A Collaborative Story Writing Project Using Google Docs and Face-to-Face Collaboration

The Google Docs application is part of Google Workspace for Education, a suite of cloud-based productivity and collaboration tools that are now ubiquitous in middle and high school classrooms. While there is an expanding body of research documenting the benefits of using Google Docs to support colla...

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Main Author: Deirdre Wilson
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: The Canadian Network for Innovation in Education (CNIE) 2025-01-01
Series:Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology
Subjects:
Online Access:https://cjlt.ca/index.php/cjlt/article/view/28174
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author Deirdre Wilson
author_facet Deirdre Wilson
author_sort Deirdre Wilson
collection DOAJ
description The Google Docs application is part of Google Workspace for Education, a suite of cloud-based productivity and collaboration tools that are now ubiquitous in middle and high school classrooms. While there is an expanding body of research documenting the benefits of using Google Docs to support collaborative writing projects, there exists few qualitative studies detailing how cloud-based tools are integrated into courses that meet face-to-face on an ongoing basis. This case study explores how an experienced high school English teacher facilitated a collaborative writing project, in which students used Google Docs to co-write a story. The students were instructed to work on their stories asynchronously from home and synchronously during face-to-face classes. Data sources included field notes from class observations, reflections written by the teacher, semi-structured interviews with the teacher, focus group interviews with the students, and the shared Google Docs. This article describes affordances and constraints associated with the pedagogical supports provided during the collaborative writing process and offers recommendations for teachers who intend to use Google Docs to facilitate collaborative writing projects.
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institution Kabale University
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language English
publishDate 2025-01-01
publisher The Canadian Network for Innovation in Education (CNIE)
record_format Article
series Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology
spelling doaj-art-2c1db30eec824aaba418ff8ba4396d6a2025-02-01T20:17:02ZengThe Canadian Network for Innovation in Education (CNIE)Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology1499-66771499-66852025-01-0149310.21432/cjlt28174A Collaborative Story Writing Project Using Google Docs and Face-to-Face CollaborationDeirdre Wilson0https://orcid.org/0009-0006-4983-2555Vancouver Island UniversityThe Google Docs application is part of Google Workspace for Education, a suite of cloud-based productivity and collaboration tools that are now ubiquitous in middle and high school classrooms. While there is an expanding body of research documenting the benefits of using Google Docs to support collaborative writing projects, there exists few qualitative studies detailing how cloud-based tools are integrated into courses that meet face-to-face on an ongoing basis. This case study explores how an experienced high school English teacher facilitated a collaborative writing project, in which students used Google Docs to co-write a story. The students were instructed to work on their stories asynchronously from home and synchronously during face-to-face classes. Data sources included field notes from class observations, reflections written by the teacher, semi-structured interviews with the teacher, focus group interviews with the students, and the shared Google Docs. This article describes affordances and constraints associated with the pedagogical supports provided during the collaborative writing process and offers recommendations for teachers who intend to use Google Docs to facilitate collaborative writing projects. https://cjlt.ca/index.php/cjlt/article/view/28174collaborative writingface-to-face collaborationGoogle Docswriting pedagogy
spellingShingle Deirdre Wilson
A Collaborative Story Writing Project Using Google Docs and Face-to-Face Collaboration
Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology
collaborative writing
face-to-face collaboration
Google Docs
writing pedagogy
title A Collaborative Story Writing Project Using Google Docs and Face-to-Face Collaboration
title_full A Collaborative Story Writing Project Using Google Docs and Face-to-Face Collaboration
title_fullStr A Collaborative Story Writing Project Using Google Docs and Face-to-Face Collaboration
title_full_unstemmed A Collaborative Story Writing Project Using Google Docs and Face-to-Face Collaboration
title_short A Collaborative Story Writing Project Using Google Docs and Face-to-Face Collaboration
title_sort collaborative story writing project using google docs and face to face collaboration
topic collaborative writing
face-to-face collaboration
Google Docs
writing pedagogy
url https://cjlt.ca/index.php/cjlt/article/view/28174
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