To prepare students to be critical users and producers of texts, whatever the technology or environment, I teach that all writing is situated in a social world. As a writing teacher I must help students be aware of their choices and understand which tool is most appropriate and most persuasive in various contexts.
The key to choosing technologies is to make the technology serve the writing purpose; students must learn never to use technology for technology's sake, just because the latest program is fun or cool or because the latest software makes their content look flashy. Although technolgies are multiple and rapidly changing, we can teach critical thought and crucial skills that apply to any technology for any writing task to anchor students in the tsunami of technological change.
For example, last semester students had the last week of the semester to visually represent their previously written research paper, in part or in whole. The idea was for them to choose a technology that would make sense given the topic of their research. So one student who wrote about global warming did a PowerPoint presentation for a science fair at his high school for his brother. Another student wrote about school safety and made a comic strip. Others made flyers, short videos, and iMovies. They were required, as well, to specifically articulate both their visual and technological choices.