1. Digital Writing
Reimagining Traditional Writing Assignments
for the 21st Century in 4th – 12th Grades
Cheryl Beshke & Melissa Page

2. What is Digital Writing?
 “Any writing that requires a computer to
access it.” (JodiAnn Stevenson)
 “Writing which, at a minimum, would be
diminished if it were presented in a non-digital
format, and at best, which is effectively
untranslatable out of the digital format.” (Dan
Waber)

3. What is Digital Writing?
“Creative writing/participatory writing,
hypertext writing, improvisatory „real time‟
writing, new media writing (i.e. multimedia
authorship), code poetry and programmatic
writing, online role playing, journal
writing/blogging, international community
building E-learning, game playing . . .”
(Tim Wright)

4. What is Digital Writing?
“Compositions created with, and oftentimes for
reading or viewing on, a computer or other
device that is connected to the Internet . . .
Today‟s networked connectivity allows writers
to draw from myriad sources, use a range
of media, craft various types of
compositions representing a range of tools
and genres, and distribute that work almost
instantaneously and sometimes globally”
(National Writing Project, DeVoss, EidmanAadahl, & Hicks, 2010, p. 6-7).

5. Why Teach Digital Writing?
 Because technology has increased the intensity
and complexity of literate environments, the
21st century demands that a literate person
possess a wide range of abilities and
competencies, many literacies. (NCTE, 2013).
 “Simply being able to use technology is no
longer enough. Today‟s students need to be
able to use technology to analyze, learn and
explore. Digital age skills are vital for
preparing students to work, live, and
contribute to the social and civic fabric of their
communities” (International Society for
Technology in Education, 2007).

6. Why Teach Digital Writing?
 “We want—or, rather, we need—today‟s
students to critically consume information, to
create and share across time and space, to
cocreate and collaborate to solve problems, to
persevere in light of setbacks, and to maintain
flexibility. Digital literacies provide
opportunities for the inquiries that will develop
these skills” (Hicks & Turner, 2010, p. 59).

7. Why Teach Digital Writing?
“Equipping students to write in only one mode—
traditionally, black ink on white paper in scripted
genres—will not serve students in their higher
education experiences or in the workplaces of
the future. Equipping students to work across
and within contemporary networked spaces, and
to write in a range of genres and a diversity of
modes to audiences local and widespread, will
serve students in their higher education
experiences and in the workplaces of the future”
(National Writing Project, DeVoss, EidmanAadahl, & Hicks, 2010, p. 5).

8. Digital Writing & Reading
“In today‟s complex, high-technology world, the
importance of writing as a fundamental
organizing objective of education is no less valid
or practical. Writing, properly understood, is
thought on paper. Increasingly, in the
information age, it is also thought on screen, a
richly elaborated, logically connected amalgam
of ideas, words, themes, images, and multimedia
designs.”
-Because Digital Writing Matters (2010)
National Writing Project

9. Digital Writing & Reading
“Reading and writing are not isolated skills that
can be separated from other social processes;
instead, they are interwoven with other
representational systems to create meaning.”
(Bahktin 1986, Gee 1996 through Jocius 2013)

10. Even the Common Core
Speaking and Listening (SL)
SL.4.5
Add audio recordings and visual displays to
presentations when appropriate to enhance the
development of main ideas or themes.
SL 5.5
Include multimedia components (e.g., graphics,
sound) and visual displays in presentations when
appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas
or themes.

11. Even the Common Core
Speaking and Listening (SL)
SL.6.5
Include multimedia components (e.g., graphics, images,
music, sound) and visual displays in presentations to
clarify information.
SL 7.5
Include multimedia components and visual displays in
presentations to clarify claims and findings and
emphasize salient points.
SL 8.5
Integrate multimedia and visual displays into
presentations to clarify information, strengthen claims
and evidence, and add interest.

12. Even the Common Core
Speaking and Listening (SL)
ELACC11-12SL5
Present information, findings, and supporting evidence,
conveying a clear and distinct perspective, such that
listeners can follow the line of reasoning, alternative or
opposing perspectives are addressed, and the
organization, development, substance, and style are
appropriate to purpose, audience, or a range of formal
and informal tasks.
ELACC11-12SL5
Make strategic use of digital media (e.g. textual,
graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in
presentations to enhance understanding of findings,
reasoning, and evidence and to add interest.

13. The Best of Digital Writing
According to a recent report co-sponsored by the
National Writing Project and the Pew Research
Center, there are three beneficial impacts of
using digital tools:
“[P]roviding a broader audience for student
work, encouraging creativity and personal
expression in a multitude of formats, and
offering more opportunities for collaboration,
interaction and feedback” (Purcell et al, 2013,
p. 24).

14. The Worst
Turner and Hicks, in their recent English Journal article
on digital writing identify five practices that they say
destroy digital literacy:
 Counting Slides (or images, links, or any other digital
component of a task)
 Using a Blog without Blogging
 Criticizing Digitalk
 Asking (only) Questions That Can Be Answered by a
Search Engine
 Using “Cool” Technology to Deliver a Planned
Lesson

15. What It Means for Teachers
“This does not mean that teachers must entirely
change what they know and do in their
classrooms; rather, teachers must explore how their
strengths transfer to different tools and emerging
genres. Doing so requires that we rethink,
oftentimes, the rhetorical situations that we ask
students to write within, the audiences we ask them
to write for, the products that they produce, and
the purposes of their writing”
(National Writing Project, DeVoss, Eidman-Aadahl,
& Hicks, 2010, p. 14)

16. Sources
 Hicks, T., & Turner, K. H. (2013). No longer a luxury: Digital literacy can‟t wait.
English Journal (102.6), 58-65.
 Jocius, R. (2013). Exploring Adolescents‟ Multimodal Responses to The Kite
Runner: Understanding how students use digital media for academic purpose.
Journal of Media Literacy Education. 5(1), pages 310-325.
 International Society for Technology in Education. (2007). ISTE standards for
students. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/docs/pdfs/nets-sstandards.pdf?sfvrsn=2
 National Council of Teachers of English. (2013). NCTE framework for 21st
century curriculum and assessment. Retrieved from
http://www.ncte.org/positions/statements/21stcentframework
 National Writing Project, DeVoss, D. N., Eidman-Aadahl, E., & Hicks, T.
(2010). Because digital writing matters: Improving student writing in online
and multimedia environments. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
 Purcell, K., Buchanan, J., & Friedrich L. (2013). The impact of digital tools on
student writing and how writing is taught in schools. National Writing Project
and Pew Research Center. Retrieved from
http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Teachers-technology-and-writing