Resources from my Heinemann book, The Digital Writing Workshop (2009)
NOTE: This page includes links from an archived version of our original Wikispace, which went offline in 2018. To that end, some of the links may be broken. If you find one, please contact me.
Also, connect with me on Twitter @hickstro
Chapter 1: Imagining a Digital Writing Workshop
Connecting what we know about effective instruction with the writing workshop approach to what we are learning about emerging technologies can provide us with a powerful way to teach digital writing.
Please use this forum to discuss your thoughts about what it means to teach in a “digital writing workshop.” What do we, as writing teachers, need to know and be able to do? What do our students need to know and be able to do as digital writers?
Links featured in this chapter include:
- Aram Kabodian’s class wiki with students’ PSAs Is this video available in another format that will open on a Mac?
- Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education
- Teachers Teaching Teachers
Chapter 2: Fostering Choice and Inquiry through RSS, Social Bookmarking, and Blogging
The first key principle of teaching in a digital writing workshop centers on student choice in topics and genres, as well as authentic inquiry. Through read/write web tools such as blogs, RSS, and social bookmarking, we can invite students to create their own personal learning networks and begin writing to real audiences and for different purposes.
In what ways can we utilize the tools described in this chapter to invite students into their own inquiry and lead to authentic writing?
Links mentioned in Chapter 2:
- Webquests
- Sara Beauchamp’s Censorship Activity
- RSS Readers: Google Reader, Bloglines, Netvibes, NewsGator
- Educause’s 7 Things You Should Know About RSS
- The Common Craft Show’s “RSS in Plain English”
- Youth Plans Curriculum and Youth Voices, including Katie Harrington’s post “Yes We Can: My Experience in Grant Park on Election Day”
- Social bookmarking tools including Diigo, Clipmarks, and delicious
- Educause’s 7 Things You Should Know about Social Bookmarking
- The Common Craft Show’s “Social Bookmarking in Plain English”
- Pew Internet and American Life Project
- MacArthur Digital Learning Initiative
- National Council of Teachers of English
- International Reading Association
- FRONTLINE’s “Growing Up Online”
- Educause’s 7 Things You Should Know About Blogs
- The Common Craft Show’s “Blogs in Plain English”
- Blogging services such as Edublogs, Class Blogmeister, Thinkquest, and Ning
- Troy’s “Digital Writing, Digital Teaching” blog
- Support Blogging!
- Firefox Web Browser
- Scribefire and Zotero
Chapter 3: Conferring through Blogs, Wikis, and Collaborative Word Processors
Conferring — both between teacher and student as well as student to student — has long been at the heart of the writing workshop. How can digital writing tools help enhance our conferring practices? In what ways can different digital writing tools be used to provide us with the best opportunities to read and respond to student work?
Links Mentioned in Chapter 3
- Students 2.0
- Blogging services such as Edublogs, Class Blogmeister, Thinkquest, and Ning
- Edubloggers such as David Warlick, Vicki Davis, and Will Richardson
- Wikis such as Wikispaces, Wetpaint, PBworks, and the former JotSpot, which has now become Google Sites
- Educause’s 7 Things You Should Know About Wikis
- The Common Craft Show’s “Wikis in Plain English“
- Examples of educational wikis including Educational Wikis, Best Education Wikis, Terry the Tennis Ball, Aram Kabodian’s class wiki, and my ENG 315 wiki
- Educause’s 7 Things You Should Know About Collaborative Editing
- The Common Craft Show’s “Google Docs in Plain English”
- Collaborative Word Processors such as Google Docs, Zoho Writer and more (Aune, 2008)
- Audacity – Open Source Audio Editor and LAME MP3 Encoder
- Chris Sloan’s Audacity Tutorials
Additional Links
Chapter 4: Examining Author’s Craft Through Multimedia Composition
In this chapter, we begin to explore what it means to craft writing when working with multimedia. By exploring the craft of creating photoessays, podcasts, and digital stories, we can begin to frame digital writing expectations for our students in ways that help them understand the many audiences they can reach, the media they can use, and the purposes for which they can compose.
In what ways do you invite students to compose multimedia texts? What are some of the challenges and opportunities of writing multimedia?
- NCTE 21st Century Literacies: A Policy Statement
- ISTE National Education Technology Standards
- Michigan High School Content Expectations
- Photovoice
- WHYSUP Oakland
- Photosharing sites such as Flickr, Picasa, Facebook, and Voicethread
- Tell a Story in Five Frames Flickr Group
- Podcasting sites such as Odeo and Podomatic
- Copyright free music and sounds at Freeplaymusic and Freesound
- National Public Radio’s This I Believe Series
- Dawn Reed’s This I Believe Project Student Essays
- Bob Sprankle’s Class Podcast: Room 208
- Educause’s 7 Things You Should Know About Digital Storytelling
- Digitales: The Art of Telling Digital Stories
- Shannon Powell’s Digital Story: Meet Vinnie
- Sharon Murchie’s Senior Project
- Online video editor: Movie Masher
- Jing Screencasting Tool
Chapter 5: Designing and Publishing Digital Writing
Sharing writing with wider audiences has always been a goal of the writing workshop approach. Digital writing creates new opportunities for writers to share their work through technologies such as digital portfolios, online anthologies, and audio and video collections.
In what ways can you invite your students to design digital writing spaces in which to share their work?
