INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGY IN TEACHING WRITING

Teaching writing has long been one of the hardest tasks faced by teachers. This is due to the fact that students need to use their creative thinking skills when writing and teachers will have to conduct activities that can help students to bring out their creativity and imagination skills. In this globalization era, technologies have been a part of students’ life. Majority of students will join the social websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. Through there, they will interact with more people from all places over the world.

In my opinion, using technology to teach writing can bring a lot of benefits to both the students and the teachers. For example, by using slideshows during teaching, teachers can have more time guiding and explaining to students. They do not need to waste their time writing on the blackboards using chalks. Students can also get more time to ask questions if they do not understand. Other than that, usage of technology can enhance students’ creativity and imagination as they are exposed to more visual aids such as videos, music and movies. Creating an online forum allows shy students to express their thoughts and opinions freely. Students often will feel more comfortable and interested in learning if they can learn using something they are familiar with like using social websites such as Facebook or Tumblr.

Furthermore, there are many free online teaching tools available in the internet. Examples for online Teaching tools that are free are Prezi, Timetoast and Glogster. Glogster is a social network that allows the users to create free interactive posters, Glog. Glog is a multimedia poster whereby users can interact with the contents. Teachers can make their teaching lessons more interesting by using online tools as they contain graphics and colours which can help to activate students’ brain cells.

Besides that, another example of using technology in teaching writing is by asking the students to come up with an e-portfolio each. I personally think this is a really great idea. Students can write anytime or whenever they have the feeling to do so. By having an e-portfolio, they can even view back what they have written before and update their writings. In addition, they will have the opportunity to view other people’s blogs and improve on theirs.   

Although technologies can definitely helped in improving the teaching of writing but, schools in rural areas might be having problems integrating technologies into their teaching. This is because rural areas have limited internet access and the schools might not have enough computers or facilities to use technologies in teaching. 

In conclusion, technologies do can help teachers to teach students in writing. It is convenient as students are free to update their posts anytime they want and they can even leave comments on their friends’ works besides getting feedbacks from their peers. It also helps teachers to save more time as they can prepare their materials for teaching earlier by using slideshows. Students too, will have more time to ask questions. Furthermore, students and teachers can interact with one another even when they are not in school but through social websites.