  For a final project we were to choose a topic related to our class, find a relevant person to interview, develop a script, and finally make a podcast with your interview.  This multi-step project required us to think about a new form of writing.  We developed a script for the interview that had to be professional and informative while also being conversational.  Much like Leah Wright’s twitter exercises, this strengthened our ability to write concisely.  It also boosted real-world social skills by requiring us to arrange the interview with a professional, and use advanced recording equipment.  I found that during the interview I had to quickly adapt questions to reflect the answers I was getting, which was difficult but proved to reap stimulating conversations.  Finally it taught us to use a new software, Audacity, to create our podcasts.  This experience shows that classes and assignments that incorporate digital writing can offer real-world experiences, and opportunities to learn new skills.

As a college student digital writing plays such a large and integral part of my daily life that much of it has become so familiar it is now unnoticed.  I check my email, complete online quizzes, browse the daily news, and read social media, all of which revolve around digital writing.  I was initially hesitant to take this course stating to my mom that as a science major why would I need a background in digital writing, the only writing I would do would be in scientific journals (if I was so lucky).  She remarked that after graduating as an English major she worked writing about the torsional capacity of relative steel brands, knowing nothing about material sciences.  “Writing well is the most important skill you can have,” she told me. Now that I am a few weeks into this course I see how even as a science major digital writing can and will be a ever present force in both my future career and daily life.

References:

Emanuel, Jenny. “Digital Native Librarians, Technology Skills, and Their Relationship with Technology.” Information Technology & Libraries 32 (2013): 20-33. Web. 7 October. 2013

Graham, Shawn. “Learning to Write at a Distance.” Web Writing 15 Sept. 2005: Web. October 2013

Page, Kelly; Mapstone, Mark. “How Does the Web Make Youth Feel? Exploring the Positive Digital Native Rhetoric.” Journal of Marketing Management 26 (2010): 1345-1366. Web. 7 October. 2013.

Post, Peter. “Embrace Social Media Carefully.” Training 50 (2013): 56. Web. 8 October. 2013

Wright, Leah. “Tweet Me A Story.” Web Writing 15 Sept. 2005: Web. October 2013

While researching this topic, I made a very important yet simple conclusion: technology is not bad. In fact, without technology, our world would be behind in more ways than one. Technology is responsible for spreading vast amounts of information to a broad audience in almost no time at all. Why then, is technology seen as a bad thing or utterly out of place when combined with academia and a classroom setting? There are several articles examined in the following paper that makes a case for web-writing, some about using twitter in the classroom, and others about cultural identity and how web-writing helped students to discover themselves in an unexpected way. This paper attempts to uncover the benefits of technology in the classroom, and more specifically, how the audience aspect of web writing influences the stylistic choices of the web-writer. In that way, hopefully it will become clear why web writing is a critically important tool not only for academic growth in the classroom, but for cultural growth and establishing one’s identity.

In the article “Tweet Me a Story,” Kate Messner shows how twitter, when properly applied, can be a useful tool for learning. At first, her students were bewildered as to why the twitter page was displayed at the front of the classroom. What was once a strange notion of having technology, specifically twitter, in class is becoming more of the norm. And why shouldn’t educators embrace it? Messner explained the role of twitter in her class by saying, “it is a teaching tool that we take advantage of when it fits our teaching and learning needs and when special opportunities arise” (Messner, 2009). Messner is arguing the practicality of using the internet to reach fellow students and scholars. Through the seventh grade class twitter, they were able to pose a question and have it responded to by several scholars and writers, exposing them to ideas from an audience with a sophisticated knowledge of the subject. Because their audience was now the entire twitter world, they felt the need to craft thoughtful tweets for a broad audience.  Because of twitter, the class was able to get a sense of what it was like to write for a large and audience of differing backgrounds. Below is a sample of my personal twitter feed, which is diversified in information and content:

         Many other professionals and teachers have supported the idea that incorporating online media and writing into the classroom is a vital learning tool. In a journal of adolescent and adult literacy, Donna Alvermann speaks of the way that students, when given the opportunity to use multimodal content when talking about their identity, their creative energy flourished and their writing and content was interesting and compelling. Writing a blog essay about their personal identities produced a much different result than a typical hand written essay would because the students were genuinely interested in the process and the product that would come of their work. Additionally, this interest was motivated largely by the idea that there would be an audience on the other side of their writing. Alvermann noted that the students, knowing that a large and diverse audience would read their work, put much more time and effort into perfecting their essay and presentation. Studies have shown this conclusion as well, as she goes on to say “increasingly, researchers are pointing to the centrality of audience as a major contributor to adolescents’ fascination with self-created online content” (Alvermann, 2008). In that way, instead of writing for one specific person or teacher, the students recognized the challenge of writing for an audience from all different walks of life. With a broad and unpredictable audience, there is more pressure to express exactly what you mean, because comments and criticism could come from a variety of different viewpoints.

