I was very impressed by the My Access program we have been examining in class. I believe Andrew mentioned this in class, and I could not agree more, that I wish WE had a program like this when we were in school. I have personally taught creative and persuasive essay writing in the classroom, tried to educate students on proper thesis composition and research skills and have found it to be... frustrating.
Don't get me wrong, it is an incredible feeling to know that you are banging your head against a wall day after day during the course of teaching a thesis writing instructional unit, and then one day see a light bulb go on with one or more students who finally just "gets it". However, with a program like this, because it is so multi-faceted and interdisciplinary, I feel that more students will learn at a faster pace. And they should, because if you think about it, young men and women are writing more often these days then they ever have before... they just haven't been doing it in what we would think of as the "traditional" sense.
Students are using Text Messaging and Instant Messaging 24/7 these days and are very in tune with the necessity to properly communicate there ideas or feelings. I believe that what My Access has done, and is capable of doing even better in the future, is help students to translate that ability into composing coherent, WELL-PLANNED, and organized educational papers. To that end, they have incorporated the ability of the program to recognize and interpret "text-speak", give the students instant feedback about how they can convert that into professional vocabulary and, most important, show them how there is a time and a place to use certain vocabulary as opposed to another, while keeping the same essence of what they are trying to communicate.
Are there any other ideas that can help improve My Access that will take greater advantage of the ways students are already communicating today? I'd be interested to hear thoughts on the issue.
http://www.vantagelearning.com/docs/articles/myaccess.ut.american.teacher.20071101.pdf
2 comments:
Anthony,
I wish that this type of program was around when my son was in school. It always struggled with writing & did poorily in this area. He has become a good writer since college due to his determination.
Rosalind
I agree that MyAccess can be very helpful for writing. An advantage is that it provides immediate feedback to today's students who are so used to this type of reinforcement. I do worry that some teachers would use this program as a "babysitter" meaning that some would not really "teach." I can envision some teachers just assigning a topic and having the students sit at the computer and write. This program provides feedback so the teacher may not bother to interact with the students.
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