Troy Hicks, in Crafting Digital Writing, states that digitally convenient "texts are online only because we want students to have an audience or we want to assess their work easily" (Hicks, 2013). This means that the text could have just as easily been written by hand or submitted in paper form. Convenience for the teacher is always a plus because it can give them more time to grade, easily ensure that all students submitted the assignment, and reduce the stack of papers that tend to cover the desk. When using wikis or other software for assignment submissions, a teacher can easily see what needs to be done without feeling overwhelmed by the stack of papers piling up. Below is an example of this effective organization from MoodleDocs.
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| Source of image: https://docs.moodle.org/24/en/images_en/1/1e/grading_table.jpg |
With the increasing transition to digital assignments, one does not stop and realize the fact that convenience is a top priority. There is nothing wrong with digitally convenient texts, since as Hicks mentioned, students will have an audience, which can lead to discussion about the writing and comments giving positive criticism about areas to improve upon. The downfall of convenient digital writing is that students are not taking the opportunity to enhance their body of text using multimedia that is readily available to them online. When students are only producing digitally convenient texts, they are "shortchanging their opportunities as digital writers" (Hicks, 2013).
Teachers are not trying to shortchange student opportunities but could be forgetting these opportunities exist. With all the requirements teachers must abide by, such as state standards, testing, and paperwork, it can be easy to lose sight of important aspects of digital writing. Having students submit written text online is a great resource for editing purposes and easy access, but is the writing living up to its potential?
This brings me to digitally enhanced writing, which incorporates multiple forms of media or outside sources through hyperlinks, images, videos, and other embedded content to build on the piece of writing, as one would assume, to enhance the text. The tricky part about enhancing digital writing is determining "whether the text needs to be enhanced" (Hicks, 2013). Requiring students to use hyperlinks or other media does not ensure that the work will be better because if it is not done appropriately, potentially "it could be worse, because the additional links or images could be superfluous and distracting" (Hicks, 2013).
Sometimes a text can stand alone in the original alphabetical form with no special features or extra media and fulfill its purpose. Other times, having outside media can enhance the topic, provide resources, or even defend the writer's viewpoint. The problem with this dynamic is that students are not specifically taught how to choose media to incorporate within their writing. Using content appropriately is the goal in digitally enhancing web-based texts so that there are no pointless links or distracting graphics. The article 15 Types of Content That Will Drive You More Traffic is targeted to content marketing, but provides fifteen types of media used to enhance digital writing. The article includes a short description of each type, how to incorporate the media, and gives things to keep in mind when determining whether or not to use each type.
When requiring assignment submissions online, teachers should evaluate whether a text needs to be digitally convenient or digitally enhanced. Knowing the difference can help teachers expand instruction on the difference between the two for their students. Teachers want students to perform at their best, so ensuring that their digital writing is using the proper web-based text dynamics will create better digital writers.
Sources:
Hicks, T. (n.d.). Crafting digital writing: Composing texts across media and genres.
