I’m very interested in using technology to learn with. My current area of iinterest is how an array of different technologies can be used to help kids learn to write. Here’s a few thoughts.
Mechanics - Much of the mechanics of writing: understanding what constitutes a complete sentence (versus a fragment), different types of sentences (exclamation, question, statement), grammar, punctuation, and word choice can be taught through interactive online multimedia. Check out Time4Learning.com’s learning demos and especially Time4Writing for great examples of this.
Self-Expression - To a surprising degree, there is technology for encouraging students to express themselves. Consider the stimulation of story creator for prewriters, blogging for writers with enough sophistication to know what to put on the web, and the clever impact of great writing prompts.
Automated Feedback and Evaluations – This is the topic of my next post.
