Action Research and Review of Literature. - bhs.cc

Ryan McCallumReview of LiteratureTechnology‐Enhanced CollaborationPromoting interaction, collaboration, and community with technologyAbstractThe emerging tools that define what is becoming known as Web 2.0 have the potential to powerfullyimpact a classroom. Among other tools, weblogs, wikis, real time collaborative software suites (GoogleDocs), and discussion forums can be used easily by both students and teachers alike. Although thesefree tools are quickly becoming staples in student life outside of the classroom, they’re still largelyunderutilized by teachers. Teachers may be intimidated by the unfamiliarity of the tools or unsure abouthow to utilize them effectively to produce the most benefit from their time investment. It was thisconcern that guided my research question: How can technology‐enhanced collaboration be used mosteffectively to enhance instruction, student achievement, assessment, participation, and community ina secondary English classroom?I implemented several Web 2.0 tools in my writing classes and with the newspaper and yearbookprograms that I advise and refined them using research on best practices. I utilized these tools in anattempt to improve my teaching practice in a variety of ways. As a result, I found that these tools canhave an incredible impact with a surprisingly small investment of time. In many cases, it can maketeaching more efficient. I increased the quality and effectiveness of assessment – especially in the fieldof peer feedback. An online forum extended my learning communities beyond the school building whiledigital collaboration and discussion motivated students to participate more and in greater detail.Likewise, an interactive weblog allowed me to communicate more clearly and easily with students andparents. All of these tools activated students as resources for each other. Essentially, by using the sametools students choose to use on their own time, I was able to meet “Digital Natives” in their own world.Finally, I took the power of blogging and gave each of the students in my Journalism 2 class a weblog oftheir own. As my action research continues, I will be monitoring the power of this tool in the hands ofstudents as it impacts creative thinking, problem solving, collaboration, and communication in myclassroom.I plan on furthering my action research through assisting teachers in creating web presences for theirclassrooms that are tailored to their unique needs. Maintaining and improving the current onlinecomponent of my classroom will also maintain a priority for me as I continue my research in this area.

2 McCallum: Technology‐Enhanced CollaborationThe ProblemThere’s a student like Tyler in every class. He’s creative, bright, and attentive. The work he doesis well above average, and he sticks around after class to talk about that day’s activities. His perspectiveis refreshing and engaging. During discussion, although you can tell he’s thinking, he has little to say, andhe resists being called upon for answers by avoiding eye contact. When groups form, he may be the lastto join one, and he would rather not work with a partner. Reaching students like Tyler is a challenge inany classroom, but the teacher knows the contributions he could make could greatly improve the class.Most classes also have a student like David – his vocal nature and tendency to talk whenever hegets excited creates a poor first impression. He seems like he’s not paying attention and hiscontributions to discussion may push them toward being off topic. His teachers often see him as aslacker or a goof‐off, and so that is what he becomes. It’ll be too late when the teacher finally realizeshow interested he was in the class and how motivated he was by the content, losing another valuableasset in the classroom.David and Tyler represent many of the students I teach daily at Buffalo High School, a publicsuburban school serving approximately 1800 students in grades 9‐12. BHS is located in a city ofapproximately 15,000 residents and also serves the surrounding communities of Hanover and Montrose.The majority of the students in the district are Caucasian, although there is a growing contingent ofminority students, helped by the inclusion of an Arts Magnet school located within the high school thatbring in students from urban school districts closer to the Twin Cities.Tyler and David are also typical students in my writing classes, all of which (three classes of justover 30 students each) contribute writing to be published in either the school’s newspaper or yearbook.My classes are electives, and they represent a wide variety of ability levels, with honor students andstudents with learning disabilities in the same classes. However, most importantly, Tyler and David arelike millions of their peers all around the country whose lives are being shaped by the tools of the socialinternet, often referred to as Web 2.0.Web 2.0 is defined by the ability for users to create and publish content quickly and easily(O’Rielly, 2005). The staple of the new web is interactivity and production. Through using the flagshiptools of Web 2.0 ‐ weblogs, wikis, forums, and real‐time collaborative applications – teachers can betterserve these students and activate them as valuable contributors in their classroom. The secret lies inunderstanding how these students’ brains function and how being the first generation of Digital Natives(Prensky, 2001) changes the way they function as learners. The good news for teachers is that these

3 McCallum: Technology‐Enhanced Collaborationtools are readily available, simple to use, and can be accessed without any investment in expensivehardware and software.When students like Tyler and David go home for the day, along with the vast majority of theirclassmates, they’re not spending their time watching television. In 2007, parents actually spent moretime watching TV than their children (Parents set to watch, 2007). Ninety three percent of Americanteens use the Internet regularly, and they’re not doing it passively (Macgill, 2007). Sixty‐four percent ofchildren ages 12‐17 engage in content creation of various forms on the web (Macgill, 2007). Thirty‐fivepercent of teen girls and 20 percent of teen boys maintain blogs. Nationwide, 55 percent of teens,including 70 percent of girls, maintain a social networking profile on a site like MySpace, Facebook, orBebo. A growing number of students are posting videos to YouTube, instant messaging, posting onforums, and creating their own playlists of movies, television, and music on their cell phones (Fox, 2007)The millennial generation is embracing the tools of Web 2.0 and using them to create and establish anidentity. In addition, 28 percent of teens who are becoming known as “super communicators” – using avariety of technology options, ranging from traditional landline phones and email, to text messaging,social networking sites, and instant messaging, to connect to family and friends. Importantly, this groupis also learning how to do all of these things safely (Macgill, 2007).Mark Prensky (2001) calls the first generation to grow up with these technologies and behaviors“Digital Natives” (as opposed to their teachers, who are mostly “Digital Immigrants”), and he says theyhave changed radically from previous generations. He says that “today's students are no longer thepeople our educational system was designed to teach.” (p. 1). He says that it is possible that the brainsof our students could be physically different from their teachers’, and at the very least, their patters ofthinking have inarguably changed. As a result, he says, “today's teachers have to learn to communicatein the language and style of their students” (p. 1). To paraphrase Prensky, we teachers must learn howto meet Digital Natives in their world and allow them to speak in their native languages.Failure to adapt to the changing brain of the Digital Native can have serious consequences in theclassroom. Don Tapscott (2007) points to Academic studies over the last thirty years showing “thatyoung people’s interest and enthusiasm in schoolwork has declined precipitously” (p. 51). He concludesthat, students “who go online regularly to play video games or interact on MySpace expect betterexperiences in the classroom. Look at today’s curriculum, and you won’t find much interactivity” (p. 51).He says that part of the solution to this problem is to use technology to facilitate “real participatory,active learning” where students collaborate not just with each other, but with people and ideas from

