Collaborative Writing in Composition

In most professional settings writing is very much a collaborative project. However, it is quite surprising that after more than a decade of selling commercial software to support collaborative writing, little software is able to maintain and facilitate human collaboration adequately. Cerrato (2003) demonstrates that a lot of the di1culties that arise when using collaborative software seem to arise from the underlying assumptions about the collaborative activity that have formed the basis in the design process of the computer-mediated collaborative writing programs. Her andings revealed that the use of collaborative writing systems encompassed a rather restricted view of collaboration in the context of creative activities such as writing. A description of these complex activities is conveniently reviewed by Lowry et al (2004). Lowry, Paul B. et al. (2004). Building a taxonomy and nomenclature of Collaborative Writing to improve Interdisciplinary Research and Practice. Journal of Business Communication, 41(1), 66–99.

PurposeThis paper aims to discuss how to use Google Wave and Docs as a group collaboration tool. Group and team projects can be stressful, particularly when distance and deadlines are part of the scenario. Using Google Wave and Docs can help everyone maintain access to the project anywhere and anytime. This paper also seeks to describe and suggest ways to use Google tools to keep documents organized and communications flowing well. It also aims to discuss using Google tools as part of project management.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses a series of cases studies in which the author has been directly involved. The case studies are accompanied by tips.FindingsThe paper reveals that the use of Google Wave and Docs for group collaboration can be very successful.Practical implicationsCollaboration teams can possibly save time and energy with Google tools.Originality/valueMany groups are interested in how they can actually use Google Wave to collaborate. The paper includes case studies to illuminate some possibilities.

Even if research on online collaborative writing is largely abundant, studies on the effects of varied digital collaborative tools applied to different stages of process writing are limited. This paper, therefore, presents the findings of a quasi-experimental study on the effects of three Web 2.0-based collaborative writing tools on university English language students’ writing performance and motivation. A one-group within-subjects quasi-experimental repeated-measures time series design was employed. Sixteen University students were comprehensively selected. Data were collected over four rounds using writing performance tests and a motivation questionnaire. The Friedman test was utilized to compare the mean scores of the related samples. Additionally, Kendall’s coefficient of concordance was calculated to determine the concordance in the rating. The results revealed that Web 2.0-based collaborative writing had a statistically significant effect on students’ writing performance and motivation when applied to the different stages of process writing. Therefore, it is essential for teachers, schools, and curriculum designers to make a concerted effort to integrate Web 2.0 writing tools for collaborative writing. 

Choosing the “right” type of technology, either synchronous or asynchronous, to facilitate learning outcomes is a new challenge as the pace of emerging technologies increases and diversifies. Teachers are encouraged to design courses that require collaboration in online learning communities to facilitate the development of higher order thinking skills for life long learning. It is therefore important to gather evidence of the kinds of opportunities afforded to students and whether the students themselves endorse collaborative online tools as a legitimate method of assisting in their learning. This paper outlines the way in which one secondary school has used an online discussion forum to support students in the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Program in enhancing research skills and skills for lifelong learning. The paper considers whether online collaborative tools are perceived by students as a positive way to improve learning outcomes.

Collaborative writing has been a common activity in different professions for many years. Researchers from multiple disciplines, including from HCI and CSCW, have experimented and evaluated a number of collaborative writing tools. However, with the emergence of more modern technologies like cloud-based Google Docs, newer versions of Microsoft Word etc., collaborative writing practices are gaining in popularity and use. Yet, we know little about the accessibility of these systems and how they should be designed to best support the increasingly common collaborative practices that constitute everyday work groups and collaboration. Our research goal is to study how people with visual impairments collaboratively write with other sighted and/or visually impaired peers in practice, whether and how they use computer-mediated collaborative tools, and design new assistive technologies to facilitate collaboration among a group of writers with visual impairments or mixed abilities.

The research paper has investigated the perceptions of Grade 10 students and mathematics teachers with the psychosocial learning environment in mathematics classrooms and contrasted the two data sets to find instances of convergences and divergences. A quantitative, descriptive-comparative research design was adopted whereby 2,400 students and 120 mathematics instructors in 12 public secondary schools in District Gujranwala in Pakistan were used. The adapted version of the What Is Happening in This Class? was used to collect the data. Questionnaire: (WIHIC) measured six dimensions: Student Cohesiveness, Teacher Support, Involvement, Task Orientation, Cooperation and Equity. Results obtained have showed that students and teachers have a positive perception of the classroom environment in all dimensions, with teachers having a higher perception in all dimensions especially the Teacher Support, Involvement and Equity. Although students reported moderate engagement, other areas like student involvement and perceived equity showed that there were slight discrepancies in how teachers intended to do something, and how students experienced it. The research points to the relevance of integrating classroom practice with the students’ views, reinforcing the active learning strategies, as well as a supportive and equitable psychosocial environment, to improve the engagement and student performance in mathematics.

