The journey is the destination.

In class earlier today, we discussed our goals for the digital writing course, what digital writing meant in our own terms, overarching questions we had thought of so far, and the differences (and if there should be divergence) between teaching digital writing and teaching the fundamental aspects of writing in a general, traditional sense. [A forewarning, in case you noticed a sudden shift from writing about dog-love to writing seriously about podcasts and other random classroom philosophies : this is the pattern most of my blogs are going to take now.]


I felt the urge to clean up my freewriting from today and post a more coherent, readable document, in case I want to find anything later this week. (Organizing and revising a blog post, incidentally, is one of the issues below that I hope to find more about in the next few days.) So here are my main "take-aways" from what I mulled over today in class. 

Goals for this class

Over the next two weeks, I hope to...: 

• Beg, steal, and borrow great digital writing ideas and resources; tailor those ideas for my own individual classes and students, and use those as a launching pad to brainstorm new ideas. 
• Reflect on what works and what doesn't.
• Grow in digital presence and writing abilities
• Explore my writing process and take away implications from the perspective of the learner.
• Discover and become fully able to provide a rationale for digital communication.
• Overcome fear/negativity towards blogs and be able to fully defend use of them.
• Explore guidelines and instructions for several forms of digital writing.

Questions I hope to explore

Many times, finding a well-posed, provoking question can be just as profound and compelling as finding an answer (if that's even possible in the cases below). Here are some of my initial questions, although I'm sure they will evolve over the week: 

• How can I get past distractions/technicalities? What is the balance of teaching software or online programs without bogged down? What's the most efficient path to enhancing learning instead of distracting from it? 
• How can I fully utilize the intended purpose of wikis in my classroom (using them to see the writing process as an evolving, dynamic document and as a reflective tool)? 
• How can I get students to take over the classroom and teach each other? 
• What are some ways to counteract the negative, superficial stereotypes that blogs have gained? How can I get students to move past the bad wrap blogging has gotten as a non-legitimate place to rant? Can there be premeditation and a structured writing process in blogging? If so, how can I stress this to students? 
• How can I facilitate authentic responses to online discussion or writing? 

Just an observation, after writing this...I am still writing without much concern for cohesion and without pithy, thought-provoking reflections. I definitely thought that if there was ever a time, this would be the place and setting in which I would be more reflective...I thought I would be getting to the truth of the matter, but either the English language or my brain seems to be unable to capture the thoughts running around. I definitely know from experience, though, that writing is a muscle which needs exercise. That time and effort I have not given recently, so I've got to try harder and practice and humble myself to realize that I can't have it all without putting in the work. But recognizing that fallibility, I'm realizing right now, is something I need to be aware of. I need to put myself in the place of my students so that I can guide them from my own writing process. So this is trial by fire, and I can blaze the trail and report back to my students about how (and why!) to keep writing when other leisurely temptations seem more exciting or when the writing just isn't flowing.