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RESEARCH PRODUCT

New Technology, Writing And Learning

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description

The participants involved in most previous studies on writing have written their texts by hand but writing with the aid of a computer is much more prevalent today. This chapter specifically examines the effects of new technology on writing and, by implication, on writing to learn, and presents examples how technology has created new possibilities for using writing for purposes of learning. The chapter is divided into four main parts. Part one briefly introduces the chapter. Part two considers the nature of writing in terms of interactions between planning, writing and editing. Part three examines how computer aided writing changes these processes. Here individual and collaborative writing and learning, electronic mail, the Word Wide Web, computer-conferencing, and voice-activated systems are discussed in turn. Part four considers whether or not writing with computers changes the ways that people write, think and learn. The chapter concludes that writing with computers facilitates writing but that it does not necessarily alter its nature. Writers learn from writing — whether or not it is computer based. However, computers and computer networks provide environments where the writing and learning processes may be supported in ways that are not possible without the technology