The Impact of Digital Tools on Student Writing and How Writing is Taught in Schools

Purcell, K., J. Buchanan, L. Friedrich. (2013). The Impact of Digital Tools on Student Writing and How Writing is Taught in School . [Report]. Retrieved from: http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Teachers-technology-and-writing I chose this report because I used to teach English in middle school and I wanted to see what it says about using digital tools. It talks about the same things that I found when I was in the classroom. Of the 2000+ teachers that were spoken with they see the social networking sites, cell phones and texting to facilitate teens' personal expression and creativity, widens their audience, and encourages them to write in more formats than other generations. But on the negative side, the students use informal style into formal writings and it makes it easier to plagiarize. When I was in the classroom, the students would use their text writing in their formal writing. They really had a hard time understanding why they couldn't use the texting language in classroom assignments. Teachers who say that the digital tools have beneficial ideas about students' writing, they also worry about the bad effects on their writing. Some of the bad effects are line between formal and informal writing, having the students write to different audiences and using different voices, and students inability to write longer texts. These teachers gave many lessons on copyright, plagiarism, and citations because of the students' deficiencies. 58% of students write short essays, short responses at least once a week and 41% write journal entries on a weekly basis. English and social studies teachers assign research papers, math students write out math problems and some science students write lab reports. Students think that the only writing they do is in school. They do not believe that texting is writing because they do not write in complete sentences. It also showed that today's students are expressing themselves more often. This report talked about how teachers and students perceived writing with digital tools. I saw quite a bit of both positive and negative writing skills mentioned in this report in my classroom every year I was teaching. 114 pages