Let's Get Digital.

Why Digital Writing Matters.

The Exponential Times video never fails to shock. I remember my mouth hitting my lab table watching the 2007 version as an intro to population control in my AP Environmental Science class. My seniors last year expressed similar shock to the more updated one. However, one message hasn't changed (although the statistics certainly have): shift happens.

As such, the authors are correct in asserting that the time has come for students to employ a broader variety of writing in the classroom. I look at the author's suggestions and think about how I can employ digital writing in my classroom.

"A pair of high school teachers—one English teacher and one social studies teacher—plan a multiweek unit in which their students will engage in community-based research and repre- sent their work as a digital story or short film at a final exhibi- tion night. Students begin by generating topics and questions that they would like to ask members of their community and posting those ideas to a project wiki, one shared by multiple sections of these two teachers’ classes throughout the day. Over the course of the project, students collect artifacts with digital tools such as voice recorders and video cameras, documenting their work on the project wiki. Once the videos are produced, a process that takes nearly two weeks of gathering, organizing, editing, and merging media, students celebrate by inviting the community members they interviewed to the school for the exhibition night. Eventually, many videos are posted on a video- sharing site to allow people from outside the community to see what the students have discovered in their research" (10). 

The idea of demonstrating knowledge in a new way is certainly a compelling one. If I could, I'd certainly have students completing projects like this. However, as a low-income school, struggles occur. We don't have access to cameras and recorders. While students do have access to laptops and can create blogs, pod-casts, and even iMovies based on still images, they are not gaining equal access to what may be a truly multimodal classroom. How, then, can we work to ensure that students regardless of income have access to the possibilities in education that multimodal writing can offer? Without doubt this is the future of English Language instruction, but what can we do to ensure yet another generation of students won't be left behind?