The Influence of Technological Literacy on Students' Writing

Abstract

Many forms of technological communication exist in non-linear environments and there is potential for new approaches to learning and teaching which may more closely approximate naturalistic and authentic approaches to learning. The following study examined the ways in which high school students were influenced by technology as they wrote and how different aspects of emergent technological literacies were appropriated into their writing processes. We found that the complexity of technological affordances largely informed the students' non-linear writing processes and that they exhibited fluency with non-linear frameworks. The students' use of technology no longer seemed an issue of translation. Rather, writing occurred in, around, and with this non-linear framework. It is likely that the more students use such non-linear frameworks, the more their fluency will continue to increase, and the more they will look to accomplish other writing tasks by using this “new” literacy that they have mastered.