Beginning to write with word processing: Integrating Writing processes and technology in a primary classroom.

Van Leeuwen, C.A. & Gabriel, M.A. (2007) Beginning to write with word processing: Integrating writing process and technology in a primary classroom. Reading Teacher, 63, 284-295


I found this article to be very informative but gave me cause for concern over the quality of instruction our students will be receiving is the practice written about in this article were to be generalized across all domains.  As it stands right now, we have kids graduation without knowing how to write a check or tally a receipt to calculate a tip.  We also have students graduating from the school system with out knowing how to write a 3,4,5,or 6 digit in long hand.  (Ex.  $1123.53= one thousand, one hundred, twenty three dollars and fifty three cents.)

When we as a district offer an accommodation for a student to use a key boarding device in order to take the F-CAT or ACT, we know how to deactivate the spell and grammar check.  What happens when the student learns to activate it in turn.  Another issue that I have is that students and apparently teachers are forgetting that penmanship is but a superficial shell around the act of writing.  The mechanics of writing (including Penmanship) is a far cry from the art of writing and where language is used, manipulated and transformed into a work of literature that in some instances survive the passage of time.

While I agree that collaboration can be greatly improved upon when students are made to work together at a single unit I fear that the conditioning of these young minds to develop, organize, and outline elements of a story with a computer will somehow stunt the creative process.  The actual act of writing (like reading) is a very personal act.  You open you heart and delve into your thoughts in order to cultivate an idea that you want to get across to another human being.  The act of sharing your writings (hand) is like giving a person an insight into you soul. 

Your script, penmanship,cursive is as identifiable a trait as is your fingerprint.  A person who writes by hand exposes himself and thus acts on conviction one committed to paper.  All these "elements" are changed, distorted and reconstituted by external influence without the benefit of your own judgement when you type up a story.  This form of writing (when conducted as a primary exercise in elementary)  is 2 dimensional at best. When a student commits him/herself to paper by typing characters this act will experience a certain disconnect until said time the writer has to defend his product.  It is only then that the writer returns to his core and explain and express the love and dedication they have put into such a writing and quickly becomes fleeting to boot.

The students using ICT and other programs cannot justify their writings until they have it in their hands.  Many students with disabilities may be dependant on assistive technologies to provide supports in the classroom and not develop their academic skills to a level of proficiency that can set them on par with others.  Technology should be used as a supplement to instruction as opposed to being an integral part of a student's performance.