TECHNOLOGY!

Write an article on the topic integrating technology in teaching writing. It can be anything related to the slides, own opinion, how you would use it in future.

                Teaching writing to students has always been the hardest thing to do as an English teacher. This is probably because teachers are struggling with writing themselves, or writing comes naturally to them; however they have no idea to teach it to their students. In this new era of globalisation, there are many approaches that a teacher can use to teach writing. For instance, the use of technology to teach writing in classroom. Almost everyone wants teachers to use technology in their lesson because it has many advantages when we use it. Let’s face it, writing is an agonising activity to do, therefore teachers should use technology to make the whole learning process to be fun and encouraging for them to be a successful writer. The big question is how can technology helps in teaching writing?

                One of the reasons why it is important to integrate technology in teaching writing is it will attract the students. When we use technology in teaching writing, the student will definitely give their fullest attention in class. It depends on how the teacher uses the technology. For example, nowadays many ‘tech-savvy’ teachers have used powerpoint slides to create a game using the hyperlinks and lots of graphic. From this activity, it will enhance students’ creativity as the graphics used by the teacher will expand their thoughts and creativity.

                Integrating technology is also a way to save both the teacher and students’ time. For the past few years, e-portfolio had helped teachers a lot. Using cloud computing, students now can just upload their work to the Internet. Instead of carrying files of students, teacher can access their students’ work just by going online. As for the students, they will gain a personalised learning environment, motivate them to engage in their learning of writing, and also they can do their work wherever they are. Moreover, because we are using cloud computing, all the files that we uploaded will always be safe in the memory of the Internet, unless we delete it. Students can keep their work and they will have a concrete way of showcasing strength to future employers.

                The whole point of using technology to teach writing is not only to make it easier for the student to understand and learn to write. We need to motivate them to write a full essay with the correct format and broad usage of vocabulary. Students prefer writing on topics than they can relate to such as topics of their lives and interest than any types of writing. Using technology, writing through social networking such as facebook, twitter, or blog encourage them to write to an audience. It is a place for them to “show and tell” and surely it takes on a new level of quality presentation. Also, they can have feedbacks or comments from teachers and peers that could encourage them to write more and well.

                In a nutshell, it is important to integrate technology in teaching writing. I would definitely use technology to teach writing in the future. Firstly, I would create my own webpage. It will be a closed group and I will post an announcement, class photo, downloadable materials, publish my students’ work and their home works. It will be basically a bulletin board.

                Secondly, I would like to use powerpoint presentation when I teach writing. Also, I would ask my students to do presentation using powerpoint. This is so that they can understand more when they do their own slides and they can study using their own slides when exam is around the corner.

                Last but not least, i would use it for grading system. Grades will be shown online. The students can easily access to the Internet to find out their result. By doing this, we can see the students’ progress. I can also email their result to their parents. Their parents can track their children’s grade.