This page is an introduction to the online course about digital aids in writing. It addresses the ways in which digital aids can be used to further students' writing skills.
Click here to unfold 'Prior Knowledge'
Which digital aids do you use in your writing lessons? And what do you use them for? Share your experiences below! Click on the pink-colourd plus (+) to add a post. You can also reply to each other's posts. All posts are anonymous.
Click here to unfold 'Instruction'
Writing nowadays has become almost exclusively digital, especially for younger generations. To match the teaching of writing to everyday writing, it is important to also offer digital writing in our writing courses. Apart from that, the integration of digital aids in writing lessons can also contribute to increased use of digital aids in our students' teaching practices. According to several publications, the integration of online tools in teacher training programmes, significantly increases the likelihood of future teachers to use ICT in their own professional practice (Romeo, Lloyd & Downes, 2012; Ertmer & Ottenbreit-Leftwich, 2010).
The three main methods of using digital aids in teaching writing are online collaborative writing, online multimodal writing, and e-feedback. Online collaborative writing has shown significant improvements in writing skills, and has been found to encourage critical thinking, reflection, and self-regulation. The main benefit of online collaborative writing, as opposed to offline collaborative writing, is that students can work independent of place and time, which solves common problems in collaboration in terms of communication and availability. Multimodal writing, the supplementation of text with hyperlinks, videos, images, and other media, has shown to relate more to students’ daily modes of communication. Increased motivation has also been allocated to the successful improvement of writing skills in multimodal writing, as well as an elevated sense of autonomy and self-regulation. E-feedback is the third and last approach for which digital aids can be used to improve writing skills. Feedback plays a significant role in developing writing skills. E-feedback can be given synchronically and asynchronically. Both types have their advantages and alternation between both types of e-feedback has been found most beneficial.
The three main methods of using digital aids in teaching writing are online collaborative writing, online multimodal writing, and e-feedback. Online collaborative writing has shown significant improvements in writing skills, and has been found to encourage critical thinking, reflection, and self-regulation. The main benefit of online collaborative writing, as opposed to offline collaborative writing, is that students can work independent of place and time, which solves common problems in collaboration in terms of communication and availability. Multimodal writing, the supplementation of text with hyperlinks, videos, images, and other media, has shown to relate more to students’ daily modes of communication. Increased motivation has also been allocated to the successful improvement of writing skills in multimodal writing, as well as an elevated sense of autonomy and self-regulation. E-feedback is the third and last approach for which digital aids can be used to improve writing skills. Feedback plays a significant role in developing writing skills. E-feedback can be given synchronically and asynchronically. Both types have their advantages and alternation between both types of e-feedback has been found most beneficial.
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Have you read the text above? Check to see if you remember the most important bits by doing this crossword puzzle!
Click here to unfold 'Final Assignment'
Which of the three ways of using digital aids appeals most to you? How would you implement it in your writing lessons? Follow the steps below.
- Write a short description of an assignment that you could add to your lessons incorporating e-feedback, multimodal writing, and/or online collaborative writing.
- Post your assignment to the discussions tab (only available in the paid course)
