LEARNING TO WRITE: A COMPUTER SUPPORT FOR A COOPERATIVE PROCESS

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LEARNING TO WRITEA COMPUTER SUPPORT FOR A
COOPERATIVE PROCESS
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LEARNING TO WRITEA COMPUTER SUPPORT FOR A
COOPERATIVE PROCESS

• What this is all about
• Findings from studies that reflect the goals of
  obstacles to cooperative learning in writing
  classrooms, with a focus on cooperative response
  and revision activities.
• Present a word processor called Work in
  Preparation (Prep) that is intended to support
  cooperative learning to write.
• Present observations on how students and
  instructor worked together with Prep to overcome
  difficulties of cooperative learning activities.

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LEARNING TO WRITEA COMPUTER SUPPORT FOR A
COOPERATIVE PROCESS

• Some results on learning to write studies..
• LEARNING TO WRITE IN COOPERATIVE CONTEXT
• There is a small evidence suggesting that
  students working together in writing activities,
  can bring overall positive effects.
• Students who wrote exclusively for their
  instructors were more likely to see their texts
  as objects to be judged and to see revision as
  low-level editing.
• Students who wrote for one another were more
  likely to view their texts as acts of
  communication and to see revision as a process of
  reconceptualization.

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LEARNING TO WRITEA COMPUTER SUPPORT FOR A
COOPERATIVE PROCESS

• More results from a different point of
  view..(revising)
• A study made by Hayes, Flowers and their
  colleagues classified the difficulties of
  revising a text into 3 types Detection,
  Diagnosis and Correction
• Some students may be unable to see faults in
  their texts, even when other readers reported
  difficulties in reading it.
• Other students may agree with the peers
  recognition of a problem, but may still be unable
  to diagnose what caused the problem.
• Finally, some students lack of revising becomes
  from their inability to fix the problems there
  could be.

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• How writing teachers have used computer support
  for their classes.(History)
• COMPUTER SUPPORT FOR COOPERATIVE LEARNING IN
  WRITING CLASSROOMS
• The most basic computer support for cooperative
  learning to write is to share a monitor and a
  keyboard. The technique does not result in
  automatic gains in writing quality for students
  over students writing alone.
• Variations of this technique attempt to provide
  collaborative pairs such as Writers Options
  and Collaborative Planning Partner.
• A second early form of computer support involves
  the use of LAN along with bulletin boards and
  databases to provide forums for discussing
  classes.
• The use of external networks together with email
  to provide distant audiences for student writers.
  This gives the students heightened perception of
  exigency and practice effect.
• One of the latest development in the area
  involves the use of electronic networks for
  concurrent interaction. Here, students and
  teacher carry on computer mediated conversations.

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LEARNING TO WRITEA COMPUTER SUPPORT FOR A
COOPERATIVE PROCESS

• The new tool..
• THE PREP EDITOR AS SUPPORT FOR WRITERS IN
  COOPERATIVE PROCESSES
• New word processor that allow writers and
  reviewers to create electronic margins in which
  they can write and communicate, creating columns
  to support different cooperative processes like
  drafts, readers comments or plans.

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LEARNING TO WRITEA COMPUTER SUPPORT FOR A
COOPERATIVE PROCESS

• Proving the new tool.
• A STUDY OF COMPUTER-SUPPORTED COOPERATIVE
  PROCESSES IN ONE WRITING CLASSROOM
• Peer review is a standard graded feature of all
  essay assignments in the course the PREP was
  tested. For each assignment students work with a
  partner who provides comments and suggestions of
  the given paper.
• OBSERVATIONS
• There were 3 basic ways students and instructor
  used the tool. Coaching peer reviews,
  articulating knowledge about revision and
  facilitating communication about writing

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LEARNING TO WRITEA COMPUTER SUPPORT FOR A
COOPERATIVE PROCESS

• The first way.
• COACHING PEER REVIEWS
• The Prep editor helped the instructor in
• Coaching both, the peer and the student at the
  same time
• Since the copy is electronic, the teacher can
  more readily provide response to both, student
  and peer.
• Because face-to face interaction is verbal and
  ephemeral, computer supported interactions might
  be a positive supplement to face-to-face
  interactions by providing writers a written
  record to which they can refer at any point.

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LEARNING TO WRITEA COMPUTER SUPPORT FOR A
COOPERATIVE PROCESS

• The second and third ways.
• ARTICULATING KNOWLEDGE ABOUT REVISION
• The Prep helped overcome difficulties students
  face in revision, by making the students thinking
  about revising more visible.
• FOSTERING MORE EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION
• Some students do not benefit as much as expected
  from peer and teacher response due to failures to
  communicate effectively.
• The computer can potentially help students and
  teacher mitigate difficulties in communication
  like scheduling problems.

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LEARNING TO WRITEA COMPUTER SUPPORT FOR A
COOPERATIVE PROCESS

• At last.
• CONCLUSIONS
• Multiple drafts with between-drafts revisions can
  improve students writing
• Peer review can improve students writing quality,
  revision skill and writing confidence.
• The PREP editor seems to represent an opportunity
  to improve some of the cognitive and social
  processes involved in cooperating learning to
  write.