The growth of technology has changed our world without question. But has technology made writing easier or more complex? It has been my experience that with the new word processing programs, writing has become less of a challenge. In stead of spending hours proof reading and looking up the correct spellings of words, I can do it all with a press of a button. With all of my grammatical answers and researching information available on the web, I can spend less time correcting myself and more time focusing on writing. I am not sure if this has made me a better or worse writer. When I type a paper, I always use spell check. I also depend on Microsoft to fix any grammatical errors I might have made. Without technology, my papers would be half as good, but would take twice as long. So is this a good or bad thing? Well I think it’s both.
My dependence on Microsoft is probably not for the best. But, it has made writing more enjoyable and it has allowed me to broaden my writing experiences. Sure, I may use spell check, but I also learn from the mistakes that I have made. And sure, I may be able to research any topic with half of the effort it would have taken thirty years ago, but I can also learn about so much more in half the time. With technology, we can gather research from several different sources as opposed to using one book. I am also exposed to so man different types of writing at one time. Yes, technology has made our lives easier, and possibly has made people more lazy or less patient, but, it has also enabled us to learn with a much broader spectrum.
As far as technology and education goes, it is vital for teachers to be on top of things. A large gap is developing between the old and the young. Older teachers may have a difficult time learning how to use technology where as younger teachers probably grew up on a computer. As an educator, we need to not only know the material that we are going to teach, but also, we need to know how to teach it most effectively. Since students today have grown up in a digital world, we need to be able to present the materials digitally. Chalk boards and even note taking by pencils are becoming out dated. It is important that we can use technology to administer the information in the best way. Not only is technology more interesting to students’, it’s becoming the only thing they know. Teachers need to embrace technology by using all of the tools it can offer. We can use technology for anything from assigning homework online, to maintaining a professional website to keep students’ and parents updated, to using digital story telling.
I think the biggest issue with digital writing is that you have to be extremely careful about the information that you allow on the web. For teachers especially, it is so important to consider everything that you post on the internet. It is also our job to monitor the information that our students are accessing while in school. Even with the safety searches available today, it is so easy for a child to purposefully or accidentally find something inappropriate. In addition, it is so easy to find faulty information. Technology is a blessing in that it allows anyone to find any type of information, but it is also a huge responsibility.
If you are interested in reading more about the pros and cons of technology, click here to read a great article called, “The Landscape of Digital Writing.”
Elizabeth Moore 
I really like your thoughts about technology allowing us to learn so much more. We can look up information at the click of a button, instead of having to leaf through ten textbooks just to find the information we want to use. I definitely agree with you that yes, technology may be making us lazier in the fact that we don’t even need to pick up a dictionary anymore to check our spelling, but it has opened so many doors for us. We can find more information than we may have been able to find before by just looking through books. Especially as teachers, technology has opened up doors in ways that were not possible before, and we need to embrace all of the technology in the classroom. Being in the process of becoming a teacher in this digital world we live in now means that we need to know what was is going on in the digital world and incorporate it into our classrooms.
There are indeed precautions to consider when using the Internet in the classroom. We need to teach our students how to be good digital citizens but the only way we can do that is by actually using the technology! We know they will encounter these tools outside of school now or in the future so it’s imperative that we expose them to the right ways to use them.
Most counties/districts have what they call “Acceptable Use Policies” when it comes to technology use, but some districts have such heavy filters that even the useful content can’t get through. The irony is that schools filter content kids can easily access outside of school so they are missing out on teachable moments. For example, most schools ban Facebook yet so many students (and parents) use it outside of school that incidents that play out on Facebook often play out in the classroom,too. If schools would utilize social media more, they could TEACH kids how to use it appropriately. Instead, kids access it on their own and self-teach, often with disastrous results (e.g., bullying that leads to suicide).
Thats a good point. I have always felt that facebook and what not shouldn’t be allowed in schools, but say we did allow these sites and we taught students’ how to use them appropriately, I believe it would have apositive outcome. Also, if we allowed some of these sites in school, maybe students’ wouldn’t get such a “rush” from using these sites innapropriately outside of school.