Using Technology to Publish Writing

Once you’ve planned, written, revised and polished your writing, it’s time to share the results of your hard work with others.

While you might decide to publish in a print format, digital tools open a wide array of new opportunities for publishing. Not only are there many free options, but publishing digitally can often expand your audience beyond the classroom to your entire school, your local community, or even the world at large.

Before you share out student work, be sure to check with all school, state, and federal guidelines regarding the sharing of student work and make sure that you’re in compliance with any restrictions. If you’re in doubt, it is best to err on the side of caution and keep that work within your classroom.

If you determine that it’s okay to share more broadly after reviewing all guidelines, you can open up authentic audiences, which can be very motivating for students. It makes the work real and important beyond a grade on an assignment, as personal pride and audience reaction suddenly become the most motivating parts of the work.

Format Options

The following are a few format options that you might consider when publishing student writing.

• Essays: This is the most traditional output format, and there is definitely a place for having students produce essays. That said, it might be the least authentic format and also the least motivating for students unless the essay will be submitted to a contest or shared in another, more public space.
• Newspapers: Local newspapers can be a great outlet for student writing. Having an authentic audience beyond the classroom can raise student motivation and bring real-life publishing opportunities to your students. You might also consider school publications, which are great places for students to share their work with peers outside of their own classroom.
• Websites: Websites have become very easy to create. Tools like Google Sites, Weebly, and Wix offer free options for students to design and publish websites. Again, you’ll want to check on sharing permissions and local restrictions. Based on what you learn and what is permitted, you could either post the sites live on the web or choose a share setting where only those with a link can view the student work. This more-restricted viewing option still allows teachers to grade the websites, other classmates to review them, and parents to join in on the experience as well.
• Blogs: Blogs are very similar to websites, but they tend to be a bit less formal. They are great options for students to share ideas, opinions, and things they’ve learned. Seesaw has a closed classroom option that teachers can use to keep younger students safe and still allow for blogging as a group. Older students might choose an option like Blogger, which also has a setting for sharing with a restricted audience.
• Podcasts: There are times when writing is meant to be heard rather than read, and that’s where podcasts come in. Students still need to do the writing, but that writing is then read aloud and shared via an audio recording. This process brings in the added benefit of having students practice expressive oral reading. There are lots of free audio production programs available online, and many learning management systems also have them integrated as well. An all-in-one product specifically intended for podcast creation is Adobe Podcast. There are other options to consider as well, including very simple online audio recording tools like Vocaroo and Online Voice Recorder. If you’re looking for more robust editors, you might consider GarageBand, Audacity, Soundtrap (Tips), and Beautiful Audio Editor.
• Radio Shows: This option is a spin-off of the podcast approach. While the two formats have many similarities, some students might be more motivated by one over another. Both options offer the possibilities of having a host and a guest, which nicely facilitates an interview format. You could even have students interview each other about their writing. This takes the experience to another level and brings in self-analysis and reflection.
• Videos: Similar to recording audio, students can share their work in video format. This might be for inclusion in a school news broadcast or as part of a video collection shared within the classroom. Videos might also be integrated into a class website, which can serve as a mash-up of several sharing options. iMovie is free for Apple users, and Clipchamp (Tips) comes on Microsoft PCs. Kapwing and WeVideo (Tips) are options that work on Chromebooks. Google Vids and Canva are web-based options that work on most devices.
• Books: You could go a couple different ways with this one. You could use the technology to design a book and then print them out to have a physical copy. Another option is to publish as an eBook. Book Creator (Tips) is one option if you go this route, and Canva also offers book page templates. Whether you opt for paper or digital, the outcome of a published book can be very motivating for students.

One Last Review

Before you publish, take a moment and do one final check.

It’s easy to become attention fatigued when you’ve worked on a project for a long time. You might find yourself more interested in being done than in catching one more minor imperfection. If you find this happening to you, it’s probably time to take a break and put the project aside for a while, then come back later, even after a day or two, and look at it with fresh eyes. You’ll be amazed at the details you notice.

A related strategy is to use a screen reader, like the Read Aloud (Tips) Google Chrome extension, to hear your work read back to you. Similarly, you can record yourself reading the text and then listen back to it. This new way of experiencing the content can provide a novel and fresh perspective. You’ll probably pick up things that you didn’t when you read it silently to yourself.

