The Effects of Digital Communication on Motivating Third-Grade Student Writing

Abstract

This paper documents the results of an action research study focused on addressing student motivation for writing in a third grade classroom at a public elementary school in Hawaii. The concept of digital communication was introduced to the students through the use of digital pen pals at a neighboring elementary school. The digital correspondence was composed on word processing software on laptop computers and was exchanged through a private network server shared between the two participating schools. Classroom observations and feedback from the students revealed that many students were excited to access the network server to receive the reciprocal letters from their pen pals. However, the pressures of writing to an actual audience resulted in a decrease in confidence and heightened anxiety level for some of the students due to the comparative nature of the exchanged letters. Additionally, the keyboarding and computer skills training integrated into the letter writing process appeared to be overwhelming for some of the students as well. Future plans call for an increase in weekly keyboarding practice, general computer based writing exercises, and comparative writing lessons in order to lessen any anxiety for writing that was produced as a result of the digital writing project.