Title
Using tools and resources in computer supported collaborative writing
Abstract
The relationship between collaboration processes, task strategies and the use of the tools and resources that the computer environment offers, may be crucial for the effects of computer supported collaborative learning. We are interested to find out how, within a computer environment, students collaborate, how they use the different tools we offer and how this influences the quality of the final product. A custom-made computer-supported environment (TC3) was implemented that enables pairs of high school students to collaborate in writing an argumentative essay. The essay had to be convincing and based on authentic information sources. TC3, a groupware program, offers the students as task related and communicative tools: a shared text editor, a chat facility, access to relevant sources of information and a private notepad. Furthermore, some facilities or tools were offered that might promote collaboration on the task: access to the chat history, adaptability of the display layout, marking and searching in information sources and counting the number of words in the shared text. From our analyses we may conclude that the tools and resources the students use during collaborative writing seem to reflect the writing strategies they adhere to and that the use of these tools and resources in the different phases of the collaborative writing process is related to the argumentative quality of the final product. Future research will focus on the effects of adding tools for text planning and linearization to the TC3 environment on the coordination processes of collaborative writing.
Year
Venue
Keywords
2002
CSCL
authentic information source,computer environment offer,tc3 environment,custom-made computer-supported environment,collaborative writing process,collaborative writing,collaborative learning,computer environment,final product,writing strategy,resources
Field
DocType
Citations 
Adaptability,Argumentative,Professional writing,Final product,Computer science,Collaborative software,Knowledge management,Collaborative writing,Multimedia,Computer-supported collaborative learning
Conference
5
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.96
1
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
G. Erkens141830.11
Gellof Kanselaar236238.31
Maaike Prangsma3575.22
jos jaspers422314.02