4 McCallum: Technology‐Enhanced Collaborationaround the globe (p. 51). He believes that students who have these types of interactions will be incommand of the global economy and have greater success in education and employment.Failure to utilize these powerful tools that allow students to connect, share, collaborate, andproduce can limit a student’s ability to thrive in a world that will be increasingly based on MassCollaboration (Tapscott, 2007). Right now, companies ranging from McDonald’s to Sony are using blogs,wikis, and other tools to compete in a global economy (Tapscott, 2007). Their employees will also beexpected to use these tools. Products millions of people use every day, like the Firefox web browser andthe OpenOffice.org document suite, are the result of the simultaneous collaboration of thousands ofpeople from all over the globe, rather than competition. According to Tapscott (2007), students need tolearn these tools to participate to the fullest in a global economy. Those teachers who can put thesetools into effective practice are better preparing students for the future.Fortunately, teachers can begin using the powerful tools of Web 2.0 almost immediately. Whathelped make the groundbreaking tools of Web 2.0 so ubiquitous so rapidly goes beyond their design orpower, it is their ease of use and their cost: Free. Any person with even a bottom‐of‐the‐line computerand a connection to the Internet can participate in this world.For the most part, teachers and school districts still seem to be placing their focus on purchasinghardware and software licenses, injecting their money into products that require reinvestment on analmost yearly basis on tools that can only be accessed at school. While some of this spending isnecessary and wise, many districts leave an incredibly powerful resource untapped. Many teachers alsoview educational technology they same way as they view their curriculum – it’s created by teachers andpresented to students. If schools don’t start meeting students in their worlds, the traditional classroomwill lose its relevance. Students are already beginning to tune out. Teachers are telling the growingnumber of super‐communicators to abandon their defining characteristic during the school day –banning cell phones and blocking the most valuable tools of Web 2.0. Tools like weblogs, wikis, andforums are often the first websites to fall victim to educational content filters and teacher scrutiny.There is a wealth of technologies available freely to teachers right now that could forge a bridgeto span the digital disconnect between students and teachers, allowing them to extend their classroombeyond the boundaries of the school building and connect with students and parents in powerful ways.This shift is by no means a compromise by educators. Forums, Wikis, Blogs, Real‐Time CollaborativeSuites, and other web‐based tools can reach students in their world while enriching the traditional

5 McCallum: Technology‐Enhanced Collaborationeducational values that have been placed on instruction, discipline, environment, and assessment in aBest Practice classroom.One of the most promising aspects of all of these tools is the power to enable collaborationamong students. The ability to collaborate effectively is an increasingly important trait for studentsentering the workforce (Dooley & Wickersham, 2007), so it stands to reason that students should bedeveloping this ability in school.Larkin (2007) writes about the importance of using virtual collaboration tools as a supplement toface‐to‐face classroom collaboration. She writes that collaborative communities are the most effectivesettings for learning, because students who experience a high degree of access to the intelligence,intentions, and sensory impressions of other learners is the key to a learner’s level of participation and,subsequently, the success collaboration. When students use tools like forums and wikis to collaborate,they create an ever‐expanding and automatically archive base of knowledge which they can access atany time. This virtual collaboration can create a sense of a shared community that extends back into theclassroom. Larkin stresses that teachers should not abandon personal collaboration, because “facialexpression, direction of gaze, posture, dress, and non‐verbal and vocal cues… are essentials thatcontribute to social presence in a face‐to‐face environment” (p. 2). This enhanced social presenceimproves the quality of online collaboration.The tools that I’ve researched and put into practice are only a small part of the Next Gen Web,and the way I’ve used them is just one of an infinite ways to harness their potential.* * *Before explaining my research about and application of the collaborative tools of the nextgeneration Internet, it’s important for me to explain my experience using technology in the classroomthroughout my teaching experience.I built my first web site in 1995 and I’ve maintained a classroom website since I began studentteaching in 2001. My web site was always a useful tool for me, but it was difficult and time‐consumingto update, and it was an entirely passive experience for students and parents that accessed it. It wasused infrequently, but I was proud to simply have a website.When the hosting service that I was using went out of business in the week following the birthof my son in late 2005, it took down my entire site without giving me an opportunity to back it up. I wasdevastated. I was forced to develop a new class website in a very short amount of time. I wanted it upby the time I returned to school. I dabbled with using a content management system including weblog

6 McCallum: Technology‐Enhanced Collaborationand a wiki to accomplish this. It was then that I was introduced to the powerful and easy to use tools ofWeb 2.0. Within days, I had an entirely new online classroom that focused on interactivity with thepotential for collaboration.Previously, I had dabbled with using these tools with mixed results. I had a forum, but it waslargely an unexciting tool that was rarely used by my students. My blog continued to be a passive tool,used completely by me, and the wiki was without direction. Analyzing and implementing the emergingresearch associated with Web 2.0 has helped transform the online component of my classroom into agrowing, thriving, and effective collaborative community. It’s simplified my job as a teacher andenriched the experience of my students.* * *Wikis: A collaborative legacy“The nature of work itself is changing. Work has become more cognately complex,more team‐based and collaborative, more dependent on social skills, more timepressured, more reliant on technological competence, more mobile, and lessdependent on geography.” From Wikinomics (Tapscott, 2007).One of the most powerful tools for facilitating both large and small‐scale collaboration is a Wiki.Through the use of a wiki, teachers can implement collaborative construction in their classroom (Usingwiki, 2007). A wiki is essentially a combination of a web site and a word document, allowing teachers toquickly and easily create websites and students to effortlessly collaborate online where theirknowledgebase grows daily and is archived for future use. The work that students produce is easilytracked and becomes a legacy for future use. They can be also be used to create presentations andcollect data. Richardson (2006) calls Wikipedia, the most famous of all wikis, “the poster child for thecollaborative construction of knowledge and truth that the new, interactive Web facilities” (p. 62).Professionals are beginning to use wikis as efficient ways to work on project teams; sharing,tracking, and collaborating simply and effectively. Teachers can also use Wikis to create resources fortheir whole classes (Richardson, 2006). Wikis can be a “very democratic process of knowledge creation”(Richardson, 2006, p. 65). Students learn how to publish information, develop collaborative skills, anddebate concepts like truth, correctness, and relevance. Teachers can also work together with studentsto create an evolving online content‐specific text for their own classroom (Richardson 2006).

7 McCallum: Technology‐Enhanced CollaborationFinally, teachers can turn to outside wikis as incredibly valuable, yet free, sources ofinformation. There are entire textbooks available that teachers can use to supplement curriculum. TheCalifornia Open Source Textbook Project, just one of many similar projects, is set to save the State ofCalifornia over $200 million over the next five years by augmenting current K‐12 textbooks (Richardson,2006).Many educators have developed a negative opinion about sites like Wikipedia, usually becauseit can make plagiarism more tempting and it’s difficult to cite in research. Some schools have even goneas far as blocking access to the site from school computers. Schools blocking the site usually give thereason that the information is neither accurate nor reliable because the content is user‐created. Often,teachers and librarians disallow the use of Wikipedia in research or from citations. Addressing thesefears by blocking access to a tool that highlights the nature of the collaborative world students will beliving in and provides a vast amount of free knowledge is misguided. For one, Wikipedia has beenproven to be as accurate as the Encyclopedia Britannica (Wikipedia survives, 2005). Wikipedia has evenprovided the information used to correct errors in the most famous print encyclopedia, errors thatcannot be corrected without releasing an entirely new volume at the cost of both time and money(Errors in, 2008). As some in education rail against a single wiki, hundreds more are popping up. Insteadof burying their heads in the sand, teachers and administrators can teach students more about thenature of wikis and their appropriate use in research by utilizing them in the classroom.Wikis in ActionThe students in all of my classes complete a large amount of first‐hand research for everyassignment they do. Unfortunately, when classes change each semester, each class loses a giganticamount of research and the process begins again. Teachers, coaches, principals, and advisers are askedthe same questions during interviews multiple times each year. As a result, the quality of this researchcan suffer as sources grow tired of the process. I was looking for a way to create a way to archive thatresearch and add to it easily so students have a comprehensive, accurate, and detailed database ofknowledge about Buffalo High School. I also wanted to do a better job of teaching about objectivity inreporting by giving students a chance to make encyclopedia‐style entries about the high school.My students also spend hours teaching themselves very specific aspects of the complex designprograms we use in the class. That knowledge is also lost from class to class and semester to semester.Without a way to archive and update that knowledge, I need to take time to teach the complicated

8 McCallum: Technology‐Enhanced Collaborationniche functions of a variety of programs to individual students. Many of these functions, I may not evenknow. Each year, I have students that are especially gifted in specific areas of design, photography,writing, or image editing. If I could find a way to store that talent and knowledge online, I could preservesome of the most valuable teachers in my class.The solution I found for both of these problems was creating a class wiki. While Wikipedia is anexample the amazing strength of worldwide collaboration; on a smaller scale, my class wiki was also apowerful tool.After completing research on a subject, students either created or added to pages on the classwiki. The project quickly grew from a single front page to over 330 unique pages – complete withinformation and photographs on all areas of the school (Figure 1). In the two years the project hasexisted, it has received over 175,920 page views, or over 316 views per day. Students began using thewiki as a first resource in their reporting process, making for more effective interviews and moreaccurate stories. As an added benefit, students said they learned more about the nature of wikis as aneducational resource. They learned that wikis can be a valuable place to begin research, but that theyaren’t all‐encompassing. They also learned how vandalism can affect wikis, so they understood to beskeptical of all the information they read on wikis. In addition, using the wiki became an authenticlesson about objectivity in journalism.Figure 1: The Mock Trial page from the Buffalo High School Wiki Project.