Twitter is not the only tool being used for classroom writing. There are other forms of media and online writing that can allow students to increase their creativity and writing skills. While twitter is a useful exercise for condensing thoughts and ideas, when a certain topic needs to be explored at length, a vehicle of conversation and free write is more applicable. In the article “Getting Uncomfortable: Identity Exploration in a Multi-Class Blog” Rochelle Rodrigo and Jennifer Kidd talk about the unique experience that a group of students at Old Dominion had in exploring the topic of cultural identities through blogging. The aim of this project was to explore the phenomenon of “colorblindness” and cultural awareness. By using a blog format, the students were asked to write about their identities and read their fellow students blogs and see whose culture they related to or identified with most. The results of the study were interesting in that students became aware of how uncomfortable they were with other cultures. While the results from that perspective were somewhat discouraging, a positive aspect of the study was the way in which the students improved their writing skills. The author talked about how the students, aware of the audience aspect, were more conscious of the quality of their work. Students agreed, saying they “benefitted from reading and learning from one another’s text” (Rodrigo & Kidd, 2011). Like twitter, this idea of sharing one’s writing with others generally encourages a higher quality of writing. Perhaps because the students knew their writing would be viewed by their fellow students, there was motivation to write better and for a broader audience than just a professor or one person. Shown below is a blog that has a great tonality and sense of identity:

            Other studies have shown similar findings about the benefits of blogging instead of traditional writing. In an article titled “Anonymity in Blended Learning: Who Would You Like to Be,” the author talks about the benefits of being able to create an online identity. The way that a person can take on any identity is unique to online writing and can be used to develop a person’s sense of identity. Furthermore, blogging under an anonymous identity is generally the preferred mode of writing because students can express themselves to an audience without feeling that they would be critique on a personal level. This is explained by Miyazoe and Anderson in the article, as they say, “in blended learning in writing instruction, anonymity is often associated with peer feedback because anonymous peer feedback is used as a minimally threatening common teaching strategy. It was found that with the anonymous component, writing performance was higher” (Miyazoe and Anderson, 2011). The higher performance in the students online writing could therefore be due to how there was no way to connect the words to the writer. The author, therefore, was free to write openly and honestly, something that many students and writers are not accustomed to in a classroom setting. Therefore, though anonymity hides the author’s identity from the audience, paradoxically, the freedom of expression in their writing gave them more identity and credibility than ever before in their classroom writing experiences.

It is my personal opinion that bringing in a digital writing aspect to class can have a great impact on student’s intellectual and personal growth. One of the best aspects of web writing is the freedom and room for creativity that it gives the reader. If you ask any student, they will tell you that creativity in terms of assignments for class is encouraged, but only limited to what they believe the teacher wants to see or will deem good work. If teachers were to introduce twitter, blogging, and other modes of technological writing into the classroom, the creativity and subsequent academic growth in writing would increase exponentially. In my own experience, technology has only become commonplace in the classroom during my time at Dickinson. During my schooling prior to Dickinson, technology was a pastime for students and essentially a foreign concept to my teachers. As the years progress however, more educators are realizing the vast benefits that bringing technology into the classroom can have for their students’ learning experiences, similar to the ways that Messner, Alvermann, Miyazoe, and Anderson have pointed out. Blogging, Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites have become so ingrained in our every day lives that is hard to ignore now, even if we wanted to. While generally these sites are seen as recreational, I personally get most of my information through these sites. Current events around the world are constantly posted to the web in the form of tweets, youtube videos, facebook statuses, and more. So many events are tweeted about first before any other writing because it is effective at doing what online writing should do: reach as many interested readers as possible. Additionally, sometimes the best writing can be on an informal website. I’ve found that personal writing is most genuine and thoughtful when I am composing a blog post or tweet because anyone with internet can access my writing. With this in mind, I write true to myself instead of trying to address just one person or type of audience. In a class for a project or paper, it is easy to cater your argument to fit the audience in mind that will be reading and critiquing it, whereas online, anyone can access it and comment or offer opinions that can add to the conversation. This ability for the outside world to reach you is an extraordinary tool for ensuring the best information and quality available in your writing. As a student studying the environment, the web is of particular value to me because the environment and world around us is changing every day, and I need to be able to access articles, videos, and images that show these changes. An idea I have for my blog is to incorporate different types of media and writing to engage a large range of people on these changes. Getting people to care about the environment can be difficult, depending on the audience. Because of this, good web-writing, interesting media, and encouraging interaction with the readers is essential for this informative environmental blog to be successful. Below is an example of a blog that is inspiration for this idea:

Sources (Sited in MLA):

Alvermann, Donna E. “Why Bother Theorizing Adolescents’ Online Literacies for Classroom Practice and Research?” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 52.1 (2008). Web. 10 Oct. 2013

Messner, Kate. “Pleased to tweet you: making a case for Twitter in the classroom (using Twitter for classroom instruction).” School Library Journal 12.44 (2009). Web. 10 Oct. 2013.

Miyazoe, Terumi and Terry Anderson. “Anonymity in Blended Learning: Who Would You Like to Be?” Journal of Educational Technology & Society 14.2 (2011). Web. 10 Oct. 2013.