The Death of the Essay: Why Web Design Is the Future of Classroom Writing

The Hidden Crisis in Modern Classrooms

In the current era of culture wars, education has become a surprisingly controversial field. Different factions continually argue about school choice, school funding, and classroom curricula. Even without injecting politics, however, educators are often divided about best practices.

Indeed, it almost feels as if modern education, which thrives on subtle nuances and shades of gray, has developed into a series of high stakes dichotomies in constant opposition to one another. We see traditional discipline versus restorative practices, teacher led versus student led instruction, and traditional grading versus standards based grading. This constant wave of change followed by cross currents of resistance often exhausts educators before they have even entered the classroom to start the lesson of the day.

Yet, in all of this disagreement, certain truths remain surprisingly consistent across the board. One such universal truth is that everyone loathes writing.

While that statement is a bit hyperbolic, it is not far from the reality on the ground. Certainly there are some students who enjoy writing and a fair number of teachers who enjoy teaching it. Yet there is a consistent disdain expressed by young people about having to write essays or even complete sentences. This aversion appears to supersede their collective dislike toward other school activities, such as reading complex novels, solving word problems in math, or even doing pushups in physical education class.

The evidence goes far beyond the simple anecdotal groans of students learning they must write a five paragraph essay using proper citation formats. It also goes beyond teachers realizing they will spend their entire weekend grading those exact assignments.

Research shows a consistent, troubling trend. Students enter elementary school with an intrinsic motivation to write. Yet, as they progress through the grade levels, this joy turns to apathy and aversion. Both student motivation and performance steadily decrease over time (Alves-Wold et al., 2023; Fulton et al., 2023). The most alarming aspect of this trend is that the more formal writing instruction students receive, the more they dislike it as the years go on.

This loss of motivation correlates directly to a noticeable decline in writing quality. Research increasingly indicates that students arrive at college with severe writing deficiencies. These deficits do not only pertain to their ability to communicate complex thoughts. In recent years, they have translated into basic issues in grammar and remedial expression (Ward, 2014).

Even in nonliterary fields, such as the hard sciences, a pervasive issue with writing has led professors to note that their students struggle with writing basic papers, reports, and grants. This deficit directly stifles their ability to progress in their respective fields (Marder, 2019). Importantly, this data ignores the thousands of graduates who move straight into the trades or directly into the workforce. These individuals undoubtedly face the same issues with motivation and ability, but their needs go undetected in nonacademic settings.

The achievement gap in writing appears to be widening with each class of students, and this presents numerous issues for society as a whole. Although academic research papers and literature reviews might remain skills reserved for a smaller niche of professionals, nearly every productive citizen needs to have at least a basic understanding of written expression.

Even outside of school, writing has numerous practical applications, including resumes, professional emails, personal communication, and various financial applications. Beyond these utilitarian purposes, humans have an innate need for expression, whether it be for personal or creative fulfillment.

Children naturally enter school excited to write. For example, my son, who is currently in first grade, has already written six or seven books about rainbows, colors, ice cream, and even his personal experience writing books. Writing is an act that lives at the convergence of academic, personal, professional, emotional, and artistic growth. We now risk this growth being undermined by a growing, collective malaise.

Breaking the One Way Mirror of Educational Technology

The emergence of the Digital Revolution has witnessed an exponential growth in communication technologies. High speed internet, mobile technology, and social media are now ubiquitous in everyday life, and modern education has increasingly utilized them in the classroom.

The pandemic served as an accelerant for the integration of educational technology. Now, even with the majority of students back on physical campuses, children often experience a significant portion of their instruction digitally. Learning management systems, such as Google Classroom, Canvas, and Schoology, serve as digital hubs where students access learning materials, ask questions, and complete assignments.

Despite the widespread implementation of these tools, many technology experts express increasing worries that these resources are not being utilized to their full potential. For instance, even though researchers write about the vast instructional possibilities of platforms like Google Classroom, a large number of teachers continue to struggle with implementing the platform in a meaningful way due to insufficient training (Nxumalo & Shongwe, 2025). This lack of familiarity means technology is most often used in the most conservative way possible, essentially upholding old practices instead of replacing them with something more effective or novel.

This underutilization is most apparent when researchers examine exactly how these digital platforms are used by classroom teachers. The results consistently show that teachers use them to support educational practices that focus primarily on the teacher, rather than on the rhythm and style of the student (Castro-Mendoza et al., 2022).