9 McCallum: Technology‐Enhanced CollaborationAgain, I discovered that the small amount of front‐end work in creating the wiki quickly paiditself back. Maintaining the wiki is a daunting task, but I chose to activate students as moderators andscreeners. Each quarter, students serve and project managers, proof reading selections and flaggingthem for improvement or noting obvious bias in the writing. Flagged pages are easy to review andchanges can be made easily. Intentional mistakes and vandalism happened extremely rarely. Becausethe project was designed to help their classmates and each student would be using pages designed bytheir classmates, their motivation to post inaccurate information was minimal. If mistakes were made,they could be fixed in three clicks of a mouse, because every version of every page is saved in a detailedhistory that can be restored in a single mouse click.Figure 2: The Knowledge Base on The Buffalo High School Wiki ProjectIn the last two quarters, I’ve expanded the wiki to include a section called “The KnowledgeBase” (Figure 2). On this page, writers and editors create tutorials of the things they’ve taught

10 McCallum: Technology‐Enhanced Collaborationthemselves throughout their experience in my class. The tutorials are either written and supplementedwith screenshots or created with real‐time video and audio using Adobe’s Captivate software. I can alsocreate and post tutorials so students have something to refer to when they work on projects or a way toteach themselves what they’ve missed if they are absent. The Knowledge Base can grow from year toyear and can be updated frequently. Students can be hesitant to make tutorials at first, but when theyfrequently access the tutorials themselves, they quickly learn the value of contributing their knowledgeto the wiki.Another advantage of using a classroom wiki is the ability to easily create web pages. When Ineed to make a page in a short amount of time, a wiki is the perfect tool. A page can be set up within amatter of minutes, and the pages are dynamic and flexible, allowing me to easily adapt the use of wikisto their unique curriculum. One especially creative colleague of mine used a wiki to create a ChooseYour Own Adventure book as a whole‐class multi‐genre writing project. She created the first page andestablished the guidelines for the project. Soon, her class had mapped out and written a book of over 50pages.Free wikis can be set up in minutes and are available at wikispaces.com or pbwiki.com. TikiWiki,the same engine that runs Wikipedia, can be set up on any server for free.Weblogs: From digital file cabinet to constructive catalyst“Writing stops; blogging continues. Writing is inside; blogging is outside. Writing ismonologue; blogging is conversation. Writing is thesis; blogging is synthesis… Writingbecomes an ongoing process, one that is not just done for the contrived purposes ofthe classroom” From Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts (Richardson, 2006, p. 31).Weblogs (or Blogs) are another powerful classroom technology tool. Generally, a blog is awebsite where users post entries – consisting of text, images, links to other web sites, and even audioand video – that are usually displayed in chronological order. Although blogging has been around sincethe early 1980s, before the advent of the World Wide Web and the Internet as we currently know it, thepractice has exploded in recent years (Blog, 2008). Technorati, a blog search engine was tracking morethan 112.8 million blogs as of February 2008 (About us, 2008). According to Technorati, “Blogs are

11 McCallum: Technology‐Enhanced Collaborationpowerful because they allow millions of people to easily publish and share their ideas, and millions moreto read and respond. They engage the writer and reader in an open conversation, and are shifting theInternet paradigm as we know it” (About us, 2008, p. 1). In other words, authors can easy create andpost content ranging from personal journal entries targeted at a small audience to content that isaccessed by millions of people every month. All of this publishing is two‐way, meaning that the audiencecan react and respond to the content of the blog, even connecting their own blogs to a source through“trackbacks”. Many students are familiar with the platform through using sites like MySpace, Facebook,LiveJournal, and Blogger, some of the most popular sites on the Internet.Carter (2002) writes that blogs can serve as a form of collaboration between parents, students,and teachers when teachers are able to easily post their daily lessons, classroom news, and assignments.Carter argues that simply posting documents and allowing parental contact through a website andonline tools, a teacher is creating an open environment of collaboration. Parents can help keep studentsaccountable by understanding the daily activities of the classroom and more easily engage teachers inconversations about their discipline and instruction. Web blogs are freely available to teachers on siteslike blogspot.com and wordpress.com and can be set up after a short registration process. Within hours,teachers can become collaborative partners with parents and their students through the creation of aclassroom blog. Because blogs are interactive by nature, they can also be used to engage students indiscussions about big ideas presented in the class. Students can easily leave comments and respond toquestions posted by a teacher. They can also leave feedback for teachers and ask questions quickly andeasily. The work posted by teachers is automatically archived and searchable, as well, making updateseasier each time a class is taught.As part of my research, I helped nearly a dozen teachers at my school create classroom blogsusing WordPress. The teachers ranged in experience from just one year to 40 years in education. Each ofthe teachers were able to successfully maintain this type of web site throughout a semester,personalizing their site to the needs of their curriculum. From freshman English to College‐in‐the‐Schools programs, students and teachers were able to use blogs to enrich classroom learning, helpstudents track assignments, and provide helpful resources. Teachers that opened up their blogs tostudent feedback and reaction allowed their blogs to serve multiple purposes without any additionaltime or effort. They also managed to empower students and involve parents in classroom activity.

12 McCallum: Technology‐Enhanced CollaborationTrue BloggingWill Richardson (2006) promotes taking the use of blogging on step further – taking it out of thehands of the teacher and placing it in the hands of students. Although a course blog is a great resourcefor both students and parents, true blogging, Richardson writes, isn’t simply the posting of assignments,or even journaling and reflecting. Instead, it’s, “extended analysis and synthesis over a longer period oftime that builds upon previous posts, links, and comments” or posting links with “analysis and synthesisthat articulate a deeper understanding or relationship to the content being linked to and written withpotential audience response in mind” (p. 32).When students learn to habitually engage in this behavior through blogging, weblogs become apowerful constructivist tool (Richardson, 2006). Students create content that contributes to a widerbody of knowledge and learn to synthesize information from that vast world. They also are able to easilylink to and expand on the work of their peers. Blogging can also expand the walls of a classroom toconnect students to peers around the world. Richardson also says that blogs can support differentlearning styles, teach the new digital literacy that all students should be equipped with, and help achievelearning that all teachers and students strive for, especially in the areas of reflection and metacognition.Blogs also keep the results of learning organized and searchable, making learning easy to reference andbuild upon.At first, an effective yet passive toolFor over a year, I had maintained a class weblog and used it daily. I used it to create, as WillRichardson (2006) calls it, a “Class Portal”; posting assignments, notes, presentations, and even podcastsof certain lessons, and asking for responses from students on the essential questions for each unit. Myblog was a resource that was used daily by most of my students. During the first semester I maintained ablog, 41 percent of students in all of my classes said they used the class blog to gain access toassignments and notes every day, and thirty‐six percent said they visited the blog more than once aweek. Updating the class blog was simple for me; it simply replaced my practice of writing down dailyactivities and keeping a file cabinet of extra handouts.The small front‐loading time investment in the blog had a positive impact on the class.Processing and publishing my daily agenda and classroom activities for an audience helped me stayfocused and on schedule as an educator, but the benefit didn’t stop there. Over 88 percent of studentsfound the class portal to be “Helpful” or “Extremely Helpful”. In addition, 92 percent of students said the

