Hyperlinked Writing is The Most Powerful Writing

October 31, 2009

By Tod Baker

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Hyperlinked writing or notebook writing — which one do students spend more time on?

It was just a side comment in Wesley Fryer’s Wordpress Saves Lives podcast earlier this week, “Hyperlinked writing is the most powerful writing.” But I’ve been riveted by this idea since I heard Wesley say it.

Why is it the most powerful? A hyperlinked writer connects with readers who care. Ideas bring them together, not spaces. This authentic audience influences writers because it can interact with them by commenting, like in blogs, and contributing, like they do in wikis. This helps writers to think deeper, write clearer, and refine ideas. In short, hyperlinked writing is the most powerful because it creates a community of learners. Notebooks struggle to connect people.

If hyperlinked writing is the most powerful, then it should be the most plentiful. But is it? I asked one team of teachers this week which kind of writing do your students do the most of notebook or hyperlinked? It was notebook. Why is that? Is it an access to technology issue? Or is it how we approach teaching and learning? I don’t know but I want to learn why, because I believe student learning improves when they share their writing with people who care. To do that well it needs to be hyperlinked. Soon one of our grade six classes will join This I Believe, a global project that brings out the students’ writing and speaking skills. I doubt they understand the influence this experience is about to have on them. I am not sure I do either, but I am very eager to find out. Will it prove that hyperlinked writing is the most powerful writing? I’m counting on it.