Food for Thought: Building Socially Conscious Readers and Writers through Exploring Eating Practices and Sustainability Perspectives Silvia Rodríguez Sabater Globalization in the twenty-first century has created new and interconnected challenges for everyone, especially for the current generation of students in our classrooms. Language learning can be part of the solution, by opening students’ eyes to the social, cultural, economic, and environmental issues around the world. The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) has been advocating for the inclusion of the 5 Cs—Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, and Communities—since 1996. More recently, the publication of Words and Actions: Teaching Languages through the Lens of Social Justice (Glynn et al. 2014), and second edition in 2018, shed more light on how to teach these challenging topics. Recently, the Modern Language Association (MLA) has called for proposals on the “greening” of the Spanish curriculum for their 2020 convention. University students are and will be faced with complex twenty-first-century economic problems, such as food deserts, costs of industrial agriculture, organic regulations and market demand, sustainable food systems, value of traditional ecological knowledge, and regulations and business ethics related to food. These economic problems cannot be separated from social problems, such as political implications from food insecurity, loss of traditional ecological knowledge around food issues, food ethics, GMO vs. non-GMO debates, nutrition issues, speciesism in agriculture, policy, and regulations around food. In addition to the varied economic dimensions, environmental problems require creative answers to tackle the impact of industrial agriculture, agricultural pollution and runoff, climate crisis and agriculture, and deforestation and agriculture. Immediate solutions are required, and we need to equip our students with the tools to address and solve such real-world problems. In other words, the Spanish language classroom can be a crucial part of the education of globally prepared solutionaries, individuals able to address and solve issues (Weil 2016) and who are sustainability literate because they have the knowledge and skills to advocate for resilient social, economic, and environmental systems. The College of Charleston has made these concerns part of the Quality Enhancement Plan and has encouraged faculty to create courses in all fields of study. 1. The Case of SPAN 313: A Composition Course An intermediate composition section at the College of Charleston was taught in Spring 2019 aimed to build socially conscious readers and writers through exploring eating practices and sustainability perspectives. The course learning outcomes are: 1. sustainability literacy (identify various elements of sustainability in the Spanish-speaking world, key ways to be more sustainable in personal life, and the relationship between social/cultural, economic, and environmental factors); [End Page 155] 2. the development of interpretive reading and listening (understand, interpret, and analyze what is heard, read, or viewed on a variety of topics related to food practices and sustainability perspectives); 3. the development of presentational writing (present information, concepts, and ideas to inform, explain, persuade, and narrate on a variety of topics related to food practices and sustainability perspectives using appropriate media and adapting to various audiences of readers). The course themes are: 1) food deserts and social justice; 2) diets (Mediterranean diet, plant-based eating, and Mexican gastronomy); 3) habits (milk alternatives, organic produce, local products, drinking straws, and disposable products); 4) traditional agriculture and foods of Latin America (Mesoamerican chinampas and Andean terrazas); and 5) fair trade chocolate and coffee; and 6) cattle raising and deforestation. Students read authentic texts written by Spanish native speakers for members of that culture, and they interpret the texts by identifying key words, the main idea(s), supporting details, and the organizational features and author’s perspective, inferring meaning of unfamiliar words, and identifying cultural and sustainability perspectives. A list of these texts is included in the Appendix. 2. Presentational Writing Activities Students carry out a variety of presentational writing activities such as essays, discussion board posts, summaries of food and sustainability events on campus, and on invited speaker talks to class. The writing activities were structured according to the guidelines for ACTFL proficiency, beginning with writing assignments that asked students to narrate and describe, and then propose and persuade. The assignments increased in length and expectations for vocabulary and...

This study aims to assess students' collaborative writing activities using Wiki as a tool, building upon the research conducted by Hadjerrouit. An optimized experimental plan was designed to enhance the research approach. The enhancements involved expanding the experimental sample size, implementing a control group, incorporating self-assessment links, and utilizing binary response formats. Prior to commencing the experiment, all participants underwent rigorous training and testing to mitigate potential confounding factors. Subsequently, the acquired experimental data was analyzed using the same methodology as Hadjerrouit to derive conclusive findings. Nevertheless, it is crucial to acknowledge that the outcomes may be influenced by participants' learning abilities and the duration of the experiment, despite the ideal nature of the experimental plan.