13 McCallum: Technology‐Enhanced Collaborationblog was either “Easy” or “Extremely Easy” to use, giving the class blogs the most positive overall ratingof any technology tool incorporated in all my classes.In addition to the benefit enjoyed by my students, I created an online document repository andarchive where my handouts, notes, presentations, and detailed syllabus were available for my students,their parents, and even other educators. Within a few weeks of starting the blog, teachers fromneighboring districts and as far away as Texas were using my materials in their classes. Throughout thesemester, I was able to easily connect lessons together, bring back previous work, and make bettertransitions between units. At the end of the experience, I had an entire course online, which madeupdating the course website even easier the second time around.Any time invested in uploading assignments and presentations was quickly recouped whenstudents missed classes. Instead of creating daily packages of missed work for students and spendingclass time getting students caught up after missing class, students came to school aware of what theymissed and able to make it up. Some students even used the blog to ensure they were already caught upwhen they returned to class. Students who forgot to bring home assignments or who misplaced noteswere able to quickly and easily print out replacements. Missing and late work dropped dramatically, andstudents no longer used excuses like, “I didn’t know we had homework”, or “I forgot to bring home thepacket” when their work was late. Students with learning disabilities or other impairments were able tofind complete copies of notes and recaps of daily events without any extra preparation on my part,another aspect of blogging that was mutually beneficial.I found it is extremely important to make a daily commitment to the class blog. When I went fora week without updating the blog, 60 percent of my students said that the lack of updates negativelyaffected the class. When the students grew to expect updates – and when I expected them to takeresponsibility for make‐up work ‐ they were disappointed when I didn’t maintain my end of thecommitment.While using a blog to post assignments was a great tool for classroom management andcommunication, it wasn’t a piece of technology that excited or motivated students. Although theyappreciated and frequently used the course blogs, only a few students of the over 100 that I surveyedspecifically mentioned it in interviews as something enriching compared to the other technology toolswe used throughout the semester. The blog was simply a one way communication tool for me, and I

14 McCallum: Technology‐Enhanced Collaborationremained the gatekeeper. As Mark Prensky (2005) writes, putting curriculum online is “useful andimportant, but it’s hardly new” (p. 31). The blog was an active element of my day, but it was usedpassively by students. I quickly came to realize that there was a better way to use this tool.Now, a catalyst for constructivismAccording to Richardson (2006), by posting assignments and agendas online, I wasn’t even reallyblogging. After reading Richardson’s definition of blogging and his explanations of the transformativepotential of giving students their own weblogs, I decided to give each student in my Journalism 2 classtheir own blog using WordPress MultiUser (or WordPress Mu), free software that any server is able touse to create blogs for from one to thousands of students. Harvard University even uses the software togive each one of its Law students their own blogs. In the previous semester, students in this class did notmaintain a blog. They began using their blogs for multiple purposes from the first day of the class. First,they maintained an “e‐portfolio” of their work throughout the quarter, complete with reflection on eachartifact they produced and comments on the work of their classmates (Figure 3). Second, they kept anonline reading log, where they linked to sources, made connections with the current content of theclass, and practiced critical reading and questioning techniques (Figure 4). Third, they responded toprompts each week that helped them engage in a conversation with the essential questions of each unit.They brought in outside sources, each others blogs, and their own unique perspectives to each question.By engaging questions like this, their responses transformed the course and lead to deeperunderstanding of the material. Finally, the students could customize the look and feel of their blog andwrite about content that reflected their personality and interests.Although the process was slow to start and students initially resisted the introduction to theprocess, it wasn’t long before almost every student was fully on board. While 96 percent of myJournalism 2 students said that the process of blogging got easier over time, their initial reactions variedfrom being nervous about blogging to disliking the practice altogether. While some students enjoyed theprocess from the start, the following comments represent typical responses from a survey the studentstook about their initial reaction to blogging:I was a bit nervous... I didn't like the thought of having my peers read my thoughts.I was kind of nervous, because I had never done anything with blogging before.

15 McCallum: Technology‐Enhanced CollaborationAt first i kind of thought of it as a waste of time, but i see now how it can make things a loteasier, for the teacher too. It's kind of fun and makes things more interesting too.At first, I thought it was kind of dumb. That it was a waste of time.I didn’t think it was going to be fun. I thought it was going to be a waste of time.I thought that it was going to be stupid.I thought it was pointless and hard but it’s better nowWhen I do blogging in the future with students, I will make an effort to take more timeintroducing blogs at the beginning of the class. Giving students a little more guidance and time in theprocess of setting up, personalizing, and making their first posts would reduce the amount of time thatstudents spend being confused and increase their productivity and quality of work once they beginblogging.Figure 3: A sample portfolio entry with reflection from a student blog.

16 McCallum: Technology‐Enhanced CollaborationFigure 4: A sample blog entry with links to the thoughts of other students.To address the initial confusion of the group, I created a blog dedicated to the blogging processfor my classes. All their prompts and examples of excellent work were in a single location along withlinks to each student’s blog. I also started syndicating my furl.net reading log to my site, modeling myreading habits and the way I engaged the material I was reading. Students often chose to blog about thesame things I had in my reading log, but when they did they often did a much better job than I did. Forthe first time in years, I was actually jealous of my students and the outstanding capacity for originalthought I was seeing. Syndicating my reading log was a major cause of drastic improvement for thestudents who struggled getting started or locating original material for their blogs. Most of the time,those students moved on to find their own sources and connections.Blogging is a unique process, a new way of writing that most students haven’t practiced orstudied, and it takes time to become proficient at it. Students struggled with the process for a couple ofweeks, they soon began developing unique voices and bringing in fresh and new sources to their writing

17 McCallum: Technology‐Enhanced Collaborationand the class. They admitted to being more engaged with the curriculum and understanding the contentmore deeply and personally. Reading my students’ blogs became a joy for me as I watched them applyand articulate their understanding of the essential questions for the course. I could tell, withoutquestion, which students were “getting it” and which students needed a little more time. Even better,the students who were taking longer to develop connections could read and respond to the work ofstudents who were grasping concepts more thoroughly. Students resisted the temptation to copy thework of their classmates and strove to make their own work unique.I could relate to the initial frustration and intimidation of my students. As the students beganblogging, I also attempted to keep a weblog of my own. I maintained a portfolio, reading log, andgeneral blog along with them, and I could relate to the challenges behind blogging. Establishing a uniquevoice, seamlessly linking and drawing connections between sources, and writing well enough for anaudience was extremely challenging. However, as we continued to practice and look to each other forinspiration, the quality of work and enjoyment in the process increased. Students began seeingconnections between what they were doing and the curriculum. They were engaging the content of theclass in meaningful ways, and, although they were challenged by the process, they understood therewards. “It's not as easy as it looks,” one student wrote, “but it's more useful than any ‘journal entry’that I've ever done.”As the course continued, other students commented on how they felt more confident with theirunderstanding of the course and felt more pride in their work. “I feel more secure and am not freakingover what other people think,” one student wrote. The ability to personalize the look and feel of theirblog and create a showcase of their work lead another student to comment that, “It's like my very ownportfolio. It's the work that I have to show that I did in the class. It's kind of like I am more proud of myblog now.” In general, most students found the processes easier than handing in assignments andenjoyed the immediate reactions they would get from classmates and myself. “Now I understand I haveguidance to fill my blog with actual insight,” a student wrote, “and that McCallum will react to it.”One unexpected benefit of blogging was the immediate connection students found with a wideraudience. When students started becoming more proficient at weaving together multiple sourcesthrough linking, their blogs gained the attention of other authors. Students started receiving commentsfrom a variety of outside sources; movie critics, independent movie producers, professional writers andjournalists, and prolific bloggers. Some of the comments they received were made within three or four