More often than not, this translates into using learning management systems as a one way communication channel. Teachers disseminate information to the students, but they receive limited feedback in return. This reality is evident from a recent questionnaire where only four percent of teachers found that using tools like Google Classroom to obtain student feedback or expression was useful (Preeti Sharda & Bajpai, as cited in Castro-Mendoza et al., 2022). Teachers are missing a golden opportunity to use educational technology for its greatest strength, which is the ability to create interactive engagement.

This interactive quality positions digital learning to be a powerful tool in redeveloping writing instruction. It can help eliminate the apathy described above. Studies find that when teachers use technology to foster true two way communication, they increase student engagement as well as overall motivation (Ni’mah et al., as cited in Prasetyo et al., 2026). In addition, using digital technology in this manner can foster deeper cognitive engagement, encourage social collaboration, and promote reflective thinking (ElSayary, 2025).

Essentially, the two way communication that digital tools offer can create instruction that is more engaging, intellectually rigorous, and supportive of student learning. All of this directly counters the obstacles that traditional writing instruction presents to students.

Why Digital Literacy Is the New Essential Skill

Since the World Wide Web officially entered the scene in 1991, the world has become a vastly different place. Humans from around the globe are able to exchange information and collaborate on projects with unparalleled ease. Perhaps most exciting is the exponential increase in the ability of ordinary people to contribute to this digital network.

While managing a webpage was initially labor intensive and specialized, modern tools have changed the landscape entirely. Platforms like Google Sites, YouTube, and Instagram create a world where just about anyone can launch a digital footprint and broadcast it across a network of billions of people. In the modern world, the internet has been democratized to a point where just about anyone can be a content creator. Imagine trying to achieve such a feat in the era of television or radio.

In this era of information abundance, media literacy is not a luxury. It is a necessity. Future generations will not only need to know how to consume media, but they will also need to know how to produce it. Expert Yolanda Inzolia (2025) describes this need perfectly:

Mastering tools is not enough; it is necessary to cultivate competencies that enable the design, guidance, and leadership of learning processes that are social, collaborative, and responsive to the urgencies of our time… Digital literacy in the digital era is more than a right; it is a shared responsibility that demands commitment, passion, and a renewed pedagogical vision.

Just as Johannes Gutenberg ushered in a new era of reading and writing when he invented the printing press, we now live in a world where a truly educated populace must know the mechanics and process behind creating effective websites.

One established truth in education is that literacy skills consist of both reading and writing. When students improve in one of these areas, they naturally improve in the other as well. Developing writing skills gives students unique insights into how texts are structured and how meaning is constructed. This allows them to apply that knowledge when analyzing the texts that they read (Graham & Hebert, 2011).

Just as most sports coaches are former players themselves, writers make strong readers. They understand the core components of the written word, such as conventions, syntax, word choice, paragraph structure, and main ideas. Because the majority of real world writing is migrating to online platforms, it stands to reason that students must learn how to be digital writers.

Incorporating website design into writing instruction is an attractive shift for educators. Doing so allows students to experience the full richness of digital tools while learning how to create meaningful content. Furthermore, such skills provide an authentic medium for publishing, which closely mimics the kind of content creation students will be expected to produce upon graduation.

This strategy does not mean teachers should abandon traditional essay writing entirely. Instead, they can incorporate components of web design into their standard instruction. Just as students learn headings, subheadings, line spacing, and works cited lists, they can also learn hyperlinks, digital graphics, and page layout. This adds a whole new level of richness to the writing process.

The benefits of this approach are multifold. First, website creation can serve as a direct counter to the writing malaise that most students experience in higher grades.

Returning to the example of my son, he has found great joy in learning how to create physical books. His teacher wisely taught this using a simple paper folding technique for a classroom assignment, and he has since turned it into a personal hobby. This practice has given him the immense satisfaction of producing a real product that he can share with friends and family.

The intrinsic motivation found from an authentic audience serves as a strong driver for student writers. It provides students with a meaningful purpose that can guide them through the entire writing process from beginning to end (Rodriguez, 2020). Just as younger students show remarkable excitement when bringing home self published picture books, providing older students with the opportunity to develop personal websites to showcase their work offers the same exact opportunity, only on a much larger scale.

Some critics might dismiss the idea of website design as being gimmicky, arguing that it is simply a Trojan Horse that tricks students into writing. Making such an argument is profoundly shortsighted and ignores the depth that these assignments offer.

Pairing the writing process with website design offers an opportunity for students to develop multimodal literacy. This means that students use both linguistic and non-linguistic resources to construct meaning. It integrates multiple literacy and language skills learners already possess to support their overall writing growth (Smith et al., 2021, as cited in Zeng, 2024).