Resources mentioned in Chapter 5:
- Fanfiction.net
- The National Writing Project’s E-Anthology Overview
- Helen Barrett’s Electronic Portfolios Overview Site
- Website Builders such as Google Sites, Geocities, and Webs
- Blogging services such as Edublogs, Class Blogmeister, Blogger, and Typepad
- Class Anthology sites from Aram Kabodian and Heather Lewis
- VLC Media Player
- Apple’s iTunes
- Chris Sloan’s Audacity Tutorials
- Youth Voices
- Creative Commons
- Zamzar
- Code of Best Practices for Fair Use in Media Education
Chapter 6: Enabling Assessment Over Time with Digital Writing Tools
As teachers of writing, we are constantly assessing our students in both formative and summative ways, watching the process of composing as well as evaluating the final products. Digital writing certainly shares some of the traditional steps in the writing process and traits that we look for in quality writing. Yet, it also becomes more complex and recursive as the media, audiences, purposes, and writing situations change.
In what ways do you assess the process and products of digital writing?
- NCTE’s “Writing Now” Policy Research Brief
- Partnership for 21st Century Skills
- Center for Media Literacy
- NCTE’s Framework for 21st Century Curriculum and Assessment
- ISTE’s National Educational Technology Standards
- Michigan Educational Technology Standards
- Bernajean Porter’s “Digitales” Interactive Scoring> Guides for Digit…
- Paul Allison’s “Be a Blogger” Website
Chapter 7: Creating Your Digital Writing Workshop
As you begin to create your own digital writing workshop, know that there are many models for successful technology integration in the teaching of writing that you can begin by looking at in order to get a sense of what other teachers are doing.
In what ways are you able to support your students, create physical and virtual spaces for them to share their writing, and talk about the subject of writing as the definition of what it means to “compose” continues to evolve?
Resources mentioned in Chapter 7:
- National Writing Project’s Technology Initiative
- Red Cedar Writing Project’s “Project WRITE” Wiki
- TPACK Wiki
- Pew Internet’s “Writing, Technology, and Teens” Report
Appendix
Copyright. As one significant component of understanding our rights and responsibilities as digital writers, exploring the concepts related to fair use and copyright — as well as what it means to license work through a Creative Commons copyright — will serve your students well as they continue to consume, remix, and produce their own digital compositions. One additional resource mentioned throughout the book, but that was not available when I first wrote the appendix as an article over a year ago is the “Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education” produced by the Media Education Lab, a site which I strongly encourage you to explore.
In what ways can we encourage students to be productive, ethical, and responsible digital citizens and writers?
Resources mentioned in the Appendix
- NCTE Policy Statement on 21st Century Literacies
- Mark Wagner’s “Wiki While You Work” Presentation
- Wiki sites such as Wikispaces, PBWorks, and WetPaint
- Wikipedia Entry on Fair Use
- Hall Davidson’s Copyright and Fair Use Chart
- Eric Faden’s “A Fair(y) Use Tale“
- Library of Congress
- KitZu
- Lawrence Lessig’s Website
- Creative Commons
- Educause’s 7 Things You Should Know About Creative Commons
- CC Licensed material on Flickr, Blip.tv, OWL Music Search, and Freesound
- The Common Craft Show’s “Wikis in Plain English”
- On the Media’s “Get Me Rewrite”
- Project Gutenberg
- Michigan’s ELA High School Content Expectations
Additional Resources
Audio
- Teachers Teaching Teachers – 9/30/09 – Choice and Inquiry with Troy Hicks, Penny Kittle, Sara Beauchamp-Hicks, and Chris Sloan Hosted by Paul Allison and Susan Ettenheim.
- Teachers Teaching Teachers – 10/07/09 – Exploring Author’s Craft in Digital Writing – Troy Hicks, Dawn Reed, Aram Kabodian, Sharon Murchie, and Shannon Powell. Hosted by Paul Allison and Susan Ettenheim.
- Teachers Teaching Teachers – 10/14/09 – Conferring and Response in the Digital Writing Workshop – Troy Hicks, Melissa Pomerantz, Heather Lewis, and Joe Bellino. Hosted by Paul Allison and Susan Ettenheim.
- Teachers Teaching Teachers – 1/27/10 – Renee Hobbs and Troy Hicks Discuss Fair Use – Renee Hobbs, Troy Hicks, and Chris Sloan. Hosted by Paul Allison and Susan Ettenheim.
- The EdTech Classroom Podcast: A Conversation about the Digital Writing Workshop (12-31-09). Joe Wood, Karen Chichester, and Burt Lo with Troy Hicks and Sara Beauchamp-Hicks.
- SE2T2 Podcast on Digital Writing (3-12-10). Jeremy Harder and Troy Hicks.
- NWP’s Blog Talk Radio – Reading in the Summer Institute.
Video
Additional News and Media
- Pascopella, A., & Richardson, W. (2009). The new writing pedagogy: Using social networking tools to keep up with student interests. Retrieved November 26, 2009, from http://www.districtadministration.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=2202
- Aronson, Deb. Online Writing Instruction: No Longer a Novelty. NCTE Council Chronicle. November 2009.
- Schulz, K. (2009). Teaching the digital generation. MEA Voice, 86(3), 10-13. Retrieved September 17, 2009, from http://www.mea.org/voice/2009Feb/3B625F8F36C90E4889193EC93249BB64/index.html
- Smith, H. (2008). Troy Hicks – technology literacy 4/10/08. Retrieved September 4, 2008, from http://deimos.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Browse/cmich.edu.1373746023.01395469257.1521077078?i=1803585319
Updated: May 31, 2020
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