SummerInstitute07

I agree that students are more motivated, more conscious of their work when they are communicating with an audience of many as opposed to an audience of one.  They “are engaged in authentic writing.”  As Warlick noted on page 208, Margaret Riel and Moshe Cohen, authors of  “The Effect of Distant Audiences on Students’ Writing”, found that when students were writing for an audience, they:

• Wrote more,
• Wrote in greater detail,
•  Took greater care with grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

The wide variety of media available definitely empowers students.  But, as the author notes, our students will need to know how to use images, sound, video, animation, and links to related and supporting content in order to fully benefit from publishing their work on the Web.