Making Connections
I have really enjoyed this course as it brought to light issues I had not previously thought of with regards to writing and technology. Most importantly, it has made me rethink and question the way I teach writing in my profession. Bolter (2001) states that “we write both to express, to discover, and to share who we are, and in a postmodern age our written identity is, like hypertext, dynamic, flexible, and contingent”. I think this is something to keep in mind as we teach and evaluate the “writing” of our students. Just as people were apprehensive about the change from writing by hand to the use of the typewriter, there are some people who fear that the act of writing by hand will be lost due to the increasing use of the computer.
I think that technology has actually increased the amount of writing we do on a day- to-day basis; however, today’s writing is much less formal (think SMS and emoji). The way in which we write and communicate today is very different from the way people communicated years ago, but that is the way our society is changing and progressing. Am I happy that my students sometimes use SMS language or emojis in the writing they hand into me? No, but if it helps me as the reader understand their point, or encourages/motivates them to write more, should they be penalized?
Just as writing by hand did not disappear with the invention of the typewriter, I do not think handwriting will vanish as advancements in technology and communication continue to be made, and I am interested in seeing how writing adapts in this information age.
References
Bolter, J.D. (2001). Writing space: Computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print (2nd Ed.). Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Escamilla, A. [digital image]. (2013). Left-handed writing with wristwatch. Retrieved from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Left-handed_writing_with_wristwatch.jpg
Kara,
My students think it’s hilarious if I gently tease them with #hashtag speak. I totally agree with you if it engages them more to bring social media aspects into their writing, I’m all for it. I don’t think handwriting will disappear anytime soon, and I’m happy to see many teachers still including it as part of their teaching, even though it is not “required”.
~Sandra