18 McCallum: Technology‐Enhanced Collaborationhours of their original entries. When students started receiving these comments, it served as the biggestcatalyst for enthusiasm in the process. Students started writing more cohesive entries and worked toensure their entries were polished and unique. They even started interacting with the blogs they read,looking for unique sources of information and engaging those authors in discussion. In my ownexperience, I was contacted for interviews for news stories and press releases about blogging and citizenjournalism and cited in journalism blogs. While the outside readers were important to the process andthe overall quality of the blogging experience, it can also be the most nerve‐wracking aspect of bloggingfrom a teacher’s perspective. Students had to be taught to screen comments before displaying them andlearn rules about etiquette and safety when commenting on outside sources. When I do this again, thiswill become a part of discussion before students receive their blogs. Parents and students will reviewguidelines and policies before beginning the experience.Ninety‐two percent of students said they looked to the blogs of their classmates to help themrespond on their own sites. They frequently linked to each other’s work, asking questions and expandingon thoughts. More importantly, 72% of students said they are more conscious of their thinking whenthey write and take more pride in their work because they have an audience.Figure 5: Articulating Understanding

19 McCallum: Technology‐Enhanced CollaborationThe blogs have also proven to be an invaluable part of the assessment process. Evaluatingstudent work and leaving feedback has become more authentic and streamlined for me. Leavingcomments is simple and quick, and it’s much easier to see growth over time when I can simply filter astudent’s posts and see all their work in one place. I don’t have to lug papers home and back to school,and students can easily see examples of the work their peer’s have completed. I can easily pick outexamples of great work and share them with the class, and they can easily engage important questionsand ask questions of the content itself. The convenience is unmistakable. There isn’t any confusionabout missing work or lost assignments, and parents can get a real feel for what their children are doingin class.The improvement in the quality of the course and the work the students have produced fromlast semester to the current one is unmistakable. Even with a class of 32 this semester, compared withjust 19 last semester, I am more aware of my students and their level of understanding (Figure 5),assessment is easier and more authentic, and the students are grasping concepts on a deeper level byworking with them in their blogs. Many of the prompts I used were identical from the previoussemester, but simply changing the format of their expression has dramatically improved the course andtheir learning.Blogs and my DisciplineBlogs improved my classroom environment,the way I assessed learning, instruction, and helpedme provide better leadership within my building.However, one of the greatest benefits of bloggingcame in the area of my discipline. Journalism andblogging are interconnected and the line betweenmainstream news and blogging grows fainter everyday. At the same time, journalists need to processand examine a wide variety of writing from multiplesources to understand their profession better.Blogging let my class gain a deeperunderstanding of both of these areas, granting

20 McCallum: Technology‐Enhanced Collaborationthem a more authentic education on journalism and a taste of what they’re be either working with oragainst if they pursue a career in journalism.ForumsOne of the most powerful additions to any classroom is a discussion forum or message board.Available for free at sites like smfforfree.com, forums can require the most frontloading of work of thetools outlined in my research, but their benefits within the classroom can also be the most powerful. Inmy experience, a forum completely transformed my classroom community, changed the way I advisedactivities, revolutionized the way my students interacted and exchanged feedback, and enriched myclassroom in ways traditional methods could not.Through their research on online forums, Christopher, Thomas, and Tallent‐Runnels (2004)found that an online forum has the potential to help develop higher‐level thinking skills in students.They also found that forums can be an effective way to meet nearly all the areas of Bloom’s Taxonomy.Unlike a web blog, a forum allows students the ability to pose their own questions in a centralizedlocation and respond to each other, independently from a teacher, with a more dynamic and authenticexchange of opinion. Weblogs do offer many of the same tools for students to engage in meaningfuldiscussions, but many of those discussions occur in a more isolated place than a classroom forum,making forum discussions easier to monitor, assess, and contribute to.Consistent and continual student participation is essential to the implementation of an effectiveforum that complements a curriculum. Because of this, creating a successful forum involves extensiveplanning and significant teacher involvement. Markel (2004) found that online forums and technologytools should be designed into a course, not simply discovered and added on as a bell and whistle. Aforum, like any piece of technology, should not be used as a way to add flash without substance.However, courses that include online discussion maximize student learning in a number of ways. Theypromote student involvement and feedback, and may inadvertently provide an outlet for students tovoice frustrations, normally vented outside of the classroom, that can lead to curriculum changes.Markel (2004)warns against using tools like forums and blogs as one‐way communication portalsand to instead focus on stimulating critical thinking, discussion, and collaboration. Markel states thatforums can help create an identity for the class and develop a shared sense of belonging. They alsomake better use of a student’s time outside of a class. However, she also says that students areconditioned to respond immediately to verbal commands from teachers, so they must change the way

21 McCallum: Technology‐Enhanced Collaborationthey learn in a sense. She also recommends reducing anonymity and allowing students to develop anidentity online. The teacher must be an active participant in discussion forums and become a facilitator,when that happens students carry the classroom over to the online component and allows students tobegin to utilize each other as resources. Finally, she recommends maintaining a social component to theforum, just as school is a social experience.Suler (2004) focuses on using forums to create a cohesive digital counterpart to a physicalclassroom that extends discussion, fosters relationships, and encourages collaboration. He found thatteachers need to be especially intentional when it comes to the beginning stages and the design of thediscussion board. Suler also stresses the importance of creating a social place on the board wherestudents have the freedom to bring in their interests and personality. He encourages teachers to set thatpart of the board up separately from the main classroom component of the board. Suler stresses makingrules clear and having the teacher guide from afar, not dictating the control of the board. Heacknowledges that traffic on a discussion board isn’t always consistent and offers advice on how to ridethe ebb and flow of discussion. One of the principle things a teacher can do to motivate students tomake sure that none of them have “black hole” experiences where they receive no replies to theircomments or topics. Finally, Suler warns about the “online disinihibition effect” and providessuggestions for helping teachers deal with the completely different personas students create oncestudents leave the classroom.In order to establish any strong community, teachers must model positive collaboration forstudents (Hamby, Towns, 1998). A teacher cannot simply assume that students know how tocollaborate, no matter how well they’ve set up their online environment. Teachers must alsocontinuously check on the community and make sure it’s meeting their original goals (Hanby Towns,1998). Another responsibility a teacher has is assuring that members of the community have anopportunity to get to know each other beyond the context of collaboration. To help maintain the forumand reduce destructive behavior, Hanby Towns recommend that teachers give individuals and groupsresponsibilities for moderating comments and keeping conversations on track. This can be establishedby assigning students significant, meaningful tasks that have answers that matter. In my experience,students perform very well as moderators on the forum. This meaningful job increases accountabilityand ownership. It also decreases a student’s desire to rebel or vandalize the forum when they know thattheir classmates will be cleaning up their mess. It’s also important to focus on solving problems, not

