If the old adage ‘practice makes perfect’ has any truth at all, then digital writing has done more for education than any old teaching methods over the last hundred years. For one thing, it’s important to define digital writing. It’s commonly accepted to mean just about any kind of writing that takes place online or on a computer – including texting, blog writing, emails, or status updates. While the quality of this kind of text is occasionally questioned, the overriding fact is that students and teenagers are writing more than ever before. They do the bulk of their writing outside of school, which was unheard of just a few decades ago. If this is how students communicate, and how they write in the real world, then including it in their education is a pretty necessary step to make sure you are providing relevant and engaging classes. The following points show exactly why digital writing matters in education.

1.    Encourage Peer Review

As most digital writing is aimed at a student’s peers, the door to peer review is wider open than ever before. Via technology such as Google drive that has opened up access to different work within the classroom, it is easier and more relevant than ever to ask students to write a piece online, and then ask another student to edit, review, or add to it. This collaborative environment boosts engagement and will make your student work harder as they are more conscious of who will see their work. Plus, writing on a laptop is much more natural than writing by hand for them, so you will likely see better work as a result too.

2.    Add Meaning to Their Work

Digital writing is rarely done for the sake of it – which is how school work can sometimes feel. Students pour their emotions into blogs or really communicate via social media. Others explore their interests or indulge in their passions via sharing sites and pages with anonymous writing, while others share fanfictions or gaming hacks to communities they feel a sense of belonging with. They all write with a purpose, which is what is often missing in a classroom environment, and should be implemented to improve the overall written communication of students in school.

3.    Make Monitoring Easier

Putting writing tasks online makes grading and assessing students levels a lot easier, and you will be more informed about how to help them. Plus, you can opt to teach via different audio or visual methods when you go online, which means you can appeal to all kinds of learners and make sure you’re getting your message across.

You can’t fight progress, and the best teachers will realise early that digital writing will play a big part in their students’ future, and incorporate it into class.

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1.    Give Them Responsibility

A lot of students sit back and relax as they believe their education and success is solely the responsibility of their teacher. They don’t need to engage or work, as they can simply blame their teacher when they don’t do well. You can combat this attitude by sitting down with them one on one and going over their data from standardised tests. You can go into much more detail than simply a grade and instead point out the specific areas that they need to work on. This means that they know what areas they need to work on to improve, rather than feeling overwhelmed with the need to focus on absolutely everything.

2.    Create a Collaborative Learning Environment

When students have to work together or with you, they can’t switch off. Making their tasks linked to other tasks and the success of the class as a whole puts a little pressure on them in the sense that they don’t want to be the weak link in the chain, and will stay switched on. They’ll also need to work together, which can help them achieve as they’ll be sharing knowledge and be free from distractions.

3.    Make Your Classes Relevant

A lot of students instantly lose interest and stop listening to certain classes that they feel will never be of any use to them in real life. This is easy to combat by modifying your classes to make each lesson meaningful and highlight how your lesson impacts their real life or their future. Drawing on personal experiences can also provide a solid link to the class, make your lessons easier to recall when writing papers or studying for exams, and hold their attention.

4.    Improve Pastoral Relationships

Despite social media growth meaning that we’re in almost constant communication with each other, many students feel isolated and alone. Taking an interest in their emotional and psychological well-being can make them feel like more than a statistic in your class, and encourage them to become more engaged, try harder, and do better. While it may be difficult to establish relationships with every child, showing that you care about their progress really can help boost their engagement with your class.

5.    Embrace All Cultures

Some students may not feel that they can or should speak up at certain times, or may feel marginalised or overlooked. Make sure to take steps to create an inclusive environment where all students can participate confidently to boost overall engagement and grades.

Creating an engaging environment, especially with teenagers can be tough, but the above tips can help you do so. You will see amazing changes in their levels of achievement when you master engagement.

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Integrate career readiness into their degree

For recent graduates, the current unemployment rate is 7.5%. That’s worrying for students, as they want to be sure they’ll be able to get a job after graduation. Teachers feel that their job isn’t about professional training, but some needs to be implemented in every course.

You can do this by implementing professional training, such as communication and interview practice, through the course. You can also build in internships and job experience. These will give students a good footing to find the role they want after graduation.

Offer student coaching

Many students now are facing real issues as they try to study. They may be from a low-income background or have children to raise as they’re working towards their degree. It’s no wonder, then, that many of them find college challenging.

You can offer one to one coaching, in order to help them with all aspects of student life. A Stanford study showed that such coaching improved retention rates by up to 15%. If you can help your students with non-academic issues as well as the academic ones, they’ll see the value in staying on.

Look at how you communicate with students

The way people communicate is changing all the time, but not all universities and colleges are keeping up with this. It can make an institution look outdated and out of touch if they don’t. Look into the best way of communicating with your students. Would it be better if you could send them text messages, emails, or messages on social media?

The best way of doing this would be to get students themselves involved. Ask what would be easier for them. It could be a good idea to create focus groups and research how they want to communicate with the school.

Help students understand their degree isn’t all about money

With costs rising, it’s easy to forget that students aren’t at college just to ensure they’ll get a job. No matter what they study, they should be able to engage with the whole student experience. It has been seen that most traditional-aged students leave as they don’t feel that connection.

Make sure you’re offering a well-rounded experience that every student can benefit from. If they understand that their degree will help them learn more efficiently and create lasting friendships and contacts, they’ll see the worth in it.

Try putting these points into practice, and make sure you involve your students. They’ll soon see the worth in continuing their studies with you, no matter the cost.

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