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Using the Education version of Google Docs, at a grand total cost of zero dollars to students or the school, Pre-AP English 9 students in Mrs. Dawn Moulen's classes are brainstorming, researching, organizing, drafting, reviewing, revising, and submitting the entirety of their research papers without a shred of paper, thanks to collaboration with the Library Media Center and the Instructional Technologist. Each step of the research process has been "distilled" and modified - not in content objective, but in methodology - to eliminate printed material.

It seems that many in our field believe a complete reinvention of every part of every process is required to convert what is essentially an antiquated dependence upon a learning tool like ink-and-paper writing into the use of 21st century digital resources. However, at the end of the day, students are still developing the same core skills and reinforcing the same overarching cognitive concepts. The methods by which they do so are the key subjects of conversation for the ITRTs.

No serious integrating educator needs to spend a great deal of time thinking about the actual paper writing aspect of this process. Google Docs is designed specifically to look, feel, and behave like most any other word processor. It's relatively easy to imagine the benefits of having an online vehicle by which students can create, compose, edit, save, and transmit their documents. There's also no reliance on SchoolFusion, CD's, floppies, or USB drives. Students always have access to their paper when they have Internet access if they keep it in Google docs.

In designing Mrs. Moulen's coursework, we created a Battlefield Google Docs account. It's free to educational institutions, and it allowed us to precreate all of the student user accounts and configure them as we desired. On day one, kids walked in and had user names and temporary passwords already assigned. There was no need to go through the process of signing all the kids up, which would waste valuable instruction time on administration. To precreate the accounts, I simply cut-and-paste a class list into an Excel file, added a couple columns for user names and passwords using Google Docs' easy-to-follow formatting instructions, and uploaded a simple file that did all the work for me. One of the major fringe benefits of this method is that I ended up with predetermined "mailing lists" for each class. When kids first signed in, they'd already had several of the resources shared with them.

The Library Media Specialist, Mrs. Tselides, used those precreated user lists and shared the controlled resources documents, sample articles, and even database access information by including each resource in its own Google Docs document, then sharing those documents with the members of the class. She had the ability to define whether students would be able to edit those documents or not, so for things like the controlled resource articles, kids can see them but can't meddle with them.

Another great fringe benefit of precreating those user accounts it the assignment of effective peer review pairings. We sat the kids next to one another based on their pairs, then had everyone sign in, pulling up their latest draft. Using the share function again, each member of the pair shared his or her draft with the other, inviting the other student as a "collaborator," allowing the new student to read, highlight, comment on, and edit the authoring student's work. This can happen both at school, and at home, allowing a tremendous amount of additional peer review time.

During peer review, to preserve the integrity of the draft, collaborating peer editors don't make changes to the actual text; they use the highlighter tool to mark information they want to draw attention to, then if required make notes in a matching color, allowing the author to make his or her own determination as to how to use the suggested edits.

We're bringing in addtional resources as well, like Inspiration. Instead of 3x5 note cards, we're having students create Inspiration documents, use the SmartBoard, and create Google Docs presentations (much like a PowerPoint) as well as preformatted Google Docs documents to accomplish the same goals. Here's an example:

In the antiquated system, a child would find a book, read the passage, note the location and the information for a citation, paraphrase onto the 3x5 card, and use this card later for bibilography and authoring the paper.

In the new system, a child finding an article, passage, or database entry can type or copy-paste the original material directly into a Google Docs document. Next, that child can create, directly in the document, a properly-formatted MLA citation. Finally, beneath that original text and citation, the child can paraphrase the material into a meaningful thought, in his or her own words, which he or she can later copy-paste into the working draft. Copy-pasting in and of itself is a tremendously useful tool; the issue is when students copy material that they didn't fully author on their own. Rather than fighting the instinctive and appropriate desire to use an effective method of building a larger structure out of smaller components, we've scaffolded the process to allow students to compose smaller units, unify them, and then refine from that assembled whole.

With all of the research contained in the Google Docs account, all of the drafts and reviews intact, and a final product ultimately created within that account, there is a complete, unified record - much like an online portfolio - of all of the work conducted on that project.

If we wish to lock students out of the accounts after the deadline, we can simply change their passwords.

In terms of final submission, students simply share their final drafts back to the teachers. Our accounts then receive each document, allowing us to read, review, comment, and assess the papers.

Not one piece of paper was printed in the above-described process, not even a set of instructions or the user names. Physically-printed documents are unnecessary tangibles, consuming resources unnecessarily and providing opportunities for mechanical failure where none need exist, requiring the consumption of additional resources, either proactively to mechanically reproduce documents (e.g., photocopying) or to recreate the material if lost. In the end, greater transparency, accountability, convenience, portability, and promptness results from implementing the Google Docs platform in this scenario.

So why isn't every paper being written this way?

The reasons are the same ones we, as instructional technology innovators and collaborators, hear all the time: lack of interest, lack of effort, lack of comfort, lack of understanding... But if we can get the ball rolling with that one cutting edge teacher, that one progressive lion to roar over the pack, we can break down tremendous barriers. Many other teachers are clambering to get on the Google Docs train now that they see Mrs. Moulen's classes succeeding in the ways they are (and I have no reason to think that this will do anything but continue and increase as the project steams along) and as they hear students celebrating the innovation and power of this platform.

In the words of one excited student upon learning that we were finally entering the digital age and leaving pencils and paper behind, "Well it's about time!"

Copyright

© 2006-2008, Keith David Reeves. All rights reserved. Reproduction and/or distribution not permitted without the express written consent of the author.

MLA Citation

Reeves, Keith David. "The Way Up: Leadership, Awareness, and Data in Integrated Education." 1 Dec 2007. KDReeves.com. . <http://www.kdreeves.com/art_wayup.html>.