Thing #6

I chose http://www.writeboard.com/ as my Web 2.0 tool to explore. I think that good writing is SO incredibly important. I can't stress enough the advantage that excellent writing can give to a student in their academic and career pursuits. I also believe that the ability to write well can enhance your ability to read good writing with greater comprehension. Because I'll be teaching high school students, they need to be preparing to write in collegiate and business settings. They also need to be able to read articles, business publications, and scholarly books and journals. In the age of word processor assisted editing--i.e. spell check and grammar check--many people think that if their writing doesn't have red or green squiggles underlining their passages then everything is a-okay. Good writing is something much more elusive and subtle than these spelling and grammar checking tools could ever assess. Peer editing can be hugely helpful in identifying how to make writing more readable, more interesting, and more unique. It also encourages student collaboration and discourages students from bombarding teachers with draft upon draft for inspection. I think that it is entirely appropriate for students to submit drafts to their teacher for some preliminary comments but I also think that students should take more responsibility for their writing process and use their fellow students to help them refine their ideas.

...On to writeboard.com...

This web tool is a place for students to engage in the process of writing. They can work on a paper, save it as they go along, and continue to refer back to each prior version. This can be so helpful when you get halfway through a paper and realize that the point you're trying to make is one you erased 4 versions ago. Word processing software does not generally allow you to go back to previous versions. Even if you do save each draft and then copy and paste the document into a new document to begin writing again, this method can be incredibly confusing. This tool also eliminates the need for students to save work to jump drives and remember to take it to each computer they'll be working on. It can also eliminate a lot of student excuses about computer crashes, disks eaten by dogs, etc. Another feature that I really liked was the way writeboard avails itself to group projects. Each document you work on in writeboard is assigned a password that members of a group can use to log in and view/edit/comment on the project. This feature could really enable students to create a group report or presentation without being required to physcially meet up. Since so many students have extracurricular activities, sports, jobs, and family obligations, the ability to log in and discuss or edit work could really increase the quality of group projects because students can work on their part of the project when they have the time to focus on it. It also makes it more difficult for one student to take charge of the project while the rest of the group plays guitar hero and eats pizza bagels.