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What our computers cannot do, and in fact hinder us from doing, is to facilitate thinking deeply about complex issues.

When my students write an essay, there comes a time when they must slow down their thoughts to the speed of composition. For most students, this is an uncomfortable situation.

Simply, it’s time to admit that the Internet has changed the way we do scholarship and will go on changing it. There is so much inertia in the academic world, so much affection for fussy old ways. People love getting all the brackets and commas and abbreviations just so. Perhaps it gives them a feeling of accomplishment. Professors torment students over the tiniest details of bibliographical information, when anyone wishing to check can simply put the author name and title in any Internet search engine. A doctoral student hands in a brilliant essay and the professor complains that the translator’s name has not been mentioned in a quotation from a recent French novel, though of course since the book is recent there is only one translation of the novel and in any event anyone checking the cited edition will find the translator’s name in the book.

counteract the New WWW's potentially harmful impact on youth, educators must use technology to create learning experiences that are real, rich, and relevant.

Next will come 4G, in which data rates are expected to be 100 times faster than those in this first 3G wave. As the delivery platform of broadband content and functionality shifts from computer to personal device, we will be surrounded by a multimedia aura that accompanies us wherever we go

The plan is that you'll use your phone to spend money everywhere, all the time.

But, before the multiple choice, standardized testing crowd starts thumping their chests, it's important to note the kind of test the researchers administered. After reading the passage, students "wrote what they remembered in a free-form essay for 10 minutes. Then they reread the passage and took another retrieval practice test."

Focusing on the learning objective vs. what tool or technology to use is critical

That’s not to say that students don’t need to know how to write essays, says Ms. Huff, but using both traditional and more modern learning techniques can open the door for more opportunities and modes of expression.

instructing students on how to write five-paragraph essays, identify parts of speech, and use punctuation. Cockrum says the videos have enabled the dynamics of his class to change in several ways: He says his students can work at their own pace on writing projects during class, and he’s available to help them individually as they have questions or ask for an edit. Cockrum says he anticipates this will let him cover a lot more curricular material over the year, as well as immerse students in the writing process.

He says if teachers want to engage kids in class, they should be thinking of activities to eliminate traditional classroom lectures altogether. Noschese also worries the model poses an “equity issue,” as not every student has the internet at home.

When was the last time you wrote an essay? When was the last time you read one other than for grading?

We need to reframe our conversation about writing from one based on polarities of analog versus digital to one about purpose, passion and relevance.

Social media: The haiku of digital writing