The role of technology in writing and the accompanying characterization of an ego problem with young writers: an analysis of a pedagogical obstacle to children learning to write

Abstract

The incentive for this research was to combine the interest of young writers in learning to write with the developing technology of instructional computing. This dissertation explores the evolutionary process of technology in writing and investigates the resulting fear or freedom that some beginning writers experience when they read their own writing with its unique flavor while using the computer. It is understood that computers have revolutionized writing methods in today's computerized writing classrooms; however, computers have measurably altered the writing of second graders in the latter part of the 1980s and the early 1990s. Because it is essential for effective communicators today to understand the importance of electronic technology, current possibilities as well as possibilities of future development, the role of technology in writing is treated in the chapter following the introduction and background. Following the discussion of the role of technology in writing, the main points of John Henry Martin's computer-based Writing to Write Program produced by IBM are delved into in detail. This program is designed for second-grade school children to learn to write what they can think. Writing to Write is a balanced curriculum where the teacher and the courseware are equal instructional partners. The program design is instructional so that the students actively participate and learn by doing. Writing to Write is a writing program designed to help children develop, analyze, and articulate their own ideas. It is a curriculum with an emphasis upon individual responsibility, initiative, independence in decision and action, and satisfaction from the establishment of a self-reward sequence. The spiral curriculum, the combination and coordination of computer exercises, the ancillary print activities, and the teacher instruction make Writing to Write a courseware product which takes full advantage of technology. At least eight major evaluations of Martin's Writing to Write Program were conducted. Seven protocols, three writing-as-thinking models and four thinking-aloud models, were conducted with second graders chosen at random. These protocols reflect that the children involved in the Writing to Write Program exhibit the characteristics of a backdrop of success.