22 McCallum: Technology‐Enhanced Collaborationnecessarily competing (Hanby Towns, 1998). Hanby Towns’ research does not mention online tools, butit shows how the traditional principals of a best practice classroom easily transition to Web 2.0.The Closest Thing to a Virtual ClassroomMy first attempt at a classroom forum, started before my action research began, was a failure. Itwas strictly a place for student‐editors to discuss the high school newspaper and for students to talkabout journalism in a way that directly related to my curriculum. In the six months I maintained theforum prior to my research, students posted less each month and the board never got more than 60posts in a month. I started the majority of conversations, and any posting was done more out ofobligation than curiosity or interest. When I recreated my forum after losing the old one, I let studentsaid in setting it up and I tried to incorporate what I learned through my first experiment with thesuggestions of my students.Adding a social component to my classroom forum completely rejuvenated it. Upon adding ageneral discussion board where students could discuss topic ranging from politics and the arts to videogames and their favorite foods, students began participating at much higher numbers. At one level, thisinteraction allowed me a chance to get to know students better and for students to become morefamiliar with each other. This translated into a more comfortable and open classroom environment.Also, because students were enjoying the time they spent on the forum, they were now choosing to visitthe message board more frequently. They then began contributing more to important discussionsrelated to my class. I went from having 50 or 60 posts a month to over 3000 in an average month, withsome months receiving between 6000‐8000 posts. These numbers even continued during breaks andsummer vacation. With over 150 posts a day, students have begun to make my forum a part of theirdaily web browsing behavior. This guarantees that they’ll be around to contribute to the content anddiscipline‐specific areas of the board. When a student poses a question or needs advice on their writing,they have confidence that their classmates will be around to read their posts and respond quickly.The Forum: Establishing and Extending the Collaborative CommunityMy class discussion forum has easily been the most work for me out of any of the other tools Ihave incorporated, but it’s also been the most fun and rewarding resource for all of my classes and thestudents who create the yearbook and newspaper. Throughout this two‐year process, my students haveenjoyed the process more than any of the other digital tools I’ve used in the classroom and they’ve

23 McCallum: Technology‐Enhanced Collaborationcreated a complex and active community outside of the classroom. As one of the new members thissemester said as they started using the forum for the first time, “It’s like its own world.” It’s important tonote that this world is kept secure from outside posters. Members must register and activate theiraccount with their official school email addresses, and the board is overseen by parent and teachermoderators in addition to my role as the administrator. Parents and students alike have been very vocalabout how much they appreciate that extra level of security.As of February 8, 2008, the forum has grown to over 700 members and 106,330 active posts –an average of just over 143 posts per day – including weekends, breaks, and summer vacation. Over itsexistence, the forum has had over 140,000 total posts. To be honest, a forum of this size is timeconsumingto maintain. However, forums can be much smaller and more manageable. I’ve chosen toput a significant amount of time behind this project, because the reward I’ve gotten from it has beenabsolutely astounding. The students can best explain the benefits they’ve received from the forum, bothinside and outside of the classroom.Ashlee:In class: It gives students an opportunity to gainfurther knowledge about things going on in class. Ifyou take a look at the Homework Help board, it isflooded with student drafts with a lot of peer editinggoing on. Students can get almost immediate feedbackon their stories from people who the stories are writtenfor. Through the message board, students can talk tothe teacher about what they may have missed in classthat day, or they can ask the teacher any question theymay have on a particular assignment. With educationaltopics on the board, it can get people talking and theycan carry those discussions over into the classroom.Outside of class: What happens outside of class isgoing to affect what goes on inside of the class. Havinga message board allows students to get to know ateacher on a different level outside the classroom. Theycan get to know the teacher as a person, but stillmaintain a respect for the teacher as an educator.When students get an opportunity to develop a goodrelationship, for lack of a better word, with a teacher,that also carries over to achievement in the classroom.The teacher can also benefit from this.Jess:A teacher would want a message board for a number ofreasons. It helps students turn in better work on time. Also,it’s a place where students can discuss things that are goingon in their life. I believe people need to talk about anddiscuss serious issues such as the ones we talk about here.It also is nice to get feedback on assignments. I’ve seenhow nicely it works for other people. I’d love it for anenglish class. Peer feedback is nice because they can workon their editing skills and apply what they’ve learned, andthe person who did the work can learn from other people.I also like it for the relationship you can develop with yourteacher. I think that when you can connect with yourteacher beyond what you get in class, you can learn morebecause you enjoy the class a whole lot more. When you’remore comfortable with the teacher, you feel more free toask questions and such.It’s also nice for the quiet people like me. Sometimes Idon’t ask a question when I don’t get something becauseI’m too shy to. I think if I had something like this in one ofmy classes, I could ask the teacher questions that I didn’tdare to ask during class It’d be nice.

24 McCallum: Technology‐Enhanced CollaborationMinnie:It’s awesome.Everyone helps everyone else and you never have toworry about not understanding something. I can comeon here and ask questions and someone is going tohelp you. Also it helps you get to know people andunderstand people’s point of view. You can meetpeople who are in the same classes as you, who giveyou advice and ideas, help you when your stumped andcan give you insight on issues they know about. Itreally brings people together. The best part is the helpyou get. There is always someone on and usuallyyou’re on. I think that this website is awesome. I like itway better than any other blogging site because youhave something in common with everyone else on it.It’s safer I guess, and not as crude (no one wants tooffend anyone else and will get kicked off if they doanything stupid.) It’s a great site!! You get feedback,criticism, and answers.David:In class - Students will turn in better work, because theycan get feedback on their story before it’s handed in. Theycan make corrections, and put in more ideas other peoplegive them. It gives overall better work. It’s nice to knowthat you can still ask questions about an assignment eventhough your not in school. It doesn’t put as much pressureon a student, when they’re stumped on something.Out of class - It does let the students get to know you better,a better relationship with the teachers makes you want tolearn more about the subject he/she teaches.In addition to providing a place to initiate and continue discussions, students also used theforum to showcase their work in writing, photography, and design (Figure 6). They could quickly andeasily upload their work and receive comments and questions from their classmates. After receivingfeedback, students were able to improve their work and post it again when it was completed. As anextra component to my class, I hosted photography contests and design showcases where students withspecific talents and areas of interest could display their work alongside their classmates’.As an assessment tool, the forum was incredible. First of all, it was simple to track an individualstudent’s participation and contributions on the forum, in two clicks of the mouse, I was able to seeevery one of a student’s posts, and each of them was labeled with the time and date of the message.Students could share the role of assessment by leaving feedback about their classmates’ work, and Icould track both their posted assignments and the feedback they left without bringing home a pile ofpapers or worrying about which students were absent during the valuable peer‐feedback process.

25 McCallum: Technology‐Enhanced CollaborationFigure 6: Using a forum to showcase and discuss student‐created work.Online Peer‐Feedback vs. Writers’ WorkshopsThe role of the forum in the peer feedback process was its most valuable contribution to the day‐to‐dayworking of my classes. Each deadline, students in all three of my classes posted their rough drafts on theforum (Figure 7) and got feedback from their classmates before the next day of class. On the same daythey posted their drafts, they participated in writer’s workshops, sharing their stories aloud in smallgroups and getting verbal feedback from the members of their group. For two cycles of this process, Itracked feedback left for writers online and compared it to audio recordings of their Writers’Workshops. The amount of on‐task, meaningful contributions on the forum far‐exceeded the usefulfeedback given verbally.During the workshops, writers prefaced the reading of their drafts with a disclaimer of some sort86 percent of the time – saying something like “I know this is bad but…” or “I was up really late workingon this…”. Statements like this discredited the work students did and almost killed constructive criticism

