Writing for the 21st Century: Google Docs, DocuViz, and Collaboration in a Middle School Context

Authors: Jenell Krishnan, Andres Cusimano, Dakuo Wang
Presented at 2017 AERA

​Abstract: Educators can promote academic and digital literacies by providing learning opportunities that develop students’ independent and collaborative writing quality and length. This study aims to understand whether and how online, synchronous, collaborative writing supports greater learning opportunities for middle school students. Using a quasi-experimental design, we explored differences in the quality and length of two source-based, argumentative essays written by 67 students. The findings suggest that: 1) collaborative writing produces longer, higher quality essays, 2) practicing a new genre of writing positively impacts students’ subsequent writing, and 3) we found no order effects on student writing outcomes. Theoretical contributions and implications for educators, researchers, and system designers are also discussed