Executive SummaryWeb 2.0 technologies are becoming popular in teaching and learning environments. Among them several online collaborative writing tools, like wikis and blogs, have been integrated into educational settings. Research has been carried out on a wide range of subjects related to wikis, while other, comparable tools like Google Docs and EtherPad remain largely unexplored in the literature. This work presents a case study investigating education students' perceptions of collaborative writing using Google Docs and EtherPad. Both tools provide opportunity for multiple users to work on the same document simultaneously, have a separate space for written metacommunication, and are promoted by software designers to be fairly intuitive to adopt without prior training. The work investigates if perceptions depend on factors such as gender, age, digital competence, interest in digital tools, educational settings, and choice of writing tool, and examines if the tools are easy to use and effective in group work. This paper focuses on quantitative results of survey questionnaires. Further qualitative analysis will be presented in a later paper.The theoretical framework is drawn from two learning theories, the social-constructivist learning theory and the community of practice, and their relationships to collaborative tools. Related research literature is characterized by a number of issues: positive elements of use, advantages of using Web 2.0 technologies, critical issues regarding the pedagogical value of Web 2.0, and the role of the teacher in using these technologies.The case study participants were 201 education students who just began their four-year initial teacher education at two study programs with a total of six classes at the university Teacher Education Unit. They were assigned a collaborative writing task and asked to take an on-line survey on completion. When the survey closed, a total of 166 students (83.6%) had participated. The results were analyzed based on frequency distributions.The hypothesis that students with high digital competence and a positive attitude towards digital tools are more positive than average seems to be confirmed. Also gender does not play any particular role. As for younger students being more positive than older, the population of older students was so low that no conclusion can be drawn. The work does not validate that EtherPad users are more positive than Google Docs users, but this may be explained by EtherPad being unavailable for some time during the students' collaborative writing period.Material published as part of this publication, either on-line or in print, is copyrighted by the Informing Science Institute. Permission to make digital or paper copy of part or all of these works for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that the copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage AND that copies 1) bear this notice in full and 2) give the full citation on the first page. It is permissible to abstract these works so long as cre...
Executive SummaryWeb-based learning resources (WBLRs) have provided teachers with a wide range of new teaching experiences that are not possible in traditional classroom. However, little research has been done as to which approach to WBLRs is suitable to address issues that are pertinent to learning. This paper proposes a conceptual framework to explore the design and evaluation of WBLRs in school education. The paper also examines the way in which the framework is used to evaluate students' and teachers' perceptions of WBLRs by means of survey questionnaires. Before developing the framework, a literature review is undertaken to report on the state of research in the field of WBLRs. The literature review reveals a lack of design and evaluation of WBLRs in educational settings. Then, the framework is developed in three steps. First, the concept of WBLR is defined as a learning object that exists at the intersection of content, pedagogy, and technology. Second, concepts of usability are analyzed, and a definition of technical and pedagogical usability is proposed. Technical usability is a self-evident requirement, but it is not sufficient for designing pedagogically usable WBLRs. The usability concept must be extended to capture issues that are fundamental to learning. Nevertheless, technical and pedagogical usability cannot be considered as separate, disjointed activities. Finally, the context of use and evaluation is specified. The context is the totality of relationships between students and surrounding elements within a teaching and learning situation. The WBLR can be considered as an element of the context, and as such, it becomes a source of learning, by means of interaction with the students. To investigate the value of the framework, a case study is undertaken in three classes. To this end, the framework was used to inform the study, and the findings of the study were mapped back onto the framework in order to identify additional features found in classroom settings and points in the conceptual framework that did not significantly impact the case study. The main factor that impacted the design and evaluation of WBLRs was the pedagogical usability. While students and teachers globally agreed about technical usability, the findings indicate that they differed in their perceptions of pedagogical usability. In addition, the conceptual framework and the findings of the case study differed to a certain degree regarding the connectedness of some pedagogical usability criteria.The findings also revealed the existence of cultural values connected to students' preferred choices. This factor has not been explicitly anticipated from the conceptual framework. The findings cannot be generalized due to the limited nature of the study. However, the article proposes elements of a future research work that should be taken forward to generate a more complete picture of usability isMaterial published as part of this publication, either on-line or in print, is copyrighted by the Informing Science Institute. Permission to make ...
Web-based learning resources (WBLRs) are potentially powerful tools for enhancing teaching and learning processes in school education. They can provide teachers and learners with a wide range of new and exciting experiences that are not possible in a traditional classroom. However, WBLRs are still the domain of technical and software experts rather than teachers and learners. As a result, much of the development of WBLRs is carried out without a true understanding of issues pertinent to learning and pedagogy. Also lacking is user involvement in the development process of WBLRs. The aim of this work is to propose a user-centered approach to the development of WBLRs to translate pedagogical issues into a software tool that supports effective learning. The article also reports on the application of the approach in school education.
Wikis provide teachers with potentially significant opportunities for creating socially engaged tasks that require active student participation and collaboration. Wikis allow students to work together to develop content on the web, giving them a sense of how writing can be carried out collaboratively. Collaborative writing offer opportunities not only to practice literature review, academic reading and writing, but also to stimulate reflection, knowledge sharing, and critical thinking. However, despite the potential capabilities of wikis, true collaborative writing does not work by itself as the research literature clearly reveals. To foster collaborative writing, participation, and active involvement in wiki development, there is a need for a systematic approach to the construction of wikis. The aim of this paper is to allow students to develop wiki applications using a collaborative writing development approach based on rapid prototyping. The paper also reports on the evaluation of the approach by means of qualitative data collection and analysis methods. Finally, the implications of the approach for collaborative writing are critically discussed according to a set of requirements associated with software development considerations and pedagogical issues.
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