Cait’s “Students” – Part II

Future Students
Before building a "teachnology" statement (a list of values and commitments related to teaching, learning, and technology), I think it's helpful to take a minute to think about the students that I hope to work with in the future and developing my statement to reflect meeting the needs of those students. I'm certain that my concept of these students will change as I continue to study and research, so it's good that this is a blog and can be remolded as I develop these ideas.

Initial Concepts
In the future, I plan to work with students taking writing classes in a higher education setting. I firmly believe that, regardless of their major, a professional writing course should be an essential part of any college student's degree program. Therefore, my students will not necessarily be those who plan to make writing a career, but those who must nonetheless develop writing skills that they can use in the workplace.

This initial focus comes out of many conversations with my husband, an electrical engineering major, who in college believed firmly that writing was just something he had to do to get through his courses. He frequently claimed that it didn't matter if he could write effectively because it was not something that would be part of his "real work." Now that he's out of college, however, he has discovered that his ability to appear competent at his job is dramatically affected by his ability to communicate effectively through his writing. He's grudgingly admitted that this is actually a crucial skill. Even though my husband's job description might not include "writing," it's part of his everyday work, particularly digital writing: composing emails, creating PowerPoint presentations to highlight his department's progress at monthly meetings for the "higher-ups," or maintaining detailed logs of issues with the company's products, how the issues were resolved, and suggestions for future improvement.

Students entering today's workforce need to be able to communicate effectively in a variety of digital environments. However, they first need to be convinced to think of themselves as "writers" and that writing well in any environment is a critical skill that they will use throughout their careers. They also need to be convinced that writing in these digital environments (as they're more than likely involved in out of school) actually qualifies as "writing" and is therefore an important skill to develop. As I've learned from my husband, convincing them of these facts is a good chunk of the battle. These students will need me to work from a digital pedagogy that uses a variety of technologies to create malleable writing environments that are meaningful and allow students to perceive legitimate applications from the skills they learn in class for their work in the "real world."

The malleability of these environments is a crucial point that's come out of our readings. An important part of developing my digital pedagogy to meet the needs of these students will be in carefully scaffolding assignments so that the work motivates and excites students by pushing them to the edge of their abilities, but still allows them to maintain confidence and optimism that they can succeed.