Entry 4

As I was reading, chapters 2 and 3 in Hicks (2009) stood out to me for a few reasons.  First, the Google Docs feature intrigued me.  The first time I read through chapter 3, I breezed by the screenshots of this program (Figures 3.3 and 3.4).  When I went back to reexamine the chapter’s contents in order to organize my thoughts for this blog entry, I noticed these figures and the way that a student’s revision history can be displayed using this program (Hicks, 2009).  Prior to reading this chapter, I had no idea what Google Docs was or what it could be used for.  I now believe that this could be an extremely beneficial program to use with students, as long as students have access to this technology and have parental permission to use the program.  The best feature of Google Docs, in my opinion, is its ability to show a complete revision history for a student’s piece of writing.  In this way, both the student and teacher can have a comprehensive and detailed account of every revision that the student has made to his or her writing.  In addition, the teacher’s comments that “helped guide revision” are also visible (Hicks, 2009, p. 48).  Rather than attempting to ensure that each student keeps and documents every rough draft and every revision made to a writing piece, teachers can utilize the Google Docs website in order to view all changes that a student has made to his or her document in one convenient place.  As Hicks (2009) implies, now the only issue will be students forgetting their passwords, both literally and figuratively.

Another portion of the reading that stood out to me, this time in chapter 2 of Hicks (2009), was the discussion of RSS readers.  While I have never created one of my own, the concept is extremely appealing.  Utilizing an RSS reader to have one central location for all of the blogs you post to or follow, as well as any other websites that interest you, seems like a fantastic idea.  However, I would want to make sure that I am extremely familiar with RSS readers, including how to use them and what all of their features are, before I introduce this website to my class.  I want to be sure that my students would use RSS readers appropriately and effectively.  I do appreciate Hicks’ (2009) suggestions for using RSS in our instruction of writing.  I especially like the essential questions that Hicks (2009) provides to guide students in their use and exploration of this technology.  RSS could be a huge motivator for students, as information is sent to them through their RSS feed, rather than them searching for it (Hicks, 2009).  Not only would this feature benefit students who lack motivation, but also students who experience difficulties with searching for ideas or starting a writing piece.  Since the websites are being sent to the students’ RSS feeds, all students would have to do is read through the content that was sent to them in order to gain ideas for topics to write about. 

While I was also not familiar with social bookmarking prior to reading chapter 2, I am not particularly enthusiastic about using this with my students.  I guess I am just having trouble grasping how it would be useful to use in my classroom.  Perhaps if I were more familiar with this digital tool, I would have a more positive attitude toward it.  I just feel that there are other websites and programs through which I could send pertinent links to my students, and that sharing all of one’s bookmarks publicly could be either extremely useful or extremely pointless and a waste of time.  I suppose it would depend on the websites’ relevance to class content, but I personally do not feel that this is the most effective method to use with students.  I much prefer blogs, wikis, and RSS readers to social bookmarking tools.

Overall, chapters 2 and 3 in Hicks (2009) provided me with a wealth of information that I had previously been unfamiliar with.  After reading these chapters, I now have numerous ideas and options for beginning a digital writing workshop with my future students.