Speaker 1: Well, thank you for being here without coffee. Today I'll be talking about my experience using Google Docs for in-class writing activities. Let me play this. Okay, sorry about that. So, as we know, Google Docs is a web-based word processor that allows you to create and format documents and work with other people. You can either work simultaneously, like on the video, or you can work at different times. The great thing is that all changes made to a document are saved. In addition, you can use a revision history function to review, compare, and revert to any previous point on a document. So that tool is very useful. You can also interact with your collaborators in different ways. You can use the comments function, as we'll see in a little bit, or you can also use the chat function. That's the comments function, and we're going to see the chat function. And you can also go back and check all the comments that have been made to a document. So, let me go back. Sorry about that. Previous studies show that Google Docs is an effective tool for collaboration and that students have very positive attitudes towards this tool. The 2014 article is particularly interesting because it shows that Google Docs can have better performance on the students than face-to-face interactions. In this study, two groups took part in this study. One group had to complete writing activities, group writing activities, in a face-to-face setting, while the other one had to complete the same writing assignments but in an online setting through Google Docs. These study results show a significant better performance by the Google Docs group, which is very interesting. But there haven't been many studies that have looked into this. I currently teach an intermediate level language class. This class is taught face-to-face and is directed at Spanish heritage language learners. HL learners are individuals who are raised in a home where a non-English language is spoken. These students may speak or merely understand the language and be to some degree bilingual in English and the HL language. Because these students mainly learn the language in a natural environment, they are not exposed to sufficient opportunities to engage in literacy events in their heritage language. Research shows that they have difficulties distinguishing between spoken and written language. Some of the principles that have been proposed to help these students improve their writing abilities are to require multiple drafts, to incorporate peer review, to explicitly teach how to compose and edit, and to respond to errors effectively. Even if I tried very hard, I found that I wasn't successfully accomplishing this due to my face-to-face limitations, so I decided to incorporate this tool, Google Docs. We use Google Docs throughout the semester, but I will focus on two activities we use with this tool. These activities' objectives were to move from an oral narration to a written narration, to raise awareness of how words are pronounced versus how they are spelled, and to practice peer editing. As a group, we watched a short film, and then in group of three, my students, using some questions as a guide, they discussed the main events of the short film in the target language. Within the same group, they had to write a short narrative of the film in Google Docs. At this point, the whole class was working on the same document. Each group read their narration out loud, while the other groups were following those narrations on the Google Doc. Usually, I project the Google Doc on the projector, and I have students either have their tablets or their computers, so they can read both from the screen and from their devices. While the students were reading these narrations, other groups and other students and myself, we corrected grammatical and spelling issues right there, so we were able to focus on the editing process. So we saw editing and writing as a process, and not only as a product, something that we do afterwards. We were doing it together. After this, we had some discussions about questions I had raised from those issues that we had. So this tool allowed me to focus again on editing as a process, and to show how to edit. This is just a screenshot of this activity. So each group wrote a short narrative. This is the history revision panel. So from here, we can see the changes that we made. Here, specifically, we see in purple two revisions. These had to do with spelling. And here, we can see a revision that had to do with grammatical structure, a preposition that was missing. So students can always go back to the revision history and reflect on their own mistakes, and I can always go back to the revision history and see what the common patterns were. Another activity that we did was this activity that I named Choosing a New Word or Expression. The objectives of this activity were to choose appropriate words or expressions in the target language, to practice again peer editing, and dictionary and corpus practice. This activity they completed in pairs. In pairs, they read a journalistic article in the target language, in this case, Spanish. They were encouraged to look at words in the dictionary. Then, they were asked to find equivalent words and expressions for certain parts of the text that I had highlighted. They were encouraged to use synonyms, dictionary, and to double-check how those potential synonyms were used in the target language using different corpus or corpora, monolingual corpora, right? Then, they were asked to rewrite that text using the new words and expressions, and they had to rewrite this text again on a Google Doc, so all the groups were working on the same Google Doc. Finally, they were asked to review, as a group, to review another group's text using the comment function. This is the source text I used. This is the article they had to read, and these are the parts that they had to find alternatives for. They were either expressions or words. This is an example of one of the group's final product. They found different words and expressions, and other groups had to comment on those selections. I was also there overseeing what they were doing. In my experience, this tool allowed me, as I said before, to focus on writing and editing as a process and not only as a product. Many times, in face-to-face settings, we can do the same kind of activities, but students are working on a paper, and other students don't have access to that paper, or I don't have access to that paper. I can move from group to group, but it's not as fast and as accessible, I'm sorry, as this tool. The most beneficial aspects of using this tool that I found were that everyone was able to give feedback, and that it was very easy for me, as I said before, to identify common patterns, and not only for me, for them. They were also able to identify that they were not the only ones having issues with certain structures or certain words. It's also very easy to incorporate other reference materials, so I can comment and add a dictionary definition for a certain word, or I can link other reference materials that they can use to improve that product. I also found that because the activity and the responses were more visible and accessible to a larger audience, that they took these activities more seriously, much more than when we do short activities in class in which they just write on a paper and no one has access to that paper, but them and myself. I honestly did not find many challenges, but something to keep in mind is that one, internet connection is required to use this tool, and two, that if students are working from their iPads or iPhones, they need to sign in, they need to have an account. If they are using a computer, I can share the Google Doc links with them and they don't need to sign in. But if they are using an iPad or a cell phone, they need to sign in. So that's something to keep in mind. At the end of the semester, I distributed a short survey among my students to see what they thought about the use of this tool. The survey included four closed-ended questions, yes or no questions, and six open-ended questions in which they basically had to explain their answers to the previous closed questions. Thirty-eight students took part in, sorry, completed this survey. The survey results indicate that many students were satisfied with the results. The survey results indicate that most of them had used this tool before, but just a few of them had used it for in-class activities. Many had used it individually, outside of class, or for group projects, but outside of class, not within the classroom. Most of them found the tool very helpful for group collaboration, and many highlighted the benefits that they can connect to the entire class and that they can get real-time feedback. Those are the two things that were really reiterated in their answers. As for the negative comments, many thought that they hadn't used it enough. Maybe they didn't come to class every day. And some of them said that they were confused because there were no instructions. There were instructions, but maybe they didn't go over the instructions. Finally, many said that they think that they will use this tool in the future for academic purposes. As with other any tools, what I'm going to say is pretty obvious, but I think it's very important to have clear goals and reasons for using a tool. In my case, I needed something not that was, I don't know, fun and cool, but I needed something that would allow me, again, to teach them how to edit, to teach them how to review a text, to make the writing and the editing processes more interactive in a process, not a product. So that's why, in my case, I decided to incorporate this tool. I would recommend devoting maybe one class period to demonstrating the tool, teaching them what the functions of this tool are and how they can use it. Many of them are used to it, but many are not. So let's not assume that they already know how to use it. And finally, of course, have clear instructions and expectations, particularly in group projects. Something that I found very useful is to leave the instructions on the document itself. That way they don't forget. And also, if many groups are working on the same document, I always annotate where each group is supposed to work. That way it's more organized and it's not everyone moving and changing the format. So I pick a format and that's the format we follow. So I usually leave certain annotations to help them work. Sample comments, suggestions, etc. And that's it. Thank you. And I have a question. Is it possible to create a format that allows you to create a document that is not only a document, but also a document? Yes. So I have a question. Is it possible to create a format that allows you to create a document that is not only a document, but also a document? Yes. So I have a question.