Writing to Learn - An Introduction

The intent of this section is to examine the proposal that writing contributes to learning. Finding support for this proposal is important because we are suggesting that multimedia authoring represents at least one component of involvement in the participatory web and writing probably represents the most basic case (on the same level as speaking) of multimedia authoring.

The observation that students in most educational contexts do a substantial amount of writing is not sufficient to demonstrate that writing contributes to learning. This observation would assume that learning and education were roughly equivalent processes. In fact, many writing activities are assigned based on the assumption that a written product offers a unique way to evaluate learning. While evaluation influences learning, what we are considering here is a more direct role - students learn while writing and because of the process of writing.

As we have reviewed some of the literature relevant to this topic, the argument that writing may improve understanding, retention, or performance emphasized different potential advantages.

1. Improved processing. Writing can involve thinking, planning, explaining, and other mental activities. The cognitive processes involved in writing involve the manipulation of information held in long term memory in ways that improve understanding and retention. An effective writer engages in these activities while writing.


2. Improved metacognition. The inability to effectively write about what was to have been learned helps a student identify failures of storage or understanding. Such failures may prompt the acquisition of additional information or experiences, the rethinking of information already acquired, or help from others. This benefit assumes an extended time frame for the writing process and would likely involve writing sessions interspersed with sessions more directly devoted to the acquisition of new information or the development of new skills.


3. Social context. Writing is the price of admission to a learning community whose members share a commitment to co-creating individual understanding. Our analysis of learning from writing requires recognition of the influence of the social context within which some writing occurs. The descriptive wording selected for this potential benefit signals our interest in focusing the consideration of social context on the sometimes spontaneous online communities that develop among bloggers, podcasters and others who become heavily involved in the participatory web.


4. Externalized storage. Writing externalizes what is understood at one point in time so that the externalized information may be located and used in response to failed recall at a later point in time. This benefit is admittedly not considered in traditional reviews of the research concerning writing to learn. It might relate to research on note-noting or perhaps to the process of journaling as suggested for writers. However, our interest is in considering a process on a different scale and involving technological tools of greater sophistication. What are the potential benefits of creating, searching/exploring, and modifying a personally generated body of content? What are the benefits when external representations of personal "knowledge" can be searched in ways that overcome internal "memory failures"?

These potential benefits of writing are presented as independent ideas solely for the purpose of discussion. In practice, specific applications may incorporate and integrate several of these benefits.

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