Fall+2012+Penzu+Module+Page

What is Penzu? According to the website (http://www.penzu.com), Penzu is a "free online diary and personal journal focused on privacy. Easily keep a secret diary or a private journal of notes and ideas securely on the web." Penzu looks like a diary -- complete with lock and leather-bound exterior. It contains virtual pages that look like notebook paper. The idea is to type onto the notebook paper (which comes pre-loaded with the day's date), and the website saves the entry for you. You can share entries via email, Twitter, or Facebook links. However, if you want to keep your journal entry private, it automatically "defaults" to this setting. There is a comments feature that allows the user, a teacher, or a reader to comment on the entry. There also is a mobile app. The initial, pared-down version is completely free. If you want to upgrade from the basic version, it will cost you $19 per year. There is a 30-day money-back guarantee. The website also offers a version of Penzu called __**Penzu Classroom**__, which allows teachers to manage an entire class of journals. There is a grading feature in Penzu Classroom, as well as the ability to give each student a private code. There also is a feature that allows teachers to send prompts to students, along with a rubric and due date. Through Penzu Classroom, teachers can give feedback to students without having to send individual emails, and students can view each other's journals. It is a one-stop shop. This classroom version costs $49 for one year.

What are the benefits of Penzu? Journaling traditionally has been accepted as a cathartic process that allows the writer to unburden herself of her thoughts by putting them down on paper. Interestingly, the Penzu website references NC State's own Kitty Klein and her research on writing's effect on working memory. Klein (2002) discovered that writing about stressful experiences can promote cognitive changes, including enhancing working memory. In her article, "Stress, expressive writing, and working memory" in Lepore and Smyth's book //The writing cure: How expressive writing promotes health and emotional well-being// (2002), Klein writes that attempts to repress or ignore unpleasant thoughts can cause increased stress and affect mental well-being and working memory. Writing in a journal or diary can help.

The Penzu website also references a study by Klein, but does not give the year or source. According to the Penzu website, Klein conducted a study in which students saw an 11% increase in their working memory by writing about negative experiences, 4.5% increase by writing about positive experiences, and a 2.5% percentage increase when simply writing about their daily activities in a diary. These percentages were directly correlated with an increase in the grades of the students in the study.

Another direct benefit of Penzu may be in the online format. Arnold (2012) found that online journaling about nature helped students to feel more connected with the outdoors. In Arnold's study of university students in an introductory nature course (N=60), 68% of participants who kept an online journal said it changed the way they about nature, and 56% said it increased their interest in the outdoors. Penzu could be a valuable tool to help enhance students' memories, cope with stressful issues, and pique their interest in content.

References: Arnold, G. (2012). Enhancing college students’ environmental sensibilities through online nature journaling. //Environmental Education Research//, //18//(1), 133-150. doi:10.1080/13504622.2011.589000 Klein, K. (2002). Stress, expressive writing, and working memory. In S. J. Lepore, J. M. Smyth (Eds.), //The writing cure: How expressive writing promotes health and emotional well-being// (pp. 135-155). Washington, DC US: American Psychological Association. doi:10.1037/10451-007

Penzu Activity
 * 1) Go to [].
 * 2) Locate and click the “Create Your FREE Journal” tab located in the center of the page. After doing that, you will be taken to a screen that asks you for basic registration information. On this page you will enter the required information and submit to finalize your account creation.
 * 3) Once you have created an account, begin your first journal entry on a topic of your choosing.
 * 4) After (or while) completing the journal entry, play around with the neat features by:
 * Adding a picture that corresponds to your entry.
 * Adding comment to your journal entry.
 * Changing the font.
 * Sharing access to your journal with a friend (via email).

How can I use Penzu in my classroom? Penzu can be used in the classroom in a number of ways. For example, In a 1:1 classroom in which all students have access to a computer in class, daily journals could be completed online using Penzu. For teachers who particularly enjoy doing double-sided journals, this would be a great tool to use, as students are able to share their writing with others. In other classes where the 1:1 ecology is not an option, Penzu provides students and teachers the opportunity to conduct digital reviews of student writing. Perhaps students are beginning an essay and are in the process of "jotting down" a bunch of ideas. If done using Penzu, teachers could evaluate and assess students' ideas interactively. Once again, this is possible as a result of features that allow Penzu users to share their journals with others and post comments on other students' journals.

Penzu is also great for teachers who are possibly struggling to motivate reluctant writers. Some students despise the art of writing because of the act of writing -- the physical aspect of putting pen (or pencil) to paper. Through this electronic format, individuals who typically stray from writing because of the previously mentioned reasons are given a new medium through which to experiment with writing. Perhaps the best use for Penzu in the classroom is that it promotes recursive writing from our students. Too often, students compose a piece and upon finishing, they are "done" with it. They don't think of ways to make it better or ways to make things clearer. By way of design, the revising stage of writing isn't as ominous as having to rewrite an entire paragraph. Instead, one can simply move a couple of things around and voila! As educational scholars assert, writing improves with practice, and this is what Penzu gives.

Examples:

Here is a blog post from someone who has used Penzu effectively: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/advantages-journal-writing-penzucom/

Here is a screenshot of a Penzu diary page that we created specifically for this Wiki. As you can see, it looks like it is written on notebook paper. You can change the font, size, and color of the type. You also can insert photos or other images, as you see here with my cat, Indiana Jones.