I remember when I was in elementary school we had to complete all of our school work in cursive. Penmanship was actually considered a subject in which every student was graded. Writing today has certainly changed from a decade ago. Looking at current school curriculum, cursive is no longer taught at schools and penmanship is no longer emphasized because the field of writing has become digitized. We can clearly see how the use of technology is being taught earlier and earlier. In fact, I have even seen toddlers that can barely speak properly but are clicking away on their own laptops!

In an article, Writing in the Wild, Olin Bjork and John Schwartz explore how classroom dynamics and the field of writing are evolving as technology progresses. From writing in composition books to using tablets in fieldwork, technology is redefining the writing process. As the writing process is being redefined, classrooms must adopt to these changes by acquiring new technologies and experimenting with new classroom dynamics. As classrooms become more and more digitized, what becomes of field work and research? The digitization of writing not only changes the writing process, but too changes anything really associated with writing.

Yes, the use of technology does make writing and doing research a lot easier. But, the reliance on technology is leading people to lose manual skills, such as penmanship and using places such as libraries. I feel that if we completely digitize ourselves, a natural human element is lost and a robotic quality is gained.