26 McCallum: Technology‐Enhanced Collaborationgiven in groups. In fact, when students began their reading with a disclaimer, constructive criticism wasabsent 90 percent of the time. On the forum, students could review their comments before posting,eliminating meaningless and general phrases like “good job” or “I like it!”. While giving verbal feedback,those phrases were present in nearly every response, and often the feedback didn’t advance muchfurther than that before discussion got off track.Figure 7: Students posting questions and drafts on a homework help board.On the forum, students received more focused, specific, actionable feedback in every scenario. Icould also choose to read every instance of feedback each student gave and send them messages abouttheir feedback, which lead to even more productive feedback as the class went on. While some WritersWorkshops were effective, very few groups improved over time. Even though leaving written feedbackinvolved more time and effort than verbal feedback, at the end of the experience, 87 percent ofstudents said that it was easier to leave feedback online than face‐to‐face. I knew that students wereconsistently getting great feedback from their classmates, so my job assessing their work became muchmore focused and effective. As students learned to value the opinions of their peers, I could focus myfeedback on the most important aspects of their writing, helping push students in very specific ways

27 McCallum: Technology‐Enhanced Collaborationtoward better writing while I looked for their understanding of the concepts behind good writing thatwe studied in the class.The chart on pages 29‐31 features the typical progression of student‐given feedback pulled fromthe forum at three times throughout the semester. The students were chosen at random. Not everystudent made significant progress each time they left feedback, but the majority of students did.Anytime Collaboration through ForumsFigure 8: Newspaper editors use the forum to solve a real life problem on a weekend.In addition to daily classroom use of the forum, the editors and writers for the publications Iadvise were able to use the forum to connect, collaborate, and plan using the forum. This was especiallyvaluable for the newspaper, because the editors usually met just once a week. When important newshappened or when important questions came up, the editors were able to get in contact with eachother and work together between meetings. When the principal at the school announced his retirementafter school on a Friday, it was unexpected and major news. The paper, completed and scheduled to beat the printers on the upcoming Tuesday, needed to be completely revised with a new front cover andmajor coverage on the announcement. This all had to happen before our next scheduled meeting as agroup. I was able to post the news on the forum even before the staff meeting was over with and

28 McCallum: Technology‐Enhanced Collaborationannounce the topic so all the editors received email notification of the topic. Within minutes, editorswere reading and responding to the news, working together to create a plan of action for Mondaymorning (Figure 8). Instead of pushing the issue back or settling for rushed coverage, the editors andwriters we able to get a great issue out on time and break the story of the principal’s retirement to thestudent body. This type of collaboration allowed students to work together during and after school, overbreaks, and on weekends. It kept the flow of the class moving at all times, connecting students beyondthe 80 minutes they’re together. Discussions didn’t have to end at the sound of the bell, and quietstudents could contribute as much as the most eager talkers. The result of using the forum as acommunication tool was overwhelmingly positive. At the end of a semester, 90 percent of students saidthat using the forum to continue or participate in discussions was either “Helpful” or “ExtremelyHelpful”, and 95 percent claimed that using the forum to do this was “Easy” or “Extremely Easy”.

29 McCallum: Technology‐Enhanced CollaborationSample feedback from Journalism 1 studentsFirst attempt – September 2007 Mid‐Point – October 2007 Final – January 2008Rachelthis was good. i loved the lead.. its a goodthings. the quotes were really good. they arereally personl and everything.. good job jo!Katiegood story!!! it was very interesting! i likeOakleygood details. nice and sweet new what youwere talking about.i think for an angle you should maybe tell thedifferences between boys and girls hockey.. or maybeeven just go the route how there SHOULD be checkingand things like that with the girls. It needs a lot of work.The quotes are good, but you just need to get moreinformation about it. Some of the quotes don't havemuch to do with it, but it all depends on the angle. Ifyou're talking about girls hockey in gereral, than theqoutes about commitment and the other team is god,but if not, than well i do't see a point in having them.Just get as much detail as you can about it.i like the lead and stuff it gets me want to read it rightaway! but im on the dance team and maybe in stead ofjust saying how hard we work and stuff add like whatwe do for it to be that hard!? like more details andbetter conclusion!! but good start!i think the topic you picked is a good one because youcan get really good quotes and feedback im thinkingyou should get more details about the topic other thenthat yur on a good start=]uh.. well i guess you have a new perspective. but thepoint of having school spirit and what not is to get yourteam pumped up.. yeah everyone has school spirit, andat games you try to make sure you can show it. its notnarrow‐sighted... uh well get more quotes.. maybesomeone that totally disagrees with what you aresaying.... its a very opinionated thing... if this is youropiion collumn its fine.. but if not... BE CAREFULits not a bad start!! i like how your doing the guys viewof it and the girls but you should get anothers guys viewbesides bergmans and maybe a guys view of how helikes the holiday instead of him thinking it sucks!! justsome more views ya no?!?! and maybe use a differentword instead of lover...maybe like significant other ?? jsta thought ha and conclusion but its a good start! and ilike how u start the story!!!aha yea not bad.. k i think you maybe shouldnt be sooppinonated and get some more quotes from all ageclasses freshman, sophomore, junior, senior.... otherwisedescribe it more and your story will get better when youtake time to put some f these examples into your story!good luck nice topic=]

30 McCallum: Technology‐Enhanced CollaborationAshleyI really liked your story! you have a lot of goodqoutes!!BenThe beginning statements did get me to want tokeep reading a bit longer, but avoid using theterms 'we' and 'our' outside of quotes;journalists are passive observers.MariaIt's a good story, but you could use some moreinformation...and feedback!I really like your topic!!! One thing you forgot was oneof these'''''''''in the word can't in the first paragraph,last sentence. But all n' all i love it! It is so true! poorkids that don't even know the real color red they prob.think the are coloring with red but they are coloringwith razzmatazz! But any who....Great JobClear opinion, supported by facts, and displayed in amanner that flows nicely. I noticed at one point aftertalking about Larry Morris, you mentioned that NFLplayers should be payed more than players in the NFLand the NBA, so that's a typo you'll want to fix. Otherthan that little bit, good arguments are made, and allthat jazz.that is realy good! i also think you could use a few moreexaples and such. The sarcasm is pretty good too, imean i dont know if everyone will catch that, but it wasgood. You still could use a little more opinions, but sofar its going good! Maybe you could also usebetter/more transitions and more detailed lead.don't start with a question! but good job otherwise!!!This is one of those stories where you have a fewdifferent angles you can take, I've seen at least two in italready: The 'guy v. girl', and the 'have someone v. don'thave someone'. While it isn't a bad thing to mentionboth, I think it would be for the overall benefit if youexpanded on one of these further. And I especially likedthe quote about the superficiality; it shows somethingnot a lot of people would come right out and say. Nicework getting that.When i read this, it felt like i was listening to acommercial on guitar hero! maybe you shouldnt startout with a quote especailly that one because itssounding like its a commercial...that is my oppinion. ideffinatley think you should get more quotes frompeople who love guitar hero and for people who hateit.(both sides of the story). I also think a betterclosing/ending to this stotry would make it go togethermore also a better lead too. Try not to end your storywith a quote.