If your work includes hyperlinks, click through your project to test them out and make sure that everything is working as you intended.

It’s also a good idea to test out digital publications across various browsers since they each behave slightly differently. Similarly, view your work on different types of devices, such as computers, tablets, and phones. Some sites automatically reformat the view depending on the device, while others do not. For the best user experience, you will want to make sure that your work looks good and functions smoothly on all types of devices.

There are a few other considerations to be mindful of as you and your students are preparing for this final publishing stage. These key tasks will not only make sure that the rollout of your content goes smoothly, but they’ll also ensure that it looks polished and professional when released:

1. Format: Is your writing formatted correctly for the output method you’ve selected?
2. Fonts: Are the fonts you’ve chosen easily readable, and do they match the expectations of your audience? Fancy script-type fonts can be hard to read, as can text colors that don’t contrast well with the background.
3. Specifications: What are the technical requirements of the platform you’re using? Be sure that your work is compatible with those specifications.
4. Share Settings: Based on guiding policies and what you’re allowed to do, determine the share settings for your digital work. Will they be open to the world or a more closed and controlled community? Part of this process will be reviewing the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and school district guidelines. You may also need parental permission to publish work publicly on the web.

Publishing

It’s finally time to publish your work. This might mean distributing a printed copy, or it may mean clicking the publish button on your website or online publication. No matter how you’re sending your work out into the world, take pride in it and feel good about the hard work that you’ve poured into the project.

You know the saying, if a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it, did it really make a sound? The same thing might be said of writing. If no one reads what we’ve written, did we really say anything? After all your hard work, it would be a shame for no one else to read it. Therefore, give thought to how you can amplify what you’ve written. If you wish to keep the publication within closed school networks, consider how you can advertise it among your colleagues in their classrooms.

You could collaborate with other teachers around how to best get the message out or have your students hang up posters with QR codes or short URLs on them. This can be a great way to display work at parent-teacher conferences or open houses. With this approach, family members could use the built-in QR scanners on their cell phones to quickly scan and see the work. There are many QR generators freely available online, such as QR Code Generator.

If you choose to create short URLs to more easily share your work, Bitly (Tips) is one option. With a free account, you can create custom URLs that are shorter and much easier to remember.

If you’re working with older students and you have permission to publish beyond the walls of your school, consider advertising on social media. Of course, once again, before posting in a social media space, be sure that you have permission to share student information in this way.

Feedback

Once you’ve published your work, you’ll likely get some sort of feedback. The feedback that you receive on your finished product will be different from feedback received during the revising, editing, and polishing stages.

This feedback might come to you through different channels. While peer editors are probably people you already know, viewers commenting on a YouTube video, for instance, will likely be complete strangers. You’ll need to determine how broadly you want to open that feedback loop, and at times, you may want to consider turning the commenting feature off.

Because your work on this project is finished, the feedback that you receive after the fact will inform your next project, not this one. Nevertheless, the feedback received is still exceptionally valuable and can help you grow in your craft.

Reflection

Finally, take some time to reflect. Self-reflection should not be a one-and-done event. It should happen all the way through the writing process, and it should happen again now that the project is finished.

Think about and reflect on the input and reactions that you received from your audience. How did they respond to your work?

Reflect both on the process and the product to determine what worked for you, what didn’t, and what you’d like to do differently next time to make the most of the reflection and feedback experience. Consider what that feedback means to you and how that will impact your future work.

As you look back on the writing process, you’ll see that you can leverage technology to help you power up and improve your writing at each stage. There is no need to use every tool at your disposal, but it’s very helpful to find the ones that work best for you. Writing is a personal and complex activity, and as such, what works for one writer may not work for another.

Fortunately, there are many digital options available from which to choose. Try out a few on your next writing project and experience the potentially transformative power of technology.

AVID Connections

This resource connects with the following components of the AVID College and Career Readiness Framework:

• Instruction
• Rigorous Academic Preparedness
• Student Agency
• Insist on Rigor

Extend Your Learning

• 15 Digital Tools for Student Reflection on Learning (Karen Cornelius via Medium)
• 10 Ways to Publish Student Writing (Amanda Write Now)
• 50+ Ideas for Publishing Student Writing (Teacher Off Duty)
• Writing, Journaling, and Blogging Websites for Students (Common Sense Education)
• Font (American Psychological Association)