Which come first, the chicken or the egg?

In this case, the chicken is “writing to learn” and the egg is “learning to write.”
Of course, learning to write should come before writing to learn. I believe a good foundation in knowing how to write should be attended to before moving the student on to writing to learn. Can you imagine someone asking you to do something you have no concept of and how overwhelming that feeling would be? Personally, I would feel like there was no hope, and no possible way I could do anything. Ultimately, I wouldn’t even try if I knew I would be defeated in the end. I believe that’s exactly how my students would feel if I asked them to write a research paper before I have taught them how to write.

However, once knowledge and understanding of writing is achieved, writing to learn is the next step and is a great teaching/learning tool for both teachers and students. In most cases, students are allowed to choose topics of interest for research papers which in return motivates them to learn all they can about that topic, and it allows the teacher to check the development of their writing skills. However, the flexibility of topic shouldn’t be restricted to research papers but could be implemented in any writing scenario.

As far as using digital technology to make writing more appealing, I believe a balance of handwritten material and digital material is needed. For example, I can remember using a calculator in math or science but not very often. Now days, it seems like that is all the students use, and working problems out by hand is a thing of the past. Don’t get me wrong, I think calculators are great tools that make things easier and faster, but I believe we shouldn’t rely totally on technology. When you have to work out math problems by hand, a great deal of thinking is required. When you use a calculator, more knowledge of knowing how to use a calculator is implemented and less on how the problem is solved. Another problem I have with relying totally on technology is that technology fails. What happens when technology fails, and no knowledge of how to complete a task independently is established? Exactly, nothing! It would be so sad to be completely helpless especially when we so desperately want our students to think critically and independently.