Technology and Writing

This course, overall, has changed the way I think about writing as a process and a product of language made material. I love how Christina Haas writes, “Through writing, the physical, time-and-space world of tools and artifacts is joined to the symbolic world of language,” (p. 3). I have never thought about using tools to write before. I guess things like pens and computers are so much a part of what I use every day that I no longer think of them as tools the same way I think of a hammer or a spatula as being tools. Of course, it is true that writing cannot exist without tools—both material tools and language (thinking). I guess I have always thought more of writing itself as being a tool as Haas mentions in reference to Vygotsky’s “psychological tools.”

I suppose I am guilty of having thought of technology as merely a tool—the computer as simply a way of recording information (mainly writing for classes or sending email). Now that I examine it as more than just a tool I understand that “technology is not transparent.” This should be quite evident to me since I have come to produce writing with more ease and at a much faster pace when I am typing versus handwriting.

I remember making the transition from composing by hand to composing through typing sometime around my first semester in college (which would have been my senior year in high school, but I graduate a year early). Up until that time, whenever I had to write a paper I would arm myself with a well-sharpened pencil and a nice padding of notebook paper. I had a computer so I could have initially composed on it, but I was better at thinking with pencil. Once I had finished my writing and made any changes necessary, I would produce my final copy on the computer. In this sense, the computer merely served as a tool for polishing my words and making it presentable. I can remember being in college and the computer became a sort of extension of my thinking, allowing me to out thoughts down quickly and move/delete/add just as quickly instead of all the messy erasing, arrows and scratch marks on notebook paper. Now when I use the computer to compose, there are so many tools available—Microsoft word (or other word processors), the Internet, spell check, auto-formatting, on-line translators, dictionaries, grammar check….

One tool which is one of my favorite is the Post-it © Note! I think these little pieces of paper with a sticky strip on the back have changed a lot about writing and thinking for people. Just think of all the countless ways they are used—from reminders to do something or buy something, to leave a note for someone, to add paragraphs to compositions, for students to record their thinking while reading, etc. (Not to mention, they can help level a wobbly table or keep your cell phone battery in place). Post-it © Notes have even made their way onto computers. You can now write yourself a note on your computer on a yellow square which resembles a Post-it © Note (I don’t use this feature, I prefer the actual piece of paper stuck to my monitor).

All of this talk about technology makes me reexamine the way technology is used in the classroom. In the past I haven’t incorporated technology as much as I would have liked to. Part of this has to do with the number of computers available and having the time to set everything up. I would like to think about ways that technology can be used in the classroom besides to publish or use the Internet.