Emerging Technologies Web-Writing 2.0: Enabling, Documenting, And Assessing Writing Online‪.‬

Trends in the use of the Internet in recent years, collectively coined Web 2.0, have precipitated changes in modes and uses of writing online. Blogs and social networking sites provide new opportunities and incentives for personal writing. This reading-to-write culture requires use and development of language skills. The challenge for language teachers is to extend students' Internet world beyond their first language, to leverage participation in the read-write Web as a learning opportunity for language self-development, and to find means to link informal and recreational writing with formal and academic writing. There are increased possibilities for moving in these directions with new tools and services that have arisen to facilitate online composition/editing and to assess writing. Browser-based text editors make it easier than ever to participate in online sites. Language tools and services offer automatic assessment of writing, enabling the development of reviewing skills, so essential to improving writing. Finally, electronic portfolios provide a mechanism for bringing together samples of learners' written work, thereby encouraging more global self-assessment of students' language skills.