Technology in the Writing Classroom

As I was looking over my usual publications this morning (i.e., Insidehighered, The Chronicle) I came across this article regarding technology use in the writing classroom. This piece truly intrigued me since I believe that using technology in the classroom provides more benefits to students than detriments.

The article points out that student's don't view their text messaging and Facebook wall posts as true writing and therefore don't take the time to construct complete and well thought out responses. They instantly put down whatever they are thinking without regard to spelling, punctuation, grammar or consequences. Many of them do not realize that the information that they are aggregating on the web if there forever. There is no way to delete information once it's posted. This informal communication may be somewhat annoying to those who didn't grow up in the Millennial Generation, but does it truly matter if students are using abbreviations like "LOL" or ":)"? I am not suggesting that students abandon all formal writing lessons, but I don't think that it is as huge an issue as some are making it out to be. Eventually everyone will have familiarity with such abbreviations and they will become commonplace.

When students send me emails with "u" instead of "you", I kindly send them a reminder that when communicating with university professionals it is best to use professional protocol and provide them with an example of what things need to be corrected. Students truly don't know that what they are doing is "inappropriate" to some. I also have taught workshops where I let students know how to conduct themselves in writing and show them examples of good writing and bad.

I am definitely guilty of adding the occasional emoticon smile to my emails in a professional setting. What's so wrong with that? The key is being able to have both sets of skills and knowing when to turn on and turn off.