Digital Handwriting and My Paperless Classroom

As I am working on my presentation for ISTE13 on The best Digital Tools for Writer's Workshop I have spent much more time than I would have guessed reflecting on what I have tried in my classes, what worked well, and what I wish had worked out better.

By AndrewBuck Wikimedia commons

I find that when I look at tools and strategies from a strictly pedagogical view, the value reflected is different than if I look at things from my own point of view.  There are significant differences between what I like as a writer and a tech user and what will best benefit my students.
  Digital Handwriting seems to fall into this category.  The more comfortable I get with Tech, the more I look to use my Ipad or SmartBoard to capture my own handwriting.  Even though my penmenship has always been a challenge to read, I refuse to give it up.  In fact, I find that when I need to write more complex documents or ideas, I still draft them out longhand.  The fourth chapter of my dissertation was a hopeless mess until I wrote it out in my journal.  Recognizing this in myself, and feeling the cognitive difference between composing in handwriting versus typing has kept me committed to keeping handwriting in the writing process for my students. Now I am beginning to wonder if I am completely misguided and if I am paying too much attention to how I learned to write and not enough attention to their reality.

Created in Paper53 app by Sam Patterson

  At the conference I will be talking about the power of Evernote to make handwritten notes searchable, this is not OCR because the writing is not being converted into editable typed text, this is a visual recognition that makes images of handwriting searchable.  As a person who has filled countless notebooks and never looked at them again, I am intrigued by the idea of creating a database of my notebooks where I could actually FIND things again.  In fact I will be working on creating a digital archive of my handwritten work starting in a month or so and I will share that work here.  While this is a great thing for me to do I am no longer convinced it has a benefit for my students. As I look at the tools I want to use as a teacher, handwriting will be in the mix.  I need to be able to write on the board, or an IWB, or a Whiteboard app.  The writing makes a difference, it carries something different than just typing.  My students are much more interested in using a distinctive font than in handwriting anything.  I want them to become writers in a community of other writers.  I want them to create, share, respond, and revise.  Once I am teaching in a 1:1 environment I think this internal debate will be over.  For now I have to acknowledge that I have an emotional investment in handwriting texts, but it is so much easier to read and respond to texts that they type.
  Thanks for reading this post, I would love to know what you think about handwriting and technology, is it a choice we have to make?  Is there room for both?  Maybe this will be a future #PATUE chat topic: the pedagogy and technology of handwriting.