This article provides a case study of recent curriculum development in a freshman skills program which integrates critical thinking and English composition as linked courses at Gonzaga University. Known as “thought and expression” courses, this block of courses, which also includes speech communication, can be taken by students separately or in a linked cohort with the same twenty students in each class. In linked courses, faculty are generally aware of each others' course topics and assignments, and they meet to discuss student progress and look for opportunities for curriculum integration. In this case study, library faculty were included in the instructional team, and information literacy skills that relate to critical thinking were integrated into the goals of the critical thinking and English composition courses. Faculty involved in the courses believe that integrating library skills into course goals adds coherence to the curriculum; it also helps students to achieve the developmental goals of the learning community created by this course model.

The ability to quickly extract relevant knowledge from large-scale information repositories like the World Wide Web, scholarly publication databases or Online Social Networks has become crucial to our information society. Apart from the technical issues involved in the storage, processing and retrieval of huge amounts of data, the design of automated mechanisms which rank and filter information based on their relevance (i) in a given context, and (ii) to a particular user has become a major challenge. In this chapter we argue that, due to the fact that information systems are increasingly interwoven with the social systems into which they are embedded, the ranking and filtering of information is effectively a socio-technical problem. Drawing from recent developments in the context of social information systems, we highlight a number of research challenges which we argue should become an integral part of a social informatics research agenda. We further review promising research approaches that can give rise to a systems design of information systems that addresses both its technical and social dimension in an integrated way.

The Hong Kong Classroom Environment Scale (HKCES) is a new instrument designed to assess upper primary and junior secondary school students’ perceptions of actual and preferred classroom environment. The development of the scale involved 2 stages of study. In the 1st stage of study, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses clearly identified 4 dimensions of classroom environment: teacher involvement, teacher support, order and student involvement and collaborativeness. In the 2nd stage of study, the instrument was administered to a new sample of about 6,000 students from 13 primary schools and 5 secondary schools for cross-validation.

This study aims to examine the strengthening of school literacy culture through the establishment of a Literacy Corner at SMPN 4 Mangarabombang as a strategy to enhance students’ reading interest and engagement in literacy activities. The research problem arises from students’ low reading intensity and the limited availability of literacy-supporting facilities at school. A qualitative descriptive method was employed, utilizing observation, interviews, and documentation as data collection techniques. The findings indicate that the Literacy Corner significantly improves students’ access to reading materials, fosters more consistent reading habits, and creates a more conducive learning environment. Moreover, the involvement of teachers and students in managing the Literacy Corner strengthens their sense of ownership and increases active participation in school literacy activities. By facilitating a space dedicated to reading, the initiative addresses the challenges related to the scarcity of resources and encourages students to make reading a regular activity. Teachers also reported increased student motivation and engagement in literacy programs, which translates into greater academic performance. These results highlight that establishing a Literacy Corner is an effective and strategic approach to reinforcing school literacy culture. Furthermore, it can serve as a model for other schools aiming to enhance their literacy programs and improve student engagement in reading activities.

This qualitative study, employing a semi-structured interview, aims to understand the experiences of Special Education Department supervisors in monitoring legislation related to students with disabilities. By exploring the experiences of 10 supervisors from the Ministry of Education’s Special Education Department in Saudi Arabia, the study seeks to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the department’s current monitoring practices. Three themes were identified from the findings: (1) The multifaceted role of the Special Education Department includes policy oversight, teacher support, school environment monitoring, and problem resolution. (2) Challenges in monitoring include limited responsiveness from the Ministry of Education, complex procedures, formalistic implementation, and insufficient skill and knowledge. (3) Recommendations for enhanced monitoring include updating regulations with the involvement of teachers, parents, and students, activating relationships and partnerships with relevant authorities, unifying the service reference for special education programmes to facilitate access, and promoting self-reflection within schools through internal review processes.

Involvement of teachers and students of BMSPI in the Great Patriotic War

This chapter turns to the inquiry’s first main “friendly” or cooperative witness, Brooklyn College (BC) English professor, Bernard Grebanier. Windels began by investigating BC because of its reputation for left-wing activism and the involvement of teachers and students in Popular Front causes. Grebanier, like many of his colleagues, joined the Communist Party because of its strong stance against European fascism, anti-Semitism, and right-wing movements in the United States. Although Grebanier was an unreliable witness, Windels led him to promote the myth that Brooklyn faculty indoctrinated their students.