31 McCallum: Technology‐Enhanced CollaborationCorai like yours so far. It has all of the informationneeded to prove your point. I think you justneed to make a more affective lead. You areusing straight off information to start of yourarticle and thats not what people want to readright away. Maybe put in a miniature story thathas your experiences with coronary arterydisease. Or put in the dangers of it. I dont knowmuch about it and this article could be an introto this desease. You should also put in aparagraph that has your specific veiws on this.Your story sounds like something that could bein a health magazine not quite so much of anopinion article. With your last sentence onpeople are getting more lazy, you could getmore into that aswell.OKay, First, you need to write out a a more clear anddefined lead. Its pretty good, but i didnt know when itended. One thing i have to say though is taht not allschols had fights. Mine did not except the occasionalloud argument. Also not all cities are veiwed as a moreviolent city. I also think that when you say the name ofteh person quoted, maybe you should put down theschool they went to next to the name (ex: saysSophmore Cora Fox, a former student at St.Stephens)Also i have a good interveiw person who would begreat. Her name is Cherise and she is a freshman in tehAM program. She has been to Champlinpark/anoka/fredmore/ and i think it was sandburg. Youshould definatley have a word with her if you want agood veiw on the fighting in a school. Also neverinclude something about yourself unless its in anopinion. Remember this story is supposed to be on thestudents and their experiences on switching schools.Add more to the conclusion too. Keep in mind that wedont know taht much about the student and their oldschool. Maybe you could go over your interviews andsee if there is any references about daily life at theirschool and teh differences. That would be veryinteresting to see how different the environment is fordifferent schools.The lead needs to be separated from the rest of thestory. I couldnt tell where it ended. And if they are wordsthat someone might say, put these """"" around them.And as it was mentioned before. This story isopinionated.Quote from: hockeygirl26While most guys don’t like it, most girls love it.This is a fine example. You dont want to include youropinion in any article other than an actual opinioncollum. You want to turn these into statements. Maybeyou might consider organizing a poll. It would be a greatway to get lower‐classmen's quotes, and you couldactually have results that show Girls like Valentines daymore than boys. The poll thing would be a goo dthing forthis story. I definatley recomend that.You also have stacked quotes. Stacked quotes are quotesthat are arranged right on top of each other without atransition in between. transitions make reading articlesalot easier and more interesting. That shouldnt be toohard to fix.Find some more quotes on the whole "valentines is abetter experiance with a lover" thing. I know manypeople love velentines day even though they dont haveanyone. It would be interesting how many quotes youcould get and i know you can, especially with the polls.Also find more quotes on the comercial holiday. Thatstatement could be argued upon as velentines day wascomercially created, but also to show love throughoutthe country.You do have a relevant story as valentines day will bearound the corner from this deadline. Im interested tosee what comes out, but yes, you do have alot to do.

32 McCallum: Technology‐Enhanced CollaborationCollaboration and Assessment in Real Time using Google DocsIn 2007, Google released Google Apps for Your Domain; a full program suite based on “Cloudsoftware”. Normally, software is stored on individual computers, meaning that you need to posess theprogram on a specific comptuer to be able to use it. Could Software is different. Stored on a remoteserver and accessed through a web browser, the software can be used by any computer with access tothe internet. This means that a student typing a draft at school using a Cloud word processor couldaccess it from home (and vice versa) regardless of any software differences between computers. Thiselimanates any problems that arise when students bring in a document typed in Works when the schooluses only Word software, saving teachers and students frustration and keeping them productive.Google Apps for Your Domain combines Google’s Gmail service, a complete productive suite,including a word processer (compatable with Microsoft Word), spreadsheet program (compatable withExcel), presentation creater (compatable with PowerPoint), online calendar, and an instant messagingprogram. All of these features can be personalized run through a dirstrict’s server, and closed off to“outsiders”, making the use of these programs reliable, safe, and universal.The revolutionary idea behind Google Apps is that all of the software included in the suite isbuilt for both large and small‐scale collaboration. In my writing classes, students working in partners orgroups can “Invite” each other into a document and edit it simultaneously from different locations.Simultaneous collaboration was a feature used by 90 percent of my students, with 97 percent of thosestudents claiming the process was both “Extremely Easy” and “Extremely Helpful”. On many occasions,students collaborated despite one of them being sick at home and the other being in class. In oneexample, a student vacationing in Mexico was able to work on a draft with a partner simultaneously.One of was in a computer lab at school and the other was on a laptop next to a hotel pool.

33 McCallum: Technology‐Enhanced CollaborationThe opportunities to use these programs were limitless. In small groups, students quickly andeasily worked together to create presentations when Jigsawing readings. Those presentations could bekept online and revisited later or accessed by students who were absent during the activity. Studentscollaborated on spreadsheets to keep track of deadlines or to generate lists as a whole class at once.Editors for the publications collaborated on goals during the summer. Before long, there was a noticabledrop in the amount of paper being used in the class and students were becoming more productive thanever.The single most useful part of Google Apps for me as a teacher of writing came when I assessedstudent work. Students started turning in work by sharing it with me, their classmates, and their peereditors on Google Docs instead of turning in paper copies. This process alone saved 6,400 sheets ofpaper over the course of a semester as students no longer needed to print four copies of two‐pagedocuments nine times throughout a semester. That’s 13 reems of paper saved each semester and nobins full of student work to drag home to grade.In addition to paper savings, using Google Docs literally cut the time I spent grading studentwork in half while more than doubling the amount of feedback students received. When studentsshared their rough drafts with a number of people, each of them left feedback on the same document,even though they were leaving feedback at different times and from different locations. At the end ofthe process, they had all that feedback in one location instead of five or six versions of their draft sentby email or on paper. The feedback I gave also was on the same document, so instead of assessing afresh draft, I could quickly analyze the feedback they’ve already received from multiple sources and addto that. Plus, my feedback could be typed, which allowed me to write more words per minute thanhandwriting on a page. On average, it took me between 13 and 14 minutes to leave significant feedbackby hand on print copies of drafts. Over the course of 100 drafts, that adds up to over 22 hours of

34 McCallum: Technology‐Enhanced Collaborationcorrecting, Leaving feedback to a typical class of 30 students would take nearly seven hours. When Iswitched to assessing through Google Docs, the time it took to leave feedback on a draft decreased tosix minutes, cutting the time I spent assessing a set of drafts down to three hours. At the same time,students were receiving feedback from multiple perspectives and a greater amount of feedback thanfrom a teacher alone. Figure 8 shows a typical draft in the process of being evaluated by four studentsand a teacher.At this point, I was spending less time on feedback than I had in previous years and the feedbackI was leaving was better than ever because students had already provided useful feedback before Ibegan evaluating work. This way, I was able to focus more on the areas of each students work thatneeded the most attention and better engage them in a dialog about their work. Already, this systemwas beginning to work for me as a teacher. An added benefit of the process was that once studentsturned in their rough draft, they did not need to share a final draft. I could check their progressthroughout the revision process and even revert back to their rough drafts to see the changes they hadmade from rough to final. I was able to keep an eye on reluctant writers throughout the process, andstudents who had trouble remembering to turn in work no longer had that problem.The benefits of using the entire capabilities of Google Apps for Your Domain were amazing, butthe single most important part of the suite was the document sharing capabilities. It helps to know thattechnology doesn’t always mean investing more time and effort – it can save a substantial amount oftime and stress while improving the quality of work from both students and the teacher.

35 McCallum: Technology‐Enhanced CollaborationFigure 9: Four students and a teacher comment on a rough draft* * *The collaborative tools of Web 2.0 have the power to enrich any classroom. The tools areavailable to any teacher, and can be easily set up without waiting for district technology personnel tocatch up with the technology. Hosting these services off‐site allows a teacher greater control and theability to personalize their web presence as much as they personalize their own classroom, but all of thetools that are presented here can be utilized by entire districts at no cost. Teacher control andcustomization is essential, however. Students respond best to online environments that reflect thepersonality and atmosphere of the classroom.Teachers that resist implementing these tools run the risk of creating a divide between theworld their students live in and their classrooms. When teachers learn to meet students in their world,they’ll reap the greatest rewards. The power and benefits of these tools will find their way into almostevery classroom eventually, and the teachers that implement them now will be remain ahead of the

36 McCallum: Technology‐Enhanced Collaborationcurve and serve their students better. In the meantime, students who enter these classrooms are moreengaged on a daily basis and will adapt better to the demands of college and the world of work. Engagedand productive students, empowered by the collaborative tools that define Web 2.0, will be able tomake more meaningful contributions to classes, reach greater levels of understanding, and becomeresources for each other. At the same time, teachers can make their instruction more relevant, theirdiscipline more engaging, and their environment more conducive to support, community, and respect.

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