Chapter 5: Designing and Publishing Digital Writing

          Throughout Chapter 5, Hicks discusses the importance of introducing Digital Writing into the classroom.  He mostly mentions blogs and wikis, which are great ways to have your class create an anthology of writing.  Hicks states, "Employing the tools described in this book for the purpose of publishing student work- and inviting outside audiences to comment on that work- may be the biggest advantage of composing the digital texts, allowing students a purposeful opportunity to share their voices with the world" (80).  I agree.  I think that when students can take ownership of their work, and be proud of what they have created, they are truly experiencing an important part of the writing process.  We want students to write with purpose, and being able to share that purpose is very important.  Digital Writing allows students to share with a vast amount of people and to do so quickly. 
          Although I think that the public access of blogs is useful, Hicks brings up a good point about student reactions.  He mentions students concerns such as, "Will my readers like my writing?" There is a level of awkwardness that can accompany assignments such as these, however becoming comfortable with the writing process is important.  Students should learn to be comfortable sharing their work and feel confident.  One of the things that I thought might help this anxiety was something that was mentioned later in the chapter.  Hicks talks about an online anthology where the writers can choose to have people respond as "blessed", "addressed", or "pressed".  I thought that this was an excellent idea.  If you are writing from the heart, rather than academically, you don't want your writing to be graded so harshly.  This is a great way to get students to participate with out the added pressure.
          Another aspect that I liked about the blogs and wikis was that they created an archive for the students.  As long as that blog or wiki is active all of the work that the students have published to it will still be saved on that website.  It's a great way to track progress and have something that students can look back on.  They are also great ways to create class anthologies, as I mentioned above.  Rather than store written work in books on your shelves, you can have the students collaborate on a class anthology that they post to a blog or wiki.  I think that this is a much more efficient way of keeping track of the students work.  With each new group of students that you get you can provide them with the link to the blog so that they can see the type of work their peers and fellow students have accomplished.  Younger students may be able to track the work of an older brother or sister and using that work as inspiration.
          One of the last statements that Hicks makes is, "Digital writing...is clearly part of the remix culture in which we now live and students will have to learn to compose" (102).  I thought that "remix" culture was a great way to label it.  Students have access to so much information that all they can do is "remix" it and make it their own.  By using videos, pictures, audio, and text they can create a remix of information that is new and exciting.  Students have to learn how to create these remixes and I think that blogs and wikis are a great way to do it!

Megan Nier