Adding multimodal components to literacy is an established way of strengthening reading skills, improving writing skills, and differentiating instruction to meet the diverse needs of learners. Understanding this aspect of web design makes it readily apparent that incorporating it into classrooms increases both the rigor and relevance of any writing assignment.

Critics would also be wise to remember that having students develop websites as part of their writing instruction is not completely revolutionary. After all, this is simply creating a portfolio, even if it is in a digital form.

Furthermore, utilizing an online format allows students more tools to develop their voice and increase their independence. Website features such as embedded videos, audio clips, custom graphics, featured quotations, and photo carousels serve as tools that reinforce the central components of their writing. These elements help them craft a unique perspective.

Studies show that digital multimodal writing serves as an asset based approach. It helps student writers gain agency, reclaim their voices, and draw upon their rich personal resources (Zeng, 2024). Thus, students are able to create living, interactive portfolios that can grow alongside their proficiency in writing, an outcome that paper based portfolios simply cannot match.

A Practical Road Map for Overworked Educators

t would be horribly insensitive not to acknowledge the elephant in the classroom. Teachers continue to remain dedicated, student centered, and profoundly overworked. It would be unwise for any education advocate to simply drop another complex task on their already full plates.

For this strategy to become truly effective, school administrators will need to ensure that teachers are provided with opportunities to learn the instructional value of these resources while developing their own personal comfort with the technology.

One potential solution is to use structured time during professional development hours, often known as professional learning community time. This is a space where teachers can meet and explore the technology together.

Through working together, teachers can develop collective confidence in using web design and educational technology to improve writing instruction. They can share ideas and strategies. More importantly, they can develop resources together, which significantly reduces individual lesson planning time. For this to be successful, digital technology needs to be presented as a tool to supplement and support what teachers are already doing, rather than as an added burden.

Ultimately, incorporating web design into writing instruction presents both students and educators with numerous opportunities that can strengthen literacy in a meaningful, profound way. Doing so offers the potential to increase motivation, provide students with opportunities to deepen their skills, and teach an additional set of abilities that will make them model digital citizens.

For nearly five hundred years, writing existed firmly in the Printed Word Era. With the emergence of the internet, it has entered the Digital Era. It is time for classroom writing instruction to follow suit.

(For a video companion to this article, click here.)

References

Alves-Wold, A., Walgermo, B. R., McTigue, E., & Uppstad, P. H. (2023). Assessing writing motivation: A systematic review of K-5 students’ self-reports. Educational Psychology Review, 35, Article 52. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-023-09732-6

Castro-Mendoza, J., De la Cruz-Valdiviano, C., & Mendoza-Yépez, J. (2022). Google Classroom in educational service: A systematic review. Journal of Positive School Psychology, 6(2), 1930–1939.

ElSayary, A. (2025). Students’ perceptions of the impact of interactive technology on engagement in STEM classes. Contemporary Educational Technology, 17(1), ep542. https://doi.org/10.30935/cedtech/14112

Fulton, K., Lin, T.-J., & Newell, G. (2023). Dialogic literary argumentation and close reading: Effects on high school students’ literature-related argumentative writing and motivational beliefs. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, Article 1214773.

Graham, S., & Hebert, M. (2011). Writing to read: A meta-analysis of the effects of writing and writing instruction on reading. Harvard Educational Review, 81(4), 710–744. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.81.4.t2k0m13756113566

Inzolia, Y. (2025). Digital literacy: Fostering possible futures through higher education. UNESCO IESALC.

Marder, E. (2019). Living science: Love writing. eLife, 8, Article e45734. https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.45734

Nxumalo, S. A., & Shongwe, M. (2025). The affordances of Google Classroom in enhancing economics curriculum implementation: Issues and critiques. Universal Journal of Educational Research, 13(1), 73–82.

Prasetyo, A., Aulianda, R., & Rahayu, S. (2026). The effectiveness of Learning Management Systems (LMS) in enhancing learning experiences toward achieving SDG 4: Quality Education. Journal of International Systems and Educational Development, 15(1), 38–47.

Rodriguez, M. (2020, January 9). The importance of audience. Two Writing Teachers. https://twowritingteachers.org/2020/01/09/the-importance-of-audience/

Ward, D. (2014). To learn to write, write. Unfortunately, students aren’t. Now what? Center for Teaching Excellence, University of Kansas. https://cte.ku.edu/learn-write-write-unfortunately-students-arent-now-what

Zeng, H. (2024). Multimodal writing for promoting multilingual adolescents’ writing growth: An integrative research review. Journal of Language and Literacy Education, 20(1), 34–54. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1427580.pdf