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Implications of Technology for a College Education - Home
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Digital
Writing Across the Curriculum: Writing is the lifeblood
of a liberal education: almost any course taught by a
university can be taught better, and in more ways, if
entering students are good writers. Student writing ability
is also crucial for many forms of assessing learning.
This web
site is devoted to gathering evidence to help colleges and
universities investigate and debate
this assertion:
There are courses in every department of our
institution where teaching, learning, and assessment
could be improved if students entered with some skills in digital
writing (e.g., able to edit and annotate images, video,
animations, and audio for inclusion in academic papers;
able to write collaboratively online). Therefore
we should systematically develop those skills, in
addition to the skills we now teach in traditional
formats of academic expression (e.g., short essays, term
papers) (For more on why
we're calling this 'digital writing across the
curriculum,' click here.)
As we have
collected examples of digital writing assignments from courses in various majors, the
following defining strengths of digital writing across
the curriculum (DWAC) have been emerging:
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Many kinds of resources included,
annotated, and synthesized (by the author and
then by the reader) e.g., primary source text, images,
music, quantitative data, services, and video. The scope
for student research can be widened considerably.
Click here to read, and
contribute, examples.
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Multi-linear
and nonlinear argument can be expressed: Linear text
suggests certain kinds of reasoning, e.g., beginning
with a single thesis, citing literature, presenting
fresh evidence, and drawing a conclusion. But there are
other forms of reasoning that are sometimes more
appropriate for disciplinary content.
Click here to read, and
contribute, examples.
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Engaging an audience and thereby
engaging the student: Student authors are more
likely to learn if they are actually teaching, and
interacting with, a meaningful audience, during and
after the course (e.g. with work in a portfolio sent to
graduate schools or employers, or made publicly
available in a social networking site).
Click here for examples.
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Collaborative writing:
online writing tools such as wikis open new
possibilities for students to learn by writing together
and, sometimes, teaching one another as they do.
Click here for examples.
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The writing can continue to evolve,
even after the work is graded and the course ends.
Through interaction with collaborators and with readers,
the writing can continue to develop over time (even
after a course ends. Click
here for examples.
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Learning to write in
the different voices (genres)
appropriate for the discipline.
Click here for examples.
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Engaging topics that are emotionally
as well as intellectually challenging.
Click here for examples.
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Helping
students learn skills of digital writing does not mean
ignoring traditional forms of writing. In fact, a college education should also help
students learn how to decide when it's better to use
traditional forms and when to use digital forms of
expression.
For more resources and
references about digital writing across the curriculum (and
to contribute your own), click
here.
Developing Digital Literacy
Across the Curriculum at Your Institution
I'm not aware of any college
or university that is currently requiring and helping all
its students to be digital writers as they enter advanced
courses in their majors. Nor would it be possible to move to
that stance overnight. Click here
for ideas about how an institution can gradually move in
this direction (and to post your own ideas and experience,
too.)
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Stephen C. Ehrmann
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