Your device is not a typewriter...Moving on from Publishing

The importance of the SAMR model lies within moving on from the purely 'substitution' level where a book is replaced with a device to higher levels of thinking where devices enhance learning beyond what is otherwise possible.

My first term teaching Year 1 and 2's I had a 'publishing' cycle going on for weeks - and most students never finished their initial story. As we had limited devices, students using them as typewriters resulted in others not being able to use devices to enhance their learning :(

Publishing on a device with students incapable of typing 10+ words a minute (usually 5 - 7 year old's) is a poor use of everyone's time - and obviously at the substitute end of the SAMR model. 

But, I had a vision of their stories being on the wall, in books for their classmates to read in the library and in the school newsletters. I wanted parents and our older buddy class to read our stories on our blog and give us feedback. I wanted Nana's around the world to read and - most importantly - I wanted the kids to know they were authors.

So, how to publish Junior writing to reap rewards without the pain?

1. Adult (Parent) or older student helpers. Obvious, but often underutilised. Most parents run away from fundraising and working bees, but getting to take home 10 books to type up in the comfort of their home is far more palatable. If you are lucky enough to organise some typists, I recommend them typing up stories in Times New Roman with no formatting, so students have some ownership by changing fonts, adding titles etc. I also once had a group of keen Year 5 - 6s come in one lunch a week to type a few stories each.
2. Using photos/scan of students work for blogs. If possible, take the time to teach them to take their own photos! At least once a term I used to have my class bring any learning they were proud of to the library photocopier and let them scan away. We would then post our proud learning moments to blogs.
3. Have students select one or two 'gems' of sentences to publish themselves, which they can then type themselves. This is a great method when you want to surround your walls with effective language. By only selecting one sentence, your walls will be filled with rich language not "I went to the..."
4. Use voice to text Apps. Honestly, I wish this was the only idea in this list, but the truth is I have never had great success with them, to the point that I would not recommend any I have tried, but if you know one that works - good for you (and please tell me!)
5. Don't type - record! Is a story made into a multimedia visual extravaganza still a story? I think so. Use Apps like Puppet Pals, Book Creator, Adobe Voice or Sock Puppet. Or record students using whatever video/audio recorders you can find. Creating these text-less medians is great for blogs - but not for your walls. My solution to this? QR codes and with book/movie covers on the wall.

Yes, to collaborate, question, discuss, critique and evaluate content, the content must first be made available. Allowing the time to be spend at these higher level activities and